9. FACT: She may have been all-powerful, but Elizabeth I was afraid of mice and terrified of being alone in the dark
As Queen of England, Elizabeth’s power might have been absolute, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t human. Indeed, just like everyone else, the monarch suffered from fears and phobias. The records do show that she was terrified of mice. According to accounts from certain members of her court, whenever she spotted a tiny rodent, Elizabeth would climb up on a chair or any other easily-reached piece of furniture and call for her guards. She would only come down once the offending mouse had been killed.
As well as her fear of mice, Queen Elizabeth I also suffered from a crippling fear of the dark. It’s possible that this started in childhood and was almost certainly made worse by the time she spent locked up in the Tower of London. Elizabeth was so scared of the dark that she refused to sleep alone. Each night, one of her trusted ladies-in-waiting would be ordered to sleep in the Queen’s bedchamber. According to one famous episode, when Elizabeth’s usual bed companion, a lady named Dorothy Stafford, broke her leg in a horse-riding accident, the monarch demanded that another friend, Mary Scudamore, be fetched at once. Her trusted ally the Earl of Sussex was undoubtedly well-rewarded for ensuring Scudamore reached the royal bedchamber before dark.