Queen Elizabeth I may
have been a virgin, but what most
people don't know is that she was one of
the most brutally cutthroat and significant
rulers England has ever seen. A bad ass to some. A merciless
imperialist to others. It's clear that our
girl Liz stands out among the storied lineage
of English monarchy. Today, we're exploring
why Elizabeth I was the most hardcore ruler
England has ever seen. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel. Oh, and that's just not enough. Leave a comment, and let us
know what historical Royalty you would like to hear about. OK, it's time to do a deep
dive on England's virgin Queen Elizabeth I. The England that Elizabeth
inherited in 1558 was not exactly picture perfect. Her dad, Henry the VIII, had
done what no other monarch had done before him. He expanded the
monarchy by breaking up with the Catholic Church
and making England a Protestant country. And let's just say it
wasn't an easy breakup. That religious rupture with
Europe had profound effects and led to conflicts between
Catholics and Protestants. England was a mess torn
apart by instability and in desperate need of a
hashtag #Imperialist Navy Obsessed Girl Boss Who
Wouldn't Suffer Fools. So after her father's death,
Elizabeth took the throne as a young woman who was
never supposed to be queen. She may not have looked at,
but she was up to the task. Elizabeth wasn't a big dater. In fact, she was turned off
by the whole marriage thing after the disastrous marriage
politics of her father and older half sister Queen
Mary I. Elizabeth's dad went through six wives over
the course of his royal career, and Mary's marriage
to a Spanish King inspired passionate outraged
by her English subjects. Talk about drama. Furthermore, Elizabeth's
situation was delicate. As a woman, she risked
losing her independence since she already had plenty of
people who doubted her capacity to rule. Marrying a foreign prince was
a dance in foreign policy. Marrying a subject was a
dance in domestic policy. And also dating is
hard in general. Can you imagine how
much harder it would be if you were a literal queen? Instead of getting hitched,
Elizabeth branded herself as a virgin queen and famously
quipped, I will have here but one mistress and no master. Even though many believed it
was against the laws of nature for a woman to rule, Elizabeth
proved them all wrong. By not marrying, she was able
to preserve English autonomy and minimize factionalism
amongst the English nobility. Or maybe she just wasn't a
big fan of royal weddings. Either way, being single
and ready to mingle served Elizabeth
as well as England. Elizabeth was never really
supposed to succeed the throne. She was her father's second
daughter officially at least. Though she was born
legitimate in 1533, her standing in the
royal family quickly changed when her mother
Anne Boleyn fell from grace and was beheaded in 1536. Since her mom was
executed, that made Elizabeth become illegitimate
and thus unlikely to ever succeed the throne. Most thought she wouldn't
become queen ever, especially after her
father had a son in 1537. Henry the VII's
line of succession kept growing, pushing his
red-haired illegitimate daughter further and
further down the line. But in a strange twist of
fate, Liz's younger brother died in 1553 at the age of 15. Suddenly the crown passed
to her sister Mary, causing Elizabeth to
move up the food chain. When Mary married Philip of
Spain, no kids were born. Because she had
no children, Mary named her younger half
sister as her heir. So when Elizabeth finally
became queen in 1558, she succeeded because she was
the last heiress of Henry VII standing. It was a real slow and steady
wins the crown situation. Hell hath no fury
like an angry queen, as Queen Elizabeth expected
that her courtiers should show her respect. But her well-known vanity
often made it difficult for would be spouses to wed
under Elizabeth's watchful eye. Several of her ladies in
waiting, Bess, Throckmorton, and Katherine Grey most notably
earned the queen's scorn when they secretly married
their lovers without the queen's knowledge or permission. In fact, when Mary Shelton,
the queen's second cousin, secretly married John Scudamore
without the queen's permission, she suffered a broken finger
when Elizabeth smacked her hand with her hairbrush. Yeah, you heard that right. Queen Elizabeth I was a
hairbrush smacking control freak who controlled all
her friends marriages. Very normal stuff. Men were just as likely
to get on the royal shit list as women. Explorer Sir Walter Raleigh
fell in and out of favor with Elizabeth. Dashing and headstrong, courtier
Robert Devereaux Lord Essex tried her patience and
flouted her commands so incessantly and
treasonously that he ultimately lost his head. Whoopsie. The England that
Elizabeth ruled was a golden age of the arts,
exploration, and weirdly piracy. England's chief naval
rival was Spain, and English privateers stole
buckets of goods and money from Spanish ships traveling
to and from the Americas. Spain complained bitterly that
English so-called privateers ransacked their ships,
but Elizabeth did nothing to curb the exploits of men
like Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake. In fact, she rewarded piracy. Elizabeth may have been
vain, but she was also the perfect combo of
beauty and brains. Full of energy, she
proved to be a queen who liked activity and educational
study in equal measures. She was extremely
educated and well read. She was fluent in no less
than sixth languages other than her native English. Latin, French, Greek,
Spanish, Italian, and Welsh. She was extremely
educated and well-read. Not just a bookworm,
Liz the Virgin was also an unapologetic jock. She was an avid hunter
and horse woman, and her court was famous
for dancing the night away. She was, in fact,
the dancing queen. If you had an entire country's
wealth at your disposal, you'd probably
