One of the most unusual conspiracy theories in history involved Queen Elizabeth I, the daughter of King Henry VIII of England, and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. During the first half of the 16th century, Elizabeth was born to the tyrannical English king. When she was about ten years old, she was taken from Henry’s court in plague-ridden London to Bisley, a small town southwest of London, because he wanted to protect her from getting sick.

According to legend, young Elizabeth died in Bisley. His caretakers panicked when they found his body and knew that Henry would return earlier than expected to visit his daughter. Fearing for their lives, they eagerly searched the city to find a girl who looked like Elizabeth. After a futile attempt to find a girl with read hair, they found a red-haired boy who was roughly the same height as Elizabeth. This boy, whose name was Neville, was actually a friend or relative who played with Elizabeth. They took him back to his house and dressed him in Elizabeth’s clothes. Apparently, when Henry returned, he couldn’t tell the difference between the boy and Elizabeth. So, the boy kept assuming the role of the dead princess and continued to pretend to be the future queen.

Bram Stoker, the famous author of the novel Dracula, wrote a book called Famous imposters in 1910. In one of its chapters called, The bisley boyStoker presents strong evidence that Elizabeth was actually a man. Stoker defends this story with the following facts:

1. In the 1800s, a trusted clergyman living in Bisley reported discovering a coffin in Bisley, which contained the skeleton of a young woman dressed in typical upper-class Renaissance clothing.

2. Despite legitimate offers, the adult Isabel never agreed to marry. In fact, she had no intimate relationship with any man. This fact could contribute to the reason why she was called “The Virgin Queen”.

3. In most of her portraits, Elizabeth has a masculine face.

4. Historians have described her taking steps to protect England, more as an unsuspecting king than a “female” queen.

5. A nobleman had once written about Elizabeth that “for a certain reason that I have recently been given, I understand that she will not have children.”

6. There was a marked difference in the form and content of the letters you wrote before and after your stay at Bisley.

7. She had a large collection of wigs and wore them every time they saw her.

8. It would only be seen by carefully selected doctors.

9. Elizabeth made her doctors swear not to do an autopsy on her body after her death.

Although Stoker supports a strong case that Elizabeth I was actually a man, her story was not well received by readers. Many thought the story was absurd because if she had been a man, someone close to her court would have known about it and the news would have leaked out. However, when Stoker researched the story, he met a large number of people who actually believed in the story. Interestingly, those who supported the story lived in Bisley a few years after the discovery of the skeleton of a young girl, dressed in Renaissance clothing by a trusted clergyman. Whatever the case regarding the identity of the queen, “Elizabeth I” ruled England with true loyalty to England and her people and was committed to preserving English peace and stability. After her death, at age seventy in 1603, many of her subjects missed her.