The Detroit times., 1910-11-11
Odds BOdkins! W>hat Stuff Is
This? Fiery Queen Be11 a Man!
Was Queen Elizabeth a manY

Was Queen Elizabeth a man?
It's quite generally admitted that
Good Queen Bess" could swear like
a man. and that In many other par
ticulars she was "mannish," but that
she was actually man-that idea Is
certain TO seem absurd 10 the aver
age mind. But why absurd? For cen
turtles there have been folks who he.
lieved that Elizabeth was a man
and believed IL on good circumstantial
and traditional evidence In his forth
coming book on Famous Impostors,"
Bran Stoker sets forth this evidence.
He doesn't actually assert that the
queen was a man, but he advances the
idea as a reasonable theory.
In the first place. says Mr.. Stoker,
there was admittedly some mysteri-
Gus secret connected with the life OF
Elizabeth. Elizabethan chronicle is
full OF hints OF this mystery, and OF
further hints that II had something
to do with the oft-repeated protest
OF the queen that she would never
marry.
Elizabeth is commonly held to have
been the daughter OF Henry VIII and
Anne Boleyn. The "Bisley Boy" story
has 1t that "she" was neither the
daughter of the king nor of Anne-in
fact "nobody's" daughter-but was
rather a boy OF humble parentage
picked up at random near the manor
house of Bisley. This is the story:
When the Princess Elizabeth-the
real princess--was a child, she, with
her governess, the Mistress Ashley,
was taken TO Bisley- manor for a sea-
son OF outing While there she was
stricken with an acute fever. At the
same time came word that the king
was coming TO see his daughter. The
princess grew worse-"and before
steps could be taken for her proper
attendance and nursing, she died"
The governess was panic stricken.
She knew the temper OF King Harry.
She dared not face his anger. She
hurriedly secuted the surrounding
country for a little girl of the same
age as Elizabeth to palm OF upon the
careless king as his own child. No
suitable girl was available. but boy
was found near Bisley who filled the
bill in all respects but sex. He was
specifically like the unfortunate lit
tie princess and was well known to
the manor house--indeed had been a
playmate Of the little princess.
So the little body was hurriedly
buried in an unmarked grave, and
the "Bisley Boy" dressed in royal
trappings. was presented to the king
as his daughter.
Thus began a farce kept up
throughout the long and eventful life
of Elizabeth. The story has 1t that
before the queen came to the throne
all who were cognizant of the fact
were either put out of the way or eff
fectively gagged. THE Virgin Queen"
lived and reigned, fiirted and swore;
the wars in the low countries dragged
on, the "Invincible Armada" came and
was scattered-and all those years
the secret was we'll kept. Not even
the hatred engendered by the cruel
execution of Mary Queen of the Scots
awaited to bring il TO light.
Nevertheless, from those days to
these, there have been people in Bis
ley who knew every detail OF the
story 1t has become a tradition In
eradicably fixed In Bisley soil.
Not many decades ago, In the gar
den at Overcourt, that lies just be-
meath what was once the chamber
window of the little Princess Eliza
beth, there was dug up a little stone
coffin. Within that coffin were found
the bones OF young girl, In the de-
cayed remnants Of what must have
been clothing of finest texture, richly
embroidered and brocaded.
Are these pitiful bones all that re-
main of the little Princess Elizabeth.
daughter Of Anne Boleyn and blum
King Harry?
Who knows? The earl Of Leicester,
could he come back to US, might tell.