What if...

A young Gloriana, Elizabeth I

We all know the history of Queen Elizabeth I. She did not marry, nor conceived any heir but kept a very religious and overall profitable reign in many aspects despite the uncommon decision of not marrying.

Many advised her to marry someone; it could’ve been someone from inside the realm to boost national pride, or the advantageous option to marry with a foreign sovereign to solidify an alliance with a friendly neighbour kingdom.

Well, she chose not to anyways. She ruled successfully for 45 years and she is well known for doing it alone.

Now we can play a little bit and ask ourselves a very interesting question; what if she had married? I mean, it’s an important part of Elizabeth as a character and picturing her with a husband could mean destroying completely the image and meaning of a Virgin Queen. This goes beyond the mere title, the idea of a seemingly strong, independent woman of the XVI century could have been totally shadowed by the presence of a king and thus this early representation of female strength such as Gloriana herself could have never happened.

A king for our queen?

We can keep going with the controversial questions and wonder if Elizabeth’s connotation in history is solely because of her self-imposed loneliness? Does being an unmarried woman made you stronger back then? And is it the same in the present?

Let’s talk about this possibility of a king for Elizabeth. Many may think that this figure could have been just a consort and nothing more than that, but what if this king becomes more influent than our strong queen? Maybe Elizabeth with a man by her side would have softened a little and totally changed her performance at her determined ruling, if she was still the one making decisions and pulling the strings and not withdrawing to a more passive role as a queen, just living in luxury and enjoying life while your country is ruled by your husband.

Some queens prefer it that way

To finish off, you can always get information on Elizabeth in her Wikipedia page, but if you’d like to read a little related to this topic you can check:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/elizabeth_marriage.htm

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=538938

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=272855

I would like to say goodbye now and let you with all the questions I made above and if you have any other question please let me know.