Why was it important to be a virgin queen, like Queen Elizabeth I, in Renaissance times?

In some ways, it was important NOT to be a “virgin queen” during this time.  There were some who questioned whether a queen would have the ability to rule in her own right, without a man to help her.  In addition, by not having children, a virgin queen put the succession into question. This could lead to conflict between people who wanted to succeed her when she died.  These were issues that Queen Elizabeth I...

In some ways, it was important NOT to be a “virgin queen” during this time.  There were some who questioned whether a queen would have the ability to rule in her own right, without a man to help her.  In addition, by not having children, a virgin queen put the succession into question. This could lead to conflict between people who wanted to succeed her when she died.  These were issues that Queen Elizabeth I of England faced during her reign and which did or could have compromised the stability of her rule.

However, there were also some advantages to being a virgin queen.  One of these advantages was religious.  For one thing, virginity was equated with purity, particularly among women.  Sex was seen as something that was necessary for most but not really good for the soul.  A virgin queen could be seen, then, as something of a moral paragon who forewent the pleasures of the flesh to care for her realm rather than children of her body. Secondly, some would have connected a virgin queen to the Virgin Mary.  This connection would have made people more likely to honor and venerate a virgin queen.

The other major advantage was political. At this time in Europe, marriages between royal families were an important political tool. Countries would form alliances by having marriages between members of their respective royal families. A virgin queen could, at least for a while, use the lure of a marriage as a bargaining chip with other countries. She could make them believe that she would contemplate marrying their king or some other royal. This would allow her to keep that country friendly with her own.  An astute queen could use her status as a single woman to bolster her country’s position in the world.

For these reasons, you could argue that it was important to be a virgin queen, but we should be aware that there were also drawbacks to this status.