Monday, May 09, 2011

Factoid of the day

Father Longnecker points out that conspiracy theories are nothing new.

Did you know that Queen Elizabeth I was really a boy?

the Bisley Boy.
To be brief, the conspiracy is that the infant Elizabeth was in the country town of Bisley during the plague. She died and the villagers--terrified of the king's wrath--substituted the only other red haired child of that age, and it was a boy. Chances were that he would die young as well, and no one would know. But he survived, and the older he got and the more it looked like he would inherit the throne the more it was in his, and everyone else's (who was in the know) interest to maintain the fiction. For the conspiracy theorist this explains Elizabeth never marrying, never allowing herself to be seen unclothed even by her handmaids, it explains her being bald, having a deep voice, enjoying masculine sports like hunting, wearing wigs and heavy make up, and it explains why she forbade an autopsy after her death.

more here...

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