History is filled with unexpected stories and I'd like to tell you about them. I'm

Aaron Mankey and for the past six years I've been sharing history's most curious

tales on my podcast Cabinet of Curiosities such as the surprising country that invented the

Crescent and the wrestling champ who won the White House.

And now these amazing stories and many more have been compiled into my new book.

Curious to know more, pre-order Cabinet of Curiosities

available November 12th, wherever books and audio books are sold. Learn more

over at grim and mild.com slash curiosities.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky,

listener discretion advised.

Queen Elizabeth the first had spent the summer traveling across the country

visiting manners in Cambridgehire, Suffolk and Norfolk. Now at the end of September she was making one more stop.

Wandsd Hall, the home of Elizabeth's favorite Robert Dudley, the Earl of Lester.

Now if you know one thing about Queen Elizabeth the first,

it was probably that she was the Queen of England.

But if you know a second thing about Queen Elizabeth, it's her reputation as a virgin queen.

Much to the chagrin of many of her advisors and nobles of the kingdom, Elizabeth never married and never gave birth to an air that

would carry on the Tudor dynasty. Given the context, I think her reasoning is

pretty easy to understand.

Her father, King Henry VIII, didn't make the concept of marriage very appealing for a woman.

His first wife was cast aside. His second, Elizabeth's mother, was beheaded. A third died in childbirth. His fourth, cast aside again. His fifth beheaded and the sixth managed to be okay mostly because Henry died

before he could do anything terrible to her. Elizabeth knew that marriage

...