want someone around to read your astrology chart
whenever you wanted, right? Well, that's what Elizabeth
did when she was queen. One of Elizabeth's
most trusted advisors was actually
someone who believed in alchemy and astrology. John D, or Dr. D
as he was called, was one of the most
respected men of science in the Elizabethan world. He was a mathematician, a
scientist, and alchemist, and an astrologer, whose console
Elizabeth routinely sought. In fact, D encouraged
Elizabeth's imperial politics and was steadfast in his belief
that the future of England was in North America. Sounds like a total
Scorpio, if you ask me. D wasn't just a man of
astrology and science. He was also kind of a Goth kid. His particular
interest in the occult brought interesting
characters into his life. For years, D turned
to Edward Kelly for his own spiritual guidance. Edward Kelly, of
course, was known to have secret occult
knowledge and claimed that he could communicate with angels. Also, fun fact. D was probably the
real life inspiration for the character of Prospero
in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Just because you're
known as a virgin doesn't mean you have to actually
abstain from sex, right? Indeed throughout
her reign, Elizabeth hooked up with a list
of royal adjacent faves. Most notably was
Robert Dudley the Earl of Essex, who was a companion
and advisor to the queen for several decades. Some scholars even believe
that Dudley was actually the love of her life. Elizabeth was a known
appreciator of male beauty and maintained
flirtations with the Duke of Anjou, a prospective husband,
Sir Walter Raleigh, and Thomas Heneage. As she aged, she made no effort
to tone down her flirting. Towards the end of her reign,
the young Robert Devereaux-- steps onto her former
favorite Robert Dudley-- rose quickly in her
favor despite the fact he was 33 years
younger than the queen. Someone get a tracking
device, because this cougar is on the hunt. Meow. Rob flirted his way
into royal appointments, and their relationship sent
tongues wagging at court. He was as vain as he
was handsome however, and his star fell as
quickly as it rose. Sadly, their relationship
ended after he led a rebellion against Gloriana. Elizabeth broke
things off with him by having his head separate
from the rest of his body. As a teen, Elizabeth
spent part of her time with her widowed
stepmother, Catherine Parr, who had been her father's
sixth and final wife. After the death of
her royal husband, Parr had married
Thomas Seymour in 1547, and Seymour moved
in with his new wife and her 14-year-old
stepdaughter. Anyway, Liz's new
pseudo step-dad started being really creepy. He harassed the poor teen by
tickling her and accidentally walking in when she was nude. This caused quite a stir. Catherine caught
on to the scandal quickly and gave it the kibosh. Furious, Catherine
sent Elizabeth away in a bid to separate them. Tabloidesque rumors
followed the young princess, suggesting that she was
pregnant with Seymour's child. The rumors however
weren't true, but some speculate that her predatory
stepfather relationship is what turned her off to
future relationships with men. In 1554, Elizabeth's
sister Mary, who was the Queen of
England at the time, became deeply suspicious
of her younger sister. In the wake of
Wyatt's rebellion, Mary feared Elizabeth could
potentially usurp the throne. As a result, Mary imprisoned her
sister in the Tower of London for several months in
the spring of 1554. Elizabeth toiled away in that
tower, locked up and miserable, for months. The guilt of
imprisoning Elizabeth must have eaten away at
Mary, because eventually she did name Elizabeth
as her only heir days before her death
four years later. The Elizabethan era is
known as a golden age in English history, a time when
the literary arts popped off. This is largely due to
the fact that England was relatively peaceful
throughout Elizabeth's reign. Due to peace
throughout the land, this guy named Shakespeare was
able to try out a few plays, and this other guy,
Sir Edmund Spenser, tried his hand at poetry. Elizabeth also cultivated
a literary court, and many of her courtiers
were, themselves, poets, like Sir Philip Sidney
and Thomas Sackville. Since Elizabeth ascended to
the throne in the most unlikely of circumstances, it was natural
she felt a little paranoid about her power. Intelligence was thus
important to her security, and so she kept a
spymaster around. Sir Francis Walsingham. Walsingham was an
ardent Protestant, and much of his
intelligence was meant to limit the influence
of Catholic Spain. And he had spies placed
throughout the country. Walsingham also
worked with his agents to code and decode letters. A true 16th century James Bond. The Babington plot in
1586 was an attempt to assassinate
Elizabeth I and intended to replace her with
her Catholic cousin Mary, the exiled queen
of Scotland, AKA Mary Queen of Scots. The Babington plot was intended
to allow Spanish forces to invade England. The plot hatched by its namesake
Anthony Babington and John Ballard was as brazen
as it was treasonous. Elizabeth's spymaster
Francis Walsingham used his master spy skills
and uncovered the plot, foiling it completely. This did however
lead to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Mary was lured into
the plot by Walsingham himself who, in
double agent style, lured her into the
arrangement, so he could gain evidence she was a
tangible threat to Elizabeth's throne. Sneaky. Love her or hate her, it's clear
that Queen Elizabeth I's reign of England restored the
chaotic turmoil-filled nation to powerful empire status. Between her Navy building
and arts encouraging, it's clear that Liz has forever
cemented her place in history as one of the most memorable
and hardcore queens of all time. What do you think of
Queen Elizabeth I? Great leader or a
bit too hardcore? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
