4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Was Elizabeth I really a virgin? When we talk about queens being remembered for their sex lives, we absolutely have to mention the woman so often remembered for her lack of one.
Kate is joined by Professor Anna Whitelock, author of ‘Elizabeth’s Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the Queen’s Court’ and, more recently, ‘The Sun Rising: James I and the Dawn of a Global Britain’.
This episode was edited by Tomos Delargy. The producer was Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
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Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
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0:00.0 | Hello everyone, it's me your host, Kate Lister. I'm just jumping in before the episode to ask you for a little favour. |
0:07.6 | If you are enjoying betwixt, and I hope that you are, we'd love it if you could vote for us for the |
0:12.5 | Listeners Choice Awards at the British Podcast Awards. If you follow the link in the show notes, |
0:17.9 | it should take you to the place you need to go and it would mean the world to us. We were shortlisted last year and the one before that and the one before that. |
0:27.8 | We were so close and it just made us want it even more. I think we can do it this year. Right, |
0:34.5 | on with the show. Hello, my lovely betwixters. It's me, Kate Lister. You are you, |
0:39.4 | I am me and this is betwixt the sheets. But before we can go any further together, before I can |
0:44.8 | let you wander off into this podcast, all vulnerable and prone to attack, I have to tell you. |
0:50.6 | This is an adult podcast book about adults about adulty things and an adulty wake of a range, adults of being adult too. And in particular, this episode |
0:57.5 | does contain references to child abuse. Right on with the show. It's the 9th of August |
1:07.5 | 1588 and England has been sparring for a fight for well over a year. |
1:13.7 | Ships have been built and ports have been armed against the fleet of over 100 Spanish |
1:18.6 | galleons that have been sent to overthrow our Queen Elizabeth I think not. I think not. |
1:26.8 | Now at Tilbury, near the mouth of the River Thames, we await a possible attack. |
1:32.3 | Armour clinks on tired bodies and men mutter to one another, but then a hush falls. |
1:38.4 | Through the ranks comes a small procession. |
1:41.1 | An earl holds the sword of state aloft. |
1:43.6 | A page carries a helmet with white plumes |
1:45.9 | on a gilded cushion and atop a huge white horse. There she is. It's Elizabeth I first herself. |
1:53.4 | She wears a white velvet gown, her torso is corseted in steel, but her head is bare. She addresses |
2:00.4 | the gathered troops and gives the legendary speech, |
2:04.8 | I have come amongst you as you see it this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being |
... |
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