WEBVTT - Was Queen Elizabeth I a Man? 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:05.880 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land Audio in 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:14.880 partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.280 third season of Criminalia. This season, we're exploring the lives 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:21.840 and motivations of some of the most notorious impostors throughout history. 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.239 I'm Maria Tremarqui and I'm Holly Fry. The woman we're 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:30.479 talking about today was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Tudor 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.480 on September seven, three me ring some bells for any 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.960 history buffs in the crowd. She was the daughter of 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.240 King Henry the Eighth and his second wife, who was 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.760 in Bolyn. This episode is a little different from most 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.920 of our other episodes this season. Instead of talking about 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.440 the life of the impostor in the mix, we have 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.760 to talk about the documented life story of this famed 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.400 monarch before we delve into what is a persistent rumor 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:00.200 of impostorism regarding her true identity. It was unlikely she 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:02.880 would rule England, but she did ascend to the throne. 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.319 Elizabeth had an older half sister, Mary Tutor, who was 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:09.560 the king's first child with his wife, Catherine of Aragon. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.880 Mary was the only one of Henry and Catherine's children 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.440 who lived to adulthood. Elizabeth also had a younger half 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.600 brother named Edward. Edward wasn't just the king's first son, 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.200 he was also considered to be the king's only legitimate 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.039 son in the eyes of royalty. Edward was born to 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.360 Jane Seymour, Henry's third wife. In fifteen thirty six, when 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.680 Elizabeth was three years old, her father, the King, had 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.840 parliament a null his marriage to his second wife, that 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.920 was Elizabeth's mother, Anne, and then he ordered and to 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.759 be beheaded, claiming it was because she did not give 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:48.760 birth to a son during their marriage. Henry had always 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.360 wanted a male heir who would replace him as king 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.520 after his death, and there also was a little bit 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.320 of a pinch of adultery and a little conspiracy thrown 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.560 into this mix. Nothing is ever quite as lean or 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.640 simple as it's usually stated in the historical record, generally 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.800 very true with someone like Henry the Eighth. Henry and 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.920 Anne's annulment meant that their marriage had never happened in 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.440 the eyes of the church, and that meant that Elizabeth 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:16.200 and her half sister Mary were now considered to have 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.000 been born out of wedlock. That meant that they were 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.360 removed from the line of succession, so Edward would be 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.480 king and neither Mary nor Elizabeth would be crowned. Obviously, 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.640 though that rule didn't stick, or we'd be here talking 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.440 about a totally different king or a queen. It was 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:38.760 later that a parliamentary act returned both Elizabeth and Mary's 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:42.360 ability to ascend to the throne. After their father's death 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:46.120 in seven it was Edward who was crowned king. He 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.120 will be known from now on when we speak of 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.640 him as King Edward the sixth And when Edward died 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.600 just six years into his reign, Mary and a cousin, 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.440 Lady Jane Gray, were both in line for the throne. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.399 But before he died, Edward had appointed Lady Gray as 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:04.560 his successor. Mary, who thought that she would be crowned, 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.280 had something that Lady Jane did not, and that was 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.000 the support of the people of England. It was popular opinion, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.240 true or not, that Mary unseated Gray after she had 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:18.000 been on the throne for just nine days. Lady Jane 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.680 was actually deposed by the Royal Council. She was found 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.040 guilty of treason and sentenced to death. But it was 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:28.200 Mary who initially decided not to carry out that sentence 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:33.160 on the fifteen year old. Fifteen year old. The next year, though, 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:36.480 Lady Jane's family was once again embroiled in an insurrection 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.840 attempt and Lady Jane was beheaded. Yeah, at that point 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.080 it was like, Okay, this is your being treasonous. We 0:03:42.120 --> 0:03:44.320 have to get rid of you. The bids for power 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:46.960 very dangerous, dangerous to have a fifteen year old in power. 