When Elizabeth is pregnant, how is she SO CERTAIN that she's carrying a boy? I would never voice something I could never be sure about. Especially back then. That could be very dangerous to say you're SO SURE about something so important to politics back then
shareShe believed in witchcraft
shareThat seems to be something Philippa Gregory likes to throw into her books. It seems like many characters know the gender of the baby they're carrying for sure.
But for fun, I like to pretend that Elizabeth knew she was carrying a boy because she's capable of witchcraft, so she used her magic to find out.
We can't go back, we must always go forward.
But in the series she didn't know. She just thought she did. For instance, she had her vision that she would have a boy after the first girl. But then she had 3 more girls before boy that died at childbirth. It wasn't until AFTER that that she finally had a boy.
shareIf you're talking about her certainty that her first son by Edward was going to be a boy (the future Edward :/Prince in the Tower), there's a scene where she goes to her mother for advice/predictions of the future, her mother takes her to the river to pick a line, and at the end of the line is a baby spoon with the name Edward and a crown engraved on the back of it. She and Jacquetta took this as a clear sign that Elizabeth would soon have her first royal boy and name him Edward.
shareRight but iirc that scene happened before she had all those other girls first, so it's not like it happened 'soon' afterwards. She just kept bearing children until she had a boy that lived.
shareThis is one of the best examples of wishful thinking. When an heir was expected, preparations and anticipations were ALWAYS made for a "son". This goes to show the law of attraction was going on even then. People planned/hoped for what they wanted. When Queen Mary I was apparently pregnant, preparations were mostly made for a boy. Even the letter prepared to be sent to the pope upon the arrival of an heir was worded "safely delivered of a prince". (Of course, Mary had a phantom pregnancy and there was no baby).
A boy's best friend is his mother.
- Psycho (1960)