Was Queen Elizabeth the First a man?

[bizzylizzy]

A friend of mine swears that she read a piece somewhere that suggested that the young queen died and had been replaced by a man, who disguised himself and took the place of the queen. Yes, I know, I thought she was pulling my leg too. But she's absolutely insistent that she saw it somewhere. Can anyone else shed any light on this err strange statement.
Thank you.

[bizzylizzy]

just realized. ... hoaxes waiting to be debunked .. bit of a contradiction in terms. Should have said - I wonder how many of these stories are waiting to be debunked.

[Charline]

back in 1996, I was a French senior student at the University of Tampa, Fl. I was doing a pretty long paper on Elizabeth I, and my tutor gave me the copy of an article issued in National Geographic I think, back in the 80s. It read that young Elizabeth had died of some disease, and the maids being afraid of Henry VIII's wrath, had disguised Elizabeth's cousin (who was a boy) as a girl on Henry VIII visit... That's how a man took the identity of Elizabeth and got to the throne of England... I would like not to believe this, but I'd be interested in reading the article again....

[cocoa_puff]

In actual fact there is a myth that elizabeth was a man. the myth goes that while sent to bisely away from the plague, she died there of a fever.the locals, afraid of henryv111's reaction, tried to find another ginger girl. but there were none, only a ginger boy. so he posed as elizabeth, and went on to become 'queen'.

[dramaqueen94]

Her enemies would have gladly taken the oppertunity to make a rumour. It comes from when she said I have the heart and stomach of a man. Its like chinease whispers really. By the time it got to her enemies in Scotland it said. "I am a man"
So thats where it comes from

[dramaqueen94]

Ok another answer as well after reading the comments

She cut off her hair and chose to wear a wig, she was really a woman but she was a bit like Maggie Thatcher in a way. Because all these men thought that women were insuperior she tried to do be a bit more "manly"

[gbullock]

I have the article in my home. It is in a book which is part of a collection called Exploring the British Isles. The Charm of the Cotswolds. It is an article about the Bosley Boy. Not found to be true but it does give an explanation.