Do you think Queen Elizabeth I was really a virgin?

Question

She is known as the Virgin Queen but in your opinion was she?

Answer 1

No.

But she did have to keep up appearances.  If she wasn't thought of as a virgin, she would have been forced to marry.  And then she wouldn't have had as much power.

Answer 2

No.  I very highly doubt it.

Answer 3

One of the definitions of virgin is simply unmarried - in that she was.

Answer 4

She probably wasn't.  Her status as a monarch during those times means nobody would dare challenge her words.

Answer 5

Isn't that, like, some kindof State secrett?

At this point, I'm not going to be the one who checks.

Answer 6

I don't know if she was or not. I think a good case can be made for either side.

At least one fictionalized account of her life has portrayed her as so emotionally traumatized by the knowledge that her mother had been murdered by the man who'd claimed to love her, and by the inappropriate behavior of Thomas Seymour, who was supposed to be her guardian but instead tried to seduce her, that she would never trust a man in the context of a sexual relationship.

On the other hand, it's also quite possible that at some point, she slept with Robert Dudley. Their relationship was rife with rumors, and if they really were in love, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if they'd had the occasional clandestine rendezvous.

Pregnancy would have been a major concern, of course, and is part of why I think it's certainly a possibility, at least, that she was indeed a life-long virgin. She was so strong and determined in so many other aspects of her life that I have to wonder if she'd take such a big risk, one that would bring such intense shame and ruin the position as Queen that she'd worked so hard to earn. But that's pure speculation. Ultimately, only she (and her lovers, if she had any) knew for sure.

Answer 7

No, not at all. Back then virgin loosely meant unmarried because it was assumed and expected that an unmarried girl or woman would not have s*x until she was married.

Answer 8

Absolutely not.She had more lovers than you could write a book about.But the Queens word was law then, and if you disagreed you would lose your head.

Answer 9

Until after the age 50   she put off suitors of foreign countries which helped keep the country from war, in various ways.  

I've been told that she once appeared without her parllet which was the piece of clothing that covers the bodice in those old dresses that laced up the front.    In doing so, she embarrassed the French ambassador.

It's also said that she was as strong as a man and could really pack a punch.    

The U.S. state of Virginia is named after her for this very topic.

But, I'm guessing, as anyone would have to, that she lost that early on and nobody went looking for her lost virginity.

Answer 10

I think that most Historians now think that Queen Elizabeth I DID have sexual relationships.

And, I think there's an assumption that she DID have a child. He grew up to be Sir Frances Bacon, so I read somewhere.

However, I don't know how true that theory is.

Answer 11

this is aquestion we shall never know the answer to, unless you join me tomorrow at Paddington station where we shall travel back in time, using my time travel bus.

Answer 12

no

Answer 13

she still is!!

Answer 14

i think that's a myth.  she was supposedly "married to her country", and in that sense became/was a virgin/maiden (unmarried).

Answer 15

Queen Elizabeth I declared herself the Virgin Queen, when she married herself to England after she took the english throne. This was all a propoganda to settle the confrontations between the Protestants and the Catholics. Queen Elizabeth I was a conservative protestant, and she believed that the only way to establish peace between the two religions is to make herself appear as the "Virgin Mary" figure." The Parliament believed that this strategy will somehow ease the Catholics resentment towards Protestants and see that both religions share the same beliefs to a certain degree. It is only a symbol rather than a reality. The queen was probably not a virgin, and it was widely known that she and Robert Dudley were true lovers. She died on March 24,1603 with a love letter from Robert Dudley in her hands.