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.600 As all of this is playing out, Elizabeth was under 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.960 the care of her stepmother, Catherine Parr. Parr had hired 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.840 tutors on Elizabeth's behalf. Most girls during this period of 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.000 time did not really go to school or have much, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.200 if any education. A lot of certainly poorer children, regardless 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.160 of sex or gender, would not have had a lot 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.400 of education. But even within the royals, the girls usually 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.000 did not get a bunch. But Elizabeth, being a royal, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.359 did receive a formal education even though she was a girl, 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.080 and since she was young, she was known for being 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.360 quite an intellectual and it was said that she had 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:26.000 quote an influential mind. At age fourteen, her curriculum included 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:31.839 subjects such as mathematics, history, geography, and astronomy. Elizabeth also 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.839 learned to play several musical instruments, and she loved to 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.039 dance and ride horses and hunt. By the time she 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.839 became queen, Elizabeth flewently spoke Greek, French, Italian, and Latin. 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.600 But things are hardly idyllic. Staying with the Pars, tension 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:50.839 rose between Catherine Parr, Catherine's new husband, Thomas Seymour, and 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.839 Elizabeth was removed from the Par's home and sent back 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:56.640 to the royal estate at Hatfield. This part of the 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.240 story that we're about to tell is brief, but it 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.680 includes ex litation of a miner and it may be 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.400 triggering her or troublesome for some listeners. So if you 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.800 need to mute us for a minute, or just jump 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.719 ahead a little bit and we'll meet you right back here. 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:14.080 So here's the situation Elizabeth was in. Thomas Seymour may 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.760 have and likely did, have some sort of a relationship 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.640 with Elizabeth. There are some stories that air kind of 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.080 on the side of nothing inappropriate having happened between the two, 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.000 but many other accounts tell a story of a young 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.600 girl who has taken advantage of by an older man. 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.960 Seymour's behavior really was inappropriate, though it was said he 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.640 entered her chambers very early in the morning too, and 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:41.880 we're going to quote this from several sources. Wake her up. 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.600 When the allegations were later investigated, Seymour was found guilty. 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.960 He was sentenced and executed for conspiring to marry the 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.159 princess in an effort to gain power. So we're going 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:55.440 to take a break here for a word from our sponsor, 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:58.600 and when we're back we will talk about when Elizabeth 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:08.360 became queen. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about why 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.760 historians call Queen Elizabeth the first reign to be the 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.920 Golden Age in English history. So Elizabeth, as we talked 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.200 a little bit about earlier, was third in line to 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:21.479 the British throne, between her younger half brother Edward and 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.240 her older half sister Mary. Because most of Europe at 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.920 the time was primarily Catholic, Elizabeth was still considered by 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.560 many to have been born out of wedlock and all 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.000 of this, that's the fact that she was a woman, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:36.359 made a lot of people feel that she was not 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.919 fit to rule. After Edward's death, his older sister Mary 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:44.320 ascended to the throne before Elizabeth did. But in fifteen 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:47.839 fifty four, a man named Thomas Wyatt organized a rebellion 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.479 against Queen Mary the First. It was in an effort 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.960 to make Elizabeth the queen and to restore Protestantism as 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.839 the official religion of England. When his plot was discovered, 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.880 Mary ordered Elizabeth to be imprisoned in the Tower of London. 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.040 Believing that her sister supported multiple plots to remove her 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:09.760 from power. One might consider the tower punishment as retaliation. 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.680 She went to the tower in March of fifteen fifty 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.720 four and was released in May of fifteen fifty four. 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.520 When Mary died in November of fifty eight, twenty five 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.000 year old Elizabeth was crowned as Queen Elizabeth the First. 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.880 As we keep touching on, a lot of the public 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.440 continued to believe that she should not be able to 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:33.800 inherit the throne. Furthermore, Catholics, both in and out of 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:37.520 the country, regarded Elizabeth's cousin, Mary, Queen of Scott's, who 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:42.760 was a Catholic, as the rightful queen. When Elizabeth became queen, 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:46.040 she quickly realized she had inherited a country that was 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:50.200 vulnerable from attack and from poverty. In the midt late 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:53.960 sixteenth century, there was a deep divide and growing hostility 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.320 between the Catholics and Protestants in England. Elizabeth herself was Protestant, 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.040 but feigned to be Catholic when duty called for it. