What it says on the tin. What if Elizabeth I of England had a Bastard child what happens ?
WI: Elizabeth has a bastard
- Thread starter Virginia Liberal
- Start date
Alex Richards
Donor
The entire court is completely shocked and horrified by an unmarried woman having sexual relations with a, potentially married, man. At best for Elizabeth, it is assumed that she was an unwilling participant and the man in question is executed with the Queen escaping with merely a severely tarnished name and reduced support at home and abroad. At worst, it's assumed she was perfectly compliant and happy, in which case she faces a severe loss of face and isolates a large number of people, potentially increasing rebelliousness and decreasing her allies in court and abroad.
This is basically why it wouldn't happen.
Well there were rumors that she had a sexual relationship and a kid with Thomas Seymour but I can't remember if any credibility was ever lent to them. But very unrealistic. I mean Elizabeth may have had some lovers (personally I wouldn't be surprised) but there was never even a rumor of pregnancy besides the aforementioned one with Thomas Seymour. For all we know Elizabeth my have been sterile.
NothingNow
Banned
True. Although a Royal Bastard would solve some other problems for the country, depending on the gender. A daughter wouldn't change too much (worst comes to worst, they marry her to James VI (and I,) and completely cement Stuart rule over Great Britain, while just legitimizing the inevitable.
A son OTOH could make for a decent heir to the throne, if there's some smart marriage occurring as well. Maybe to a Danish or Swedish bride?
Ok so let’s say that she has a son whom we will call Henry because that would most likely be the name anyways. Elizabeth takes a beating in the personal image but somehow manages to keep the throne (I personally wondered if she might be ousted because of it 16th Century England isn't my most rounded area, in history). Would a Bastard son be accepted as the Heir to the Throne of England, or would James VI of Scotland still make a play for the throne leading to a succession issue?
First of all this is assuming the son survives. Infant mortality was very high so a death is possible. Second, I don't think Elizabeth would survive something like this happening. After all her refusal to marry was barely tolerated and this isn't 18th century Russia, so much less tolerance to a Queen Regnant having a lover or bastard. And even then the Empresses that had lovers (and bastards for Catherine the Great) had named heirs. Something Elizabeth did not. So if Elizabeth is found pregnant and doesn't induce a miscarriage early on, she'll have no choice but to marry or lose her throne. In my opinion a pregnant single Queen who refuses to marry but gets knocked up by a lover is to much for anyone to take in the 16th century.
Riain
Banned
If she got pregnant wouldn't she just marry someone suitable within a week? Her Dad would go out hunting, have his wife killed while he was out, and then come back and get married that evening, so it's not as if they need the inconvenience of falling in love or anything. Also it's not as if her word wasn't law, if she said the baby was her new husband's it couldn't be disproved, people might whisper but they couldn't speak it aloud.
Wouldn't happen
But it is an interesting legal nicety that, whilst it is high treason to rape a Queen Consort, it is not treason to rape a Queen Regnant. Go figure, they didn't think of that possibility in 1358. I, not sure if rape was a capital offence then.
Edit: Yes it was apparently by stat temp Will II, so before time whereof memory, etc
But it is an interesting legal nicety that, whilst it is high treason to rape a Queen Consort, it is not treason to rape a Queen Regnant. Go figure, they didn't think of that possibility in 1358. I, not sure if rape was a capital offence then.
Edit: Yes it was apparently by stat temp Will II, so before time whereof memory, etc
Something else than after Queen Elizabeth. Or Harlotshire.Then what will they name Virginia
Then what will they name Virginia
Sir Walter Raleigh: "We have named it Virginia, after our Virgin Queen."
Queen Elizabeth I: ""Virginia"? And when I am married, will you rename it to "Conjugia"?"
(From Elizabeth, The Golden Age)
That would be my assumption. It's in everyone's best interest to cover it up. There might even be an abortion (no idea what they used for that in those days, but I do know that they had something).
Elizabeth's rule was still too shaky (especially at the time she might be getting pregnant) for a massive scandal of this sort to be allowed to become public knowledge.
On the other hand, a successful childbirth would prove that she is fertile, and would raise her status on the marriage market in that particular aspect. The moral downside could of course be dominant.
But if we look at it religiously, she is the Virgin Queen. If she has a child, it could be Immaculate Conception, and the child could be England's Saviour. Would anyone accept that explanation in the 1500s? She is the head of the Anglican Church, is she not?
But if we look at it religiously, she is the Virgin Queen. If she has a child, it could be Immaculate Conception, and the child could be England's Saviour. Would anyone accept that explanation in the 1500s? She is the head of the Anglican Church, is she not?
Yeah, that seems the most likely scenario to me. If for moral reasons she wouldn't attempt to end the pregnancy, it seems most reasonable that she'd wear voluminous clothing, avoid any sort of appearances as much as possible (perhaps by faking an illness) and hand the baby off to her most trusted lady-in-waiting to be claimed to be hers as soon as it's born, in a pre-arranged scheme.
And then have dire consequences for anyone spreading rumors about why she'd been indisposed for the past few months.
Or, alternately, shotgun wedding and a fudged birth date to hide any impropriety on her part.
"But by the end of 1561 Elizabeth was confined to bed with a mysterious illness.
According to witnesses she was suffering from dropsy - now known as oedema - an abnormal swelling of the body due to a build-up of fluid.
The Spanish ambassador reported she had a swelling of the abdomen, and Doherty insists it is not too much of a jump to imagine this might also have been due to a pregnancy. After all, it is known that several ladies-in-waiting at the Queen's court successfully concealed their own pregnancies at the time."
A pregnancy perhaps?