21. A Creepy Stepfather’s Long-Lasting Impact on Queen Elizabeth
When she lived under the same roof as Katherine Parr and her creepy husband, Princess Elizabeth had been constrained in her ability to openly defy Thomas Seymour. When she moved into and set up her own household, she became more independent. When rumors circulated that she was to marry Seymour, and she was asked whether she would accept his proposal if he asked, she replied: “when that comes to pass, I will do as God shall put in my mind“. It was an ambiguous response that contemporaries interpreted as a rejection. Elizabeth was finally delivered from Seymour’s creepiness when driven to distraction by jealousy over his older brother’s power at court, he tried to kidnap the child King Edward VI. It was a farce, and in the attempt, he shot dead the king’s dog. He was arrested and locked up in the Tower of London.
Thomas Seymour was charged with thirty-three counts of treason, convicted, and sentenced to death. Parliament passed a Bill of Attainder against him on March 5th, 1549, and he was beheaded fifteen days later. It is unclear if he had ever known Princess Elizabeth in the biblical sense, but he had clearly wanted to. Like any child victimized by a predator, Elizabeth’s experience at a tender age was bound to leave some scars. When she wrote about Seymour “Let him not touch me“, it seems to have applied not just to him, but to all men. Whether or not the “Virgin Queen” ever had any lovers or was literally a virgin, she certainly never married. Her decision to stay single was probably associated, at least in part, with the harassment she had been subjected to by Seymour in her formative years.
