QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5514, 16 December 1929, Page 2

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

WAS “SHE” A MAN. OLD LEGEND REVIVED. Was Queen Elizabeth a man ? The residents at Bisley Lypiatt, in Gloucester, have been reviving the legend that in reality it was for a man that the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh cast his cloak into the mire of the street. According to the story (says the Dominion) the young Princess Elizabeth died from pneumonia at Overcourt Manor, which is still standing next to the village church. When the young princess was between ten and eleven years of age her father sent a messenger from Oxford to say that he was coming to the 'Manor as soon as his business permitted. Preparations were at once put in hand for the visit, and during this time the little girl is said to have caught a chill, dying on the afternoon Jay before the arrival of Henry Will. The two guardians, Mistress Ashley and Thomas Parry, remembering, no doubt, the execution complex of the King, buried her secretly at midnight, and persuaded a boy playmate, Edward Neville, to fill the role of Princess, telling him that the girl wa? ill. All went well during the Royal visit, and after the monarch had eaten and drstnk his fill he addressed a few remarks to the princess and left for London. Then a difficulty arose. The masquerade could not be ended as swiftly as it had begun. So eventually Neville was persuaded to continue to be “Princess Elizabeth, ’ and in time “Good Queen Bess.” This tale, at any rate, gives a perfectly good reason why “she” did not marry, and why the Duke of Alencon, the Earl of Essex, Leicester, and the other gallant aspirants to her hand had to go away disappointed” men. After all, there is the stone coffin in the grounds of the Manor, which might be inspected.