Was Elizabeth I a lesbian

Answer 1

Elizabeth's Sexual PreferenceThere is no evidence that Queen Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603) was a lesbian. Although she did not marry or have children, and was nicknamed The Virgin Queen because of this, it is well documented that she enjoyed the flirtatious company of young men. When you consider the fate of her mother, Anne Boleyn, who was beheaded by her father, Henry VIII, it is not surprising that Elizabeth might have been reluctant to consider marriage.

Elizabeth maintained that she was married to England, and dedicated her life to serving her country. One of the replies she sent back to Parliament, after she was urged to consider marriage, was:

"At present it is not convenient; nor never shall be without some peril unto you and certain danger unto me."

She was always being requested to think about marriage by her advisers, in order to secure the succession, and did consider marriage to two French princes, Henri, Duke of Anjou, and then later his brother, Francois, Duke of Anjou. Francois courted Elizabeth later in life (1579), despite there being an age difference, as she was 46 and he was 24, but nothing came of the courtship.

The love of Elizabeth's life does appear to have been Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester (1532 - 1588), but Dudley was already married. Dudley's first wife, Amy Robsart, died in suspicious circumstances (she fell down the stairs at their home, and broke her neck), which proved difficult for Elizabeth and Dudley because of the inevitable rumours. Later Dudley married a cousin of Elizabeth's, Lettice Knollys (the mother of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex) which infuriated Elizabeth, but she did forgive Dudley.

After Dudley died, and much later in her life, Elizabeth took a shine to his stepson, the rather arrogant Robert Devereux (1565 - 1601), but this took a tragic turn when he was accused of treason against the Queen and eventually tried and executed.

When Elizabeth died in 1603, Dudley's last letter to her was found amongst personal her belongings, and she had endorsed it with "his last letter."

Answer 2

No, not at all - I doubt anyone in Elizabethan England would have been even aware of the notion of Lesbianism. In her famous speech to troops at Tilbury when England was threatened by the invasion of the Spanish Armada she said, "Though I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, I have the heart and stomach of a King, and a King of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or any Prince of Europe should dare invade the borders of my realm."

Terms for rulers: Monarch, Emporer, Prince, Regent, have not always been as gender-specific as we think them now. There is also a distinction to be made between the role of the King/Queen and the living person actually fulfilling that role at any given time. Her Tilbury speech implies recognition of that distinction. That is why we refer to the Queen as Your Majesty - we are referring not to the person but to the role she occupies. Similarly the use of the Royal 'we' as in Queen Victoria's "we are not amused" - neither I myself, nor me as Queen are amused. You should remember too that in the time of Elizabeth I the King or Queen was considered to be divinely appointed by God (a male deity) as his representative on earth - the divine right of Kings.

From what we know of Queen Elizabeth she was heterosexual but remained unmarried because her status as a Virgin Queen allowed her to repeatedly manoeuvre for position in a very volatile European political situation. She was constantly on the brink of forming an alliance with one or other of the European powers while playing one off against the other inorder to maintain England's independence and protestant identity.