Was Elizabeth I a Virgin Queen in name only?

[Taffy Saltwater]

I just finished reading The Queen's Bastard by Robin Maxwell, which puts forth the idea that one Arthur Dudly was E's illegitimate child.  How much of this is fact based and how much is supposition is beyond my ken, but it is a good read.

[DonaCatalina]

I have been some reading lately and with the discovery of Katherine Parr's body in an unmarked garve, other sources of information have come to light. Some of which make the same statements that Allison Weir did in her book.
In June 1548, Elizabeth was moved from Chelsea to Chestnut.
Katherine Parr had discovered Elizabeth in the arms or Thomas Seymoor, who was Lord Admiral and her husband. Apparently Kat Ashley had contrived to facilitate their meetings. Elizabeth apparently confessed to more than one.
At Chestnut Elizabeth's tutor Ascham wrote to colleagues that he was refused permission to visit Cambridge because Elizabeth needed the comfort of his presence during her illness. All that summer she was sick with a menstrual disorder. It was suggested by several people of the time and even now that her illness was actually a miscarriage. Until that time Elizabeth had been in robust health and had no problems with her female functions.
There is little evidence for a miscarriage apart from terse statements by servants, but the very secretiveness of the episode was noted by contemporaries and gave weight to the supposition.

[Dinobabe]

I always found that very interesting.
I also wondered that with her many suitors it was inevitable.
If the body was in an unmarked grave how do they know it's Katherine Parr?

[DonaCatalina]

I always found that very interesting.
I also wondered that with her many suitors it was inevitable.
If the body was in an unmarked grave how do they know it's Katherine Parr?

She was buried at Sudeley chapel in an unmarked grave and in 1782 a man named John Locust discovered the tomb. The casket was opened several times and once turned upside down by a bunch of drunken men. By the time Sir John Scott erected her altar tomb the identity of the skeleton was in doubt because it the casket had been opened so many times. It took modern forensics to determine the identity of Katherine Parr's remains, though I do not know the details.

At the age of only seven months old Mary was a penniless orphan. For one of her rank, this was a humiliating position to find herself in, especially as she was the daughter of a Queen. Her guardianship was placed into the hands of Katherine Willoughby, Dowager Duchess of Suffolk, under the instruction of her father's will. The Duchess of Suffolk was a great friend of her mother's, but she found it extremely hard to afford the upkeep of the 'Queen's child,' who was expected to live in 'luxury and comfort.' Mary lived on under the Duchess' care but on the eve of her second birthday, 29th August 1550, all record of her disappears. How strange that the Queen's child, cousin of King Edward VI, should disappear entirely from history. There are several versions as to her fate, none of which can be confirmed.

[Welsh Wench]

I was just getting ready to post about Catherine Parr's daughter as I wondered what happened to her!

Theory #1--the one accepted by most historians. That Mary Seymour died right after her second birthday.

Theory #2--Mary escaped to France with the Duchess when 'Bloody Mary' started persecuting the Protestants. They returned to England in 1559 and Mary died of consumption two years later at the age of thirteen.

Theory #3--Mary grew up and married Sir Edward Bushel who was gentleman of the bedchamber to Queen Anne of Denmark.

Nothing can be substantiated or proven. I'd love to believe Theory #3 is correct. She deserved a 'happy ever after'.

And she was King Edward VI's cousin through her father. He was the brother of Jane Seymour, third queen of Henry VIII.

[DonaCatalina]

If you concede that Elizabeth had a miscarriage in 1548, several other pieces of the puzzle make more sense. With the recent examples of Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr before her, the appearance of a narrow escape could have made her especially fearful of marriage and childbirth.
Leicester had the type of personality where he lost interest after the sexual conquest. As his two wives discovered. If he and Elizaeth had congress and she still refused to marry him, he probably would have lost interest and turned to intrigue sooner.

As for Mary Parr, as much as I would like to believe she lived happily ever after, I am afraid that the debt of gratitude Elizabeth felt she owed Katherine Parr (born out in her last to letters to her step-mother)would have led her to bring the girl to court as soon as possible after Elizabeth was crowned.