1. The Bisley Boy-The Facts
Henry VIII-indulgent, violent man
-6 wives:
Catherine of Aragon (marriage annulled, died under house arrest, mother of Mary I)
Anne Boleyn (marriage annulled, beheaded, mother of Elizabeth I)
Jane Seymour (died after childbirth, mother of Edward VI)
Anne of Cleaves (marriage annulled)
Catherine Howard (beheaded)
Catherine Parr (widowed by Henry’s death, remarried Thomas Seymour)

2. The Bisley Boy-The Facts
Elizabeth born in 1533
-sent to countryside to avoid an outbreak of the plague as a young girl (10-12)
-governess Lady Kate Ashley, guardian Thomas Parr
-very bright and sharp
-shy by nature, especially around her father…why?
Because he killed her mother!

3. The Bisley Boy-The Conspiracy
Elizabeth became ill and died
Terrible for a number of reasons
-caretakers’ lives at stake
-wasn’t heir to the throne but would marry a foreign prince

4. The Bisley Boy-The Conspiracy
Parr wanted to find a look-alike to fool Henry when he visited
-couldn’t find a suitable girl
-used a boy that was friend’s with Elizabeth
-Who was the boy? How did he know how to act?
-he had long hair, was thin (or “slight”) and had feminine physical characteristics
-believed to be the grandson of Henry VIII through Henry’s only acknowledged illegitimate son, Henry Fitzroy. Henry Fitzroy (“son of the king” got married, but Henry VIII said that Fitzroy and his wife couldn’t consummate the marriage until they were older. They didn’t and had a son, but Henry VIII didn’t know. He would have been raised fairly well-off, with education and good manners.

5. The Bisley Boy-The Conspiracy
Elizabeth ascended in 1558, age 25
Oddities about “Elizabeth”
-Her tutor: “‘The constitution of her mind,’ he wrote, ‘is exempt from female weakness, and she is embued with a masculine power of application …”
-owned numerous wigs, wore extremely conservative clothing, heavy makeup
-2 guardians died after only a few years into her reign; revealed her secret to chief minister William Cecil…WHY?
She would be unable to marry!

6. The Bisley Boy-The Conspiracy
-all portraits painted how she wanted to be perceived, not as she was -wouldn’t allow anyone but specific doctors to examine her -instructed no autopsy to be done on her after her death -lived to be 70 (d. 1603), much longer than the other children of Henry VIII “I have the heart of a man, not a woman, and I am not afraid of anything.”-Elizabeth I -died in 1603
Some portraits even painted over after her death to look eternally youthful

7. Age 13
Clopton Portrait-Age 27,nonfeminine features
Ermine portrait-very inaccurate because she was 52
Rainbow portrait-age 70

8. The Bisley Boy-The Conspiracy
Elizabeth was buried with her sister Mary in 1603…why?
300 years later, Thomas Keble (owner of Overcourt), supposedly found a girl’s body in a stone coffin, dressed in Tudor-style clothing
-Watch video
Why would this be an issue if Elizabeth I was actually an imposter?
-nobody knows
-land seizures and other issues with Ireland

9. Additional Resources