Elizabeth I, A Man?

Today when perusing the Anne Boleyn blogs I love to read I came across the story about Elizabeth I secretly being a man. I had never heard this theory before and was shocked to know it had even been suggested. According to a new book written by Steve Berry, Elizabeth I's famous speech at Tilbury to her troops where she claimed she "...had the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too..." was meant literally, not metaphorically.

Once I got over the shock of this ridiculous claim, I began to look at the roots of this story. Bram Stoker wrote about the Bisley Boy legend in his 1910 classic Famous Impostors. The basic premise of this legend is that when Elizabeth was between the ages of 9-10 she died of some unknown disease at her house in Gloucestershire. Her servants, including governess Kat Ashley, were panic-stricken, convinced that if Henry VIII learned of her demise that his anger would be terrible to behold and might result in their own early deaths. Kat allegedly searched the local villages searching for a red haired girl to stand in Elizabeth's place for her father's upcoming visit. Unfortunately, there was no auburn haired girl to be found so the wily governess took one of the boys who had been Elizabeth's playmates and dressed him in the princess' clothing and presented him to the king. Their scheme was so successful that the boy continued to play Elizabeth and eventually became the famous monarch Elizabeth I. 

The story is rooted deeply in the Bisley village where many townspeople believe it to be true. Interestingly however is the fact that the local clergyman began the story. Rev Thomas Keble, the vicar of Bisley, told his family that during renovations at Overcourt, he had found an old stone coffin containing the skeleton of a girl about nine, dressed in Tudor clothing. The Reverend served at Bisley beginning in 1827 meaning that if he had unearthed a coffin, any Tudor era clothing would have been rotted away after nearly 300 years of decomposition. It is also questionable how he would know that the child was "about nine" Science was in its very early stages, and it is unlikely that a common church official could accurately guess the age of a set centuries old remains. This makes the origin of the Bisley legend very, very questionable.

Further evidence to refute this claim is the fact that Elizabeth spent her life surrounded by ladies in waiting who dressed and undressed her, accompanied her to the bathroom and slept in her chamber at night. Her maids confirmed for foreign ambassadors that Elizabeth menstruated regularly and was completely capable of having children. She was also examined regularly by doctors. Keeping male genitalia a secret from the masses of servants who spent time around her would have been impossible.

Skeptics of Elizabeth's femininity point to several of her physical features as masculine, including her hands. Her hands thin with long fingers, she was fond of showing them off. We know from existing pairs of her gloves that her hands were indeed larger than that of the average woman, but also that her father was a large man who was over six feet tall with large hands and that her mother, Anne Boleyn, also had long hands as described by court records. Her long, thin hands can be explained by genetics, not by some ridiculous claim that she was actually a man. Others have tried to use her choice of fashion as evidence for her gender. Berry suggests that she wore high-necked dresses and ruffs to cover an Adam's apple. This is silly conjecture as well, Elizabeth chose to wear high-necked gowns because it was fashionable and modesty was symbolic of her self-imposed virgin queen status. Ruffs were also considered a female fashion staple of the time. Clearly, there is little evidence that the queen was actually a man.

After the entire story and relevant evidence are examined, I still believe this story is complete garbage. This theory was created, in my opinion, because sixteenth century people, bound by the sexist stereotypes of their time, could not understand how Elizabeth could rule with such strength, cunning and emotional control. She was a woman, who by the ideas of the time was weak and incapable of much forethought or action without the advice and guidance of a strong husband. Elizabeth's decision to remain unmarried and rule her country did not conform to the gender norms of the time making the Bisley Boy legend spread in order to explain her ambivalence about marrying and producing heirs. Elizabeth I was undoubtedly a woman, the first of her gender to rule England successfully.

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