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.040 Queen Mary the First had been Catholic, and under her 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.240 reign it said that she ruled with an iron fist. Literally, 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:13.160 she earned the nickname Bloody Mary. Catholic or Protestant, whatever 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:17.440 religion you practiced was a divisive topic. Elizabeth and her 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.560 half brother Edward were raised Protestant, but as Queen Elizabeth's 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.360 views on religion angered both the Protestants and the Catholics 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.440 were not happy that she restored the country to Protestantism, 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:31.360 and some Protestants just felt that she didn't go far enough. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:35.400 And then Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope Pious the Fifth 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.240 for her religious policies and practices in fifteen seventy Ten 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:43.800 years later, Pope Gregory the announced that killing Elizabeth was 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.719 not a sin. There was a plot to assassinate her, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:51.800 and maybe more than one plot. I just keep marveling 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:53.559 and it's like, it's cool if you want to kill 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.160 that lady. We don't like her, that's not that's good 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.960 you could. God'll forgive you. It's Elizabeth Eliza. This interest, though, 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.800 was more about power and consolidating the power of the 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.680 Protestant Church under her than it was about the Catholics 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.240 or the Protestants. She took a moderate approach to the 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.400 religious conflict in England. Quote there is one Jesus Christ, 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:20.040 she would say. The rest is a dispute over trifles. 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.480 A lot can happen when you rule a country for 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.319 more than forty four years. Queen Elizabeth the First was 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:31.240 and still is remembered for a great many achievements, including 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.720 the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the end of 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:37.560 England's war with France. Despite all of her victories, her 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.760 legacy remains that she was we quote the virgin. Queen 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.640 Elizabeth was also known for her red hair. As an adult, 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.560 Elizabeth had what was described as a quote dazzling figure 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:54.200 and that when she was quote submerged in the jewels, 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.880 brocade and ornaments of her dress, she was more like 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.160 a living icon than a human being. In addition to 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.680 that striking red hair, you have probably heard that she 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:06.280 also applied a thick white makeup on her face. But 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:10.079 while the red hair was real. Modern analysis of her 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.199 portraits suggests that the paint that was used to create 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.479 those works has actually faded over time. Her pale complexion 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:20.440 in them was likely much rosier when the portraits were made, 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.680 and this breaks with the long standing belief among the 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.920 public that she might have been concealing something under that 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.720 makeup choice. The reality seems to be that Elizabeth only 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.640 wore makeup during her later years, and it was quite pale. Yeah. 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.280 I have seen claims that at some points it was 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:43.720 as thick as an inch, which seems terrifying. It said 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.160 that Elizabeth did have relationships, and that she definitely did 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.360 have many marriage proposals, including one from the Infamous even 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.680 the Terrible. No one knows for certain if she actually 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.120 was or was not a virgin queen, but there are 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.680 two things that we know today. We know that she 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:00.400 did fall in love with a man that she had 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.600 previously known in childhood. And we know that she considered 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.440 marriage as an undertaking that could and would jeopardize her 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.480 authority and power as queen. She would often explain, quote, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.640 I have already joined myself in marriage to a husband, 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:21.040 namely the Kingdom of England. Elizabeth's reputation among other royals 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:24.520 was that she was shrewd. It dearly didn't matter because 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:28.199 she was popular among the people of England. In fifteen 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:32.400 eighty seven, adventurer and explorer Sir Walter Raleigh traveled North 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:36.920 America from North Carolina to present day Florida. He named 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.760 the region that is now Virginia in honor of his 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.040 virgin queen has a historical asside. This is actually the 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.040 