Elizabeth I has child.

As we all know, Elizabeth I didn't have kids. She was known as the Virgin Queen. But what if she did have a child? What would it be named? Would it grow up to become King or Queen of England? House of Tudor lives longer?
 
Assuming that Elizabeth marries, her husband likely becomes co-ruler of England and a very visible force at court, setting his own mark on the age and upsetting the balancing act Elizabeth played between her courtiers. Assuming the marriage happens early in the reign (as is likely if she has a surviving son from it), it also upsets Elizabeth's OTL diplomatic game of dangling the possibility of marriage in front of every crowned head of Europe. The results will be huge.

Assuming that Elizabeth does not marry and has a son outside wedlock, her reputation is immediately and permanently besmirched. Her religious settlement is thrown into disrepute as it's now headed by a known fornicator; Anglicanism probably never recovers. There's a chance England goes Catholic; Presbyterianism or Lutheranism is more likely IMO, but either way, there'll be a whole lot of strife and maybe war. Somewhere in here, Elizabeth probably loses the crown - either to a foreign invasion or (like her cousin Mary Queen of Scots) to internal revolt.

If you want to stick close to OTL, I think the best possibility would be to have Elizabeth marry one of her courtiers but have her husband quickly die leaving her pregnant. Rumors would fly that she had him assassinated, but as long as she doesn't do anything stupid (like Mary Queen of Scots), they'd probably die down leaving her once again available to play her OTL balancing games. She couldn't have the same OTL mystique of the Virgin Queen, but aside from Virginia bearing a different name, that probably wouldn't have many great effects.
 
Assuming that Elizabeth marries, her husband likely becomes co-ruler of England and a very visible force at court, setting his own mark on the age and upsetting the balancing act Elizabeth played between her courtiers. Assuming the marriage happens early in the reign (as is likely if she has a surviving son from it), it also upsets Elizabeth's OTL diplomatic game of dangling the possibility of marriage in front of every crowned head of Europe. The results will be huge.

Assuming that Elizabeth does not marry and has a son outside wedlock, her reputation is immediately and permanently besmirched. Her religious settlement is thrown into disrepute as it's now headed by a known fornicator; Anglicanism probably never recovers. There's a chance England goes Catholic; Presbyterianism or Lutheranism is more likely IMO, but either way, there'll be a whole lot of strife and maybe war. Somewhere in here, Elizabeth probably loses the crown - either to a foreign invasion or (like her cousin Mary Queen of Scots) to internal revolt.

If you want to stick close to OTL, I think the best possibility would be to have Elizabeth marry one of her courtiers but have her husband quickly die leaving her pregnant. Rumors would fly that she had him assassinated, but as long as she doesn't do anything stupid (like Mary Queen of Scots), they'd probably die down leaving her once again available to play her OTL balancing games. She couldn't have the same OTL mystique of the Virgin Queen, but aside from Virginia bearing a different name, that probably wouldn't have many great effects.
It could be illegitimate or legitimate. Just depends. Would marrying a commoner before you have a child would that child be legitimate?
 
It could be illegitimate or legitimate. Just depends.
I'm afraid that has such a large impact on everything else that we can't answer any questions about the consequences till that's settled.
Would marrying a commoner before you have a child would that child be legitimate?
Absolutely. Morganatic marriage was completely unknown in England; any marriage would make the resulting child completely legitimate and eligible to inherit. Look at how, several generations before, Richard III's Parliament declared that Edward IV had secretly married his longtime mistress - which meant that his subsequent marriage to Queen Elizabeth Woodville was bigamous, and all his children of that marriage illegitimate.
 
I'm afraid that has such a large impact on everything else that we can't answer any questions about the consequences till that's settled.
Absolutely. Morganatic marriage was completely unknown in England; any marriage would make the resulting child completely legitimate and eligible to inherit. Look at how, several generations before, Richard III's Parliament declared that Edward IV had secretly married his longtime mistress - which meant that his subsequent marriage to Queen Elizabeth Woodville was bigamous, and all his children of that marriage illegitimate.
If she marries Thomas Seymour and has a child with him that child can inherit the throne.
 
If she marries Thomas Seymour and has a child with him that child can inherit the throne.
Yes, if Elizabeth got the throne in the first place. Elizabeth's relationship with Thomas Seymour took place during Edward VI's reign, and it was Edward's Council who OTL had him executed for treason. If she actually married him, Queen Mary would probably have seen her and Thomas as much more of a threat; Elizabeth might not even have survived, let alone taken the Crown.

But if she did, yes, her child would've been totally legitimate and legally able to inherit.
 
If you dispose of Bob Dudley one way or another (he had a brother die at St. Quentin- Bob also fought there, another died of illness picked up in the Tower, so there's possibilities...) and butterfly that whole relationship is Elizabeth more liable to marry someone else?

There'd still be all the emotional baggage associated with her parents less than happy marriage, though.
 
If she's to keep the throne, she has to have a husband. Before she's pregnant. It's that simple. If she were not, she might be setting the scene for Salic Law (with regard to the throne at least) in England, after all the drama and heresy trials of Queen Mary I, a Queen given to harlotry and whoredom (which is how it would be viewed & she'd be validating all the criticisms of her mother besides) immediately following that would make it almost impossible to contemplate another female ruler.
 
Yes, if Elizabeth got the throne in the first place. Elizabeth's relationship with Thomas Seymour took place during Edward VI's reign, and it was Edward's Council who OTL had him executed for treason. If she actually married him, Queen Mary would probably have seen her and Thomas as much more of a threat; Elizabeth might not even have survived, let alone taken the Crown.

If Elizabeth wed Thomas Seymour, the entire rationale behind his attempt at the kidnapping of Edward VI (which led to Tom's beheading) would be butterflied. If they wed without consent, I doubt that Edward VI would be as benevolent as Henry VIII was to Charles Brandon in similar circumstances; Parliament would immediately pass law to exclude her from the succession (because that would be the assumption of the motivation for marriage on Seymour's side) as well as her children, waiting for Edward to become too sick to act won't happen. She not only has to be married, she has to be wed with the monarch's & the council's blessing. Highly unlikely during Edward's reign, given the rivalry between the Seymour brothers. Even more unlikely under Mary's reign. Mary might actually take the step of removing her (as being married to a protestant man) from the succession by law (as Edward never had the chance to do to Mary).
 
Top