The second time Bette Davis portrayed English monarch Queen Elizabeth I, the first being "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex "(1939).
Set in 1581, Davis is effectively playing a younger Elizabeth than she had played in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), which was set in 1601.
Burt Lancaster was originally pursued for the role of Sir Walter Raleigh.
Rod Taylor appears uncredited in a very short scene. He is ostensibly playing a Welshman, given his character's name, but his accent is completely unidentifiable.
According to Bette Davis' daughter, B.D.Hyman in her book, My Mother's Keeper, "Mother was thrilled to be doing The Virgin Queen-She felt a great affinity for Queen Elizabeth, envied her her power and believed that she and the queen were very much of a kind". She also writes "Mother again shaved her hairline back to show an authentically bald head, which Queen Elizabeth suffered as a consequence of diphtheria"-"she removed her wig-to reveal a specially made rubber cap with some bits of gray fuzz-It was absolutely awful-looking, which was precisely what Mother wanted." "Mother was pleased with the picture-and prevailed upon 20th Century-Fox to open it in Portland, Maine, as a benefit for a local children's hospital"