same year that he sent the ill fated second group 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:50.599 of Colonists to Roanoke. Yes, Sir Walter Raleigh's life was 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:54.800 a whole other parcel to unpack. Shortly thereafter, in August 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.040 of eight, military forces were assembled at Tilbury in Essex 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:02.960 in preparation for an expected invasion by the Spanish Armada, 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.600 and it was here that Queen Elizabeth the First delivered 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.200 the inspirational and famous speech known as the Speech to 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.160 the troops at Tilbury, and we quote from it probably 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:15.080 her most famous line. I know I have the body 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.360 of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:19.679 heart and stomach of a king, and of a King 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.920 of England too, she proclaimed. It has said that the 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:28.120 troops shouted Glorianna in response. Which means glory. Not too 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.959 far later, in fifteen ninety, the poet Edmund Spencer made 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.840 Glorianna the heroine of his poem The Fairy Queen. Under 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:40.400 Elizabeth's reign, the arts really flourished. William Shakespeare's comedy Loves 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:44.439 Labour's Lost was performed at the Royal Court on Christmas 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:50.040 in Paintings to demonstrate devotion to the queen were commissioned. Actually, 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.440 many paintings were commissioned, and many of those long galleries 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:57.920 in Alisa Bethan country homes acted as a gallery just 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.320 for her portraits. We're going to take a quick break 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.480 here for a word from a sponsor, and when we're 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.000 back we will finally talk about a rumor and conspiracy 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:18.280 and possible impostor related to Elizabeth. Welcome back to Criminalia. 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:21.120 Let's talk about the rumor that Queen Elizabeth the First 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:26.360 was actually a man. Finally, let's get to the story 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:29.080 for real real. We're gonna talk about look alike. So 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.960 lookalikes or decoys are sometimes chosen because they have an 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.040 uncanny resemblance to the person that they impersonate. This would 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:41.280 be a sanctioned so in this case, this is someone 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:43.679 who has to conceal their identity and be good at 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.440 deception on behalf of the person that they have been 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:49.120 asked to impersonate, and they learn how to speak and 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:52.439 act like the person that they're pretending to be, including 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:55.040 all of those small mannerisms that all of us have. 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.280 Sometimes they're used as a way of confusing an enemy 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:03.840 about one's movements, but there are actually many types of decoys. 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:06.439 Some decoys might be, say like a stunt man or 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.679 a stand in for say Owen Wilson's but which, by 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:14.320 the way, I read that he used this information that 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:19.960 people need. I think so it's fact. Decoys are also 0:14:20.120 --> 0:14:24.520 popular among politicians. Joe are, Reader and Under Secretary for 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:28.560 the U. S. Army from to nine, has gone on 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.440 record that a number of political figures around the world 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.640 have used decoys, including Fidel Castro, George W. Bush, and 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.960 Osama Bin lauden Ellis Slack, for instance, spent thirty years 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.640 being a stand in during rehearsals for televised royal engagements 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.000 on behalf of Queen Elizabeth the Second. When it comes 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:52.040 to say, a crazy tale of impostors, though this political 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.480 decoy was it, this was a child and this was 0:14:55.520 --> 0:15:00.480 a boy, and there was a rumor turned myth during 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.520 Elizabeth's reign that tempted many people to believe that their 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:08.360 queen was actually a man. This particular tale begins with 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.080 young Elizabeth, who was a princess at the moment that 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.920 we're now discussing, staying in the village of Bisley. At 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.920 this point, the bubonic plague was raging in London, and 0:15:17.960 --> 0:15:20.760 the idea was to move Elizabeth to a safer place, 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.640 a place away from the city and that rampaging plague. 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.960 But during her time in Bisley, Elizabeth did it was 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.640 believed contract an illness. Perhaps it was plague, but maybe not, 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.800 and the rumor was that she died at age ten 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:39.400 from that illness. There's a strange yet interesting twist to 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:44.200 this strange yet interesting story. Afraid of how Elizabeth's father, 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.440 the King, would react, her governess, Lady kat Ashley, and 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:52.560 her guardian, Sir Thomas Perry, decided to fix the problem 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.880 by doing, of course, what anyone would do. They planned 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.760 to swap a local child for the deceased princess, and 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.880 no one they expected would ever notice their deception. I 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.520 like how one of the greatest historical rumors ever known. 