Elizabeth, the Promiscuous Queen?

I was asked by a friend the other day about Elizabeth's reputation. According to him, his world history instructor taught that Elizabeth slept around, refused to marry and was known as being a loose woman. Despite the instructor's claims there is no evidence that Elizabeth died anything but a virgin, as she claimed for her entire life. Many foreign ambassadors questioned Elizabeth's ladies regarding her sexual behavior because they hoped to make a solid marriage between the royals of their respective countries and Elizabeth, if she was not a virgin, such a marriage would be impossible. This questioning never revealed anything scandalous. We also must ask ourselves how Elizabeth would have had the opportunity to have a relationship without the knowledge of her advisers. She was constantly surrounded by either political advisers or ladies in waiting, if she was having an illicit relationship it would have become public knowledge quickly. Elizabeth chose not to marry a foreign royal as it would have opened up England to foreign power. For Elizabeth this was not an option; her father had fought for years to eliminate the intrusion of the Papacy into England's self determination.
Historians have long questioned why Elizabeth would not then have married an Englishmen and eliminated the risk of foreign influence. It is widely recorded that Elizabeth had favorites amongst her male courtiers, including Robert Dudley. I personally believe that Elizabeth has equated marriage with danger to her health and heart, both natural and manmade. Elizabeth had watched her mother and stepmothers be beheaded and beheaded at the whim of her father. She was present at the deaths of both Jane Seymour and Kateryn Parr as a result of child bed fever.
If she did indeed make the decision not to marry because of the risks to her emotions and physical wellbeing, why did she choose not to have a relationship? The answer, I think, is quite simple. Although primitive contraception did exist, such as the use of animal gut as a barrier method, there is still the possibility that Elizabeth could have become pregnant if she was engaged in sex acts. Would she have taken the risk of having a child outside of wedlock? It is very doubtful. It would have undermined her authority with her advisers and subjects, many who already questioned her right to govern England. Elizabeth's decision to remain unmarried was not a popular one, but one she felt important to the stability of the crown. This choice spurred many rumors regarding her sexuality because during this era women were regarded as being first and foremost, wives and mothers. That, paired with the fact that she was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, whom many remembered (Falsely)  as an adultress and whore, meant that there were many preconceived notions about her sexuality. Given all of my reading and researching on Elizabeth, I would argue that she died the virgin queen, married only to England. Stay tuned for my post in a few days on my theory regarding sexual abuse of Elizabeth by Thomas Seymour.

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