How did Queen Victoria erroneously get dubbed the Virgin Queen?
That patriarchal society was probably one of the driving reason’s behind Elizabeth’s decision not to marry. Since men commanded more authority and respect than women in Tudor England, Elizabeth would have become the Queen Consort had she married, essentially losing all of her power. Elizabeth was probably also sobered by her father’s multiple marriages, some of which ended in executions. Given the abuse of authority demonstrated by her father, Henry VIII, Elizabeth may have been afraid to marry because she feared losing her authority and her life. Politics were also an important concern. The Queen would have been afraid of creating factional infighting in England by marrying an Englishman, and she may have been concerned about being involved in foreign disputes if she married a foreign man. The Queen’s potential eligibility as a wife may also have kept foreign powers from attacking England, as even after she became the “Virgin Queen,” foreign kings might have wanted to keep their optio
Elizabeth’s unmarried status inspired a cult of virginity. In poetry and portraiture, she was depicted as a virgin or a goddess or both, not as a normal woman.[79] At first, only Elizabeth made a virtue of her virginity: in 1559, she told the Commons, “And, in the end, this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin”.[79] Later on, particularly after 1578, poets and writers took up the theme and turned it into an iconography that exalted Elizabeth. In an age of metaphors and conceits, she was portrayed as married to her kingdom and subjects, under divine protection. In 1599, Elizabeth spoke of “all my husbands, my good people”. On 12 July 1588, the Spanish Armada, a great fleet of ships, set sail for the channel, planning to ferry a Spanish invasion force under the Duke of Parma to the coast of southeast England from the Netherlands. A combination of miscalculation,[110] misfortune, and an attack of En
Queen Elizabeth I was dubbed “the virgin queen” because of her choice not to marry. Nevertheless she is said to have enjoyed the company of men. Sources: http://www.wisegeek.com/why-was-elizabeth-i-called-the-virgin-queen.