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.280 Is very similar to parents swapping the girl fit, except 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.600 obviously much a grander scale because it's someone's child, so 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.560 it's preposterous. I didn't see anything in our research about 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:18.640 what the parents thought about this, and I don't know 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.520 what happened. However, the pair ran into a bit of 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:27.160 snag about that decoy's appearance. Elizabeth we know had flame 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.760 red hair. We talked about it earlier, and there were 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:32.720 no girls in Busiley with red hair or a similar 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.600 body type as Elizabeth. But there was one person who 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:39.520 did fit her description, at least mostly. But that person 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.720 was a boy named Neville. Aside, no from the fact 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:47.120 that the child was a boy named Neville, there was 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:52.200 another problem. Neville didn't have red hair. Lady Ashley and 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.000 Sir Harry fixed that problem with, of course, a wig. 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:59.200 They cleaned him up and dressed him in Elizabeth's clothing, and, 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:05.000 as the rumor continues, amazingly their ruse worked. Not only 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.720 it was said, did Neville fool Elizabeth's father, the king 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.440 he fooled Neville was the one who also inherited the 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:16.520 throne as Elizabeth. Men of the time, royal or not, 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.360 had wondered if a woman in power was an actual 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.959 problem or a bluff. Elizabeth was a princess then and 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.560 not yet crowned, but in general, a woman in a 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.040 position of authority just did not sit right with a 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:30.840 lot of people in the country. But for most people, 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:35.959 this deception was not really about politics. This decoy story 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.680 explained a few things the public had always wondered about. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.760 Why didn't there Queen Marian have children, for instance, And 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:46.720 to those myth believers, because she always wore a wig, 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.400 she actually was never seen without one. Clearly that wig 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:54.720 was used to turn Elizabeth's decoy into a redhead, and 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.639 she expressly forbid that an autopsy be performed on her body. 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.840 If you put all this to other the public, we're 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.840 really taken in that the queen must be a man 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:09.040 in disguise. Lady Ashley and Sir Perry were in on 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.840 the whole thing, the legend goes. In reality, though Elizabeth, 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.200 the real Elizabeth, retained a very close relationship with both 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.480 throughout her life. Yes, some people have suggested that that 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:23.760 was evidence that Neville had to keep them close because 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:27.520 because they were keeping the secret. Right, they'll tell the 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:33.560 real story, The tale of the impostor really got a 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:36.960 lot of attention of more than just the gossiping men 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.320 in London, and in a much more recent instance, so 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.120 author Bram Stoker in nineteen ten wrote what he said 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:48.520 was a nonfiction book called Famous Impostors, and his book 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.760 included real pretenders, the some that we've talked about on 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.080 the show, like Perkin, Warbeck and Princess, all of who 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.560 we will be talking about this season. And also included 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.920 in Stoker's book was the story of what's colloquially come 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.200 to be known as the Busley Boy. Although it first 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.200 appears in modern print in this book, it was probably 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.879 a story that had been told three years earlier and 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.720 had clearly persisted enough that Bram Stoker was able to 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.679 find evidence for it to put into his work. But 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:21.320 it's inclusion really ignited the power of this myth. Was 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:24.240 this story a work of fiction or was it real? 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.000 Stoker had enticed people into thinking it had to be real, 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.440 because this was, after all a nonfiction book. And yes, 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:37.040 this is the same Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula. He 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:40.440 was known to we've real life details into his fiction. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.080 It was part of what made the Dracula story so 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.600 popular in its time, and it captured the imagination of 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:51.120 readers as something that might be real, like actually real. Yeah. 