"That's a man, baby!" Did Elizabeth I die as a child and was she replaced by a boy?

[Bolo Boffin]

No.

But it's fun to read about:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2337774/Is-proof-Virgin-Queen-imposter-drag-Shocking-new-theory-Elizabeth-I-unearthed-historic-manuscripts.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The king, Henry VIII, was due at any hour. He was travelling from London, in great discomfort — for the 52-year-old monarch was grossly overweight and crippled by festering sores — to visit his daughter, Elizabeth.

The young princess had been sent there that summer from the capital to avoid an outbreak of plague. But she had fallen sick with a fever and, after weeks of bleeding, leeches and vomiting, her body was too weak to keep fighting. The night before the king’s arrival, his favourite daughter, the only child of his marriage to Anne Boleyn, had been dangerously ill. In the morning, Elizabeth lay dead.

Elizabeth’s governess, Lady Kat Ashley, and her guardian, Thomas Parry, had good reason to fear telling the king this awful news. It would cost them their lives. Four of Henry’s children had died in infancy and, of the survivors, one — Edward — was a sickly boy of five and the other an embittered, unmarried woman in her late 20s.

...But there was a boy, from a local family called Neville. He was a gawky, angular youth a year or so younger than Elizabeth, who had been the princess’s companion and fellow pupil for the past few weeks. And with no time to look further afield for a stand-in, Parry and Lady Ashley took the desperate measure of forcing the boy to don his dead friend’s clothes.

You know, this would make an awesome movie. Imagine the male Elizabeth meeting the real Shakespeare! Nobody was who they really were in Elizabethan England!

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. fantastic idea, yes.

[Archae]

2. I know a guy who is convinced Abraham Lincoln was a woman.

Same "logic."

[Aristus]

3. In the film version of "Orlando", Elizabeth was played by a man.

Interesting.

[SwissTony]

4. A dad wouldn't notice his daughter had changed?

A one minute conversation would expose the deception if it wasn't visually apparent. Favourite food? The name Daddy used to call you when you were 8 years old? The beloved pet who died 10 years ago?

[JoDog]

8. Henry VIII was not what you would call

an "involved" parent, particularly with this daughters.

While I have not read the linked article yet, it would not surprise me if H8 was at any point in time absolutely clueless about Elizabeth's life, other than anything that might have impact on statecraft (like whether she was married, what faith and subjects she was being taught in, etc.). A detached style of parenting was common for people at that level of English society in that time period. Mothers did not even nurse their own children. Infant aristocrats frequently were sent off to their own households in the care of nurses and governesses. Royal parents might see their children only a few times a year. It was one of the elements of culture shock that Anne of Cleaves went through. She was raised in a very different environment: a German ducal familial court where she was actively raised by her mother.

Throw in the fact that H8 held a major grudge against Elizabeth's mother and that for a good hunk of her childhood the girl was considered a bastard, and one can see how H8 could get away with giving Elizabeth no attention at all.

[sarge43]

5. First, this is the Daily Mail; a rag that has never met a faux scandal it didn't like.

Second, at the time Prince Edward wasn't sickly. He wasn't robust, but no one was concerned about his health. He didn't start to circle the drain until the last year of his life, following a bout of measles and smallpox. Henry wasn't worried about the succession at that point.

Third, while Henry didn't hate his daughters, he probably wouldn't have grieved if either died. They were reminders of two women who, by his thinking, had defied and betrayed him. Nobody held a grudge like Ole Buff Hal. He had declared both illegitimate which legally made them illegible for the succession and of little value on the marriage market.

Finally, Ashley and Parry wouldn't have risked fostering an impostor into the line of succession. Bad enough a royal died on their watch. That no doubt would have earned them some Tower quality time. This fairy tale, if found out, would have been Warp Nine to the chopping block or worse, especially for a commoner. That would have been treason and treason got commoners the old drawing and quartering.

[politicat]

6. The sexism in that article... It burns.

Rehashing 16th century sexism is one thing, but the contemporary is just stunning.

[AmyDeLune]

7. I like one of the replies to the article---

Suggesting that if the author is really so certain of his theory, he should pay for the disinterment and DNA testing out of his own pocket...no tax payer money involved.

[KamaAina]

9. Okay, that one I've never heard.

I have, however, heard that after her actual death, people said that King Elizabeth had been succeeded by Queen James.