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.040 He was very good at doing a lot of research 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.359 and then subbing out subtle things, adding in some extra 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.160 so people be like, I know that ship. I remember 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.479 hearing about that hip. That was real. Well it was, 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:03.400 but not in the way that it played out here, 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:05.680 and it was I could talk a lot about bram 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:11.040 Stoker Today, historians have discredited this Busley Boys story as 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:14.720 a myth and confirmed that Elizabeth was never impersonated by 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.720 anyone named Neville from Busley or otherwise when she died 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:24.640 on March three. Elizabeth's death ended the tutor period. Throughout 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:26.920 her reign, she had been known as the Virgin Queen, 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.000 Good Queen Best Best, in case you did not know, 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.840 is sometimes a nickname for Elizabeth, and Glorianna, a nickname 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.760 we talked about earlier. But she spoke of herself as quote, 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.000 a queen in a man's world without an heir. She 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.640 chose James the sixth of Scotland, who was the son 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.080 of Mary, Queen of Scots, not to be confused with 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.400 Mary the First, who was Elizabeth's half sister, to inherit 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.080 the throne and so James became the first king of 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.840 the Stewart dynasty. As King James the First, the starting 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.760 a whole other history chunk. If you think of it 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.600 like an organizational job, there' sony different branches on this. Hey, 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:09.800 we can talk about this for a week. And that's so. 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:15.440 Elizabeth the First cocktail excuse me, mocktail and cocktail? What 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:18.359 season are we in? Oh? It's time for cocktail. Um. 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.520 So this one got me thinking a lot, because I 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.280 do love me some history, and Elizabeth the First is 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:26.560 very fascinating to me. I started thinking a lot about 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:29.679 the term mask of youth, which is often used in 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:34.639 relation to Elizabeth. It's used to describe Elizabeth's constant portrayal 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.880 as young and very healthy and vibrant in art throughout 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:43.639 her life. In idealized portrait rule was instituted, and it 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.000 actually became illegal to depict the queen in any way 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.639 that might give offense, including depicting her as aging. This 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:52.680 has sometimes pointed to as proved that she was vain, 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.439 but that could have been part of it. But really, 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:59.120 and more importantly, it was about representing her and as 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.040 a consequence, the country as young and strong. It was 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:04.600 like about her as a leader and being like, no, 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:07.040 I am I am a young single woman who is 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.120 married only to my work, and that is protecting and 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.960 caring for this country. And so it was really more 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:16.719 of a form of portrait propaganda, even the famed rainbow portrait, 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.679 which is my favorite portrait of her, in part because 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.640 there's some bananas wonderful imagery on there. That's the one 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:27.040 For anybody who doesn't recall it offhand, but you've probably 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:29.159 seen it. She's holding a rainbow, which is why it's 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.439 called that. But moreover, her gown is this amber color 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:36.199 and it just eyeballs and ears detroitered all over it. 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:40.000 It's really beautiful. I love it. But that portrait was 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:42.520 painted just a few years before she died at age 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.359 sixty nine. But she looks very young and vibranty in 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.879 that painting. For sure, I was reading during research she 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.000 was very good at public relations and propaganda. So this 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.120 all makes sense. Yeah, that's another one of the things 0:22:56.160 --> 0:22:59.440 that people have sometimes held up as proof of this myth. 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.760 This me like, oh, she was so careful about managing 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:05.119 her image because she didn't want people to realize like 0:23:05.160 --> 0:23:08.040 she had a more masculine jawline or whatever, and it 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:11.280 said she was there's a whole other thing going on here, people. 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:14.360 She literally just wants everyone to thinks she's strong. Forever 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:18.080 thinking about all of this and this mask of youth 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:20.359 and the fact that we mentioned earlier in the show 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:24.360 about the portraits of her, really we've learned had more 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.520 of a blush to them. I wanted to come up 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:29.440 with a blushy looking drink that's called the Mask of Youth. 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:32.159 This also I wanted to give a little nod to 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:35.439 libations of the time. So it actually starts with honey, 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.280 which is often mixed into wines and whatnot as a 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:40.800 starter for meat. And so it starts with a table 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.040 spoon of honey, and then to that you're going to 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:46.120