Elizabeth I |
||||
|
"I know I have the body of a weak and
feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King, and of
a King of England too." [Speech to the troops at Tilbury on the approach of the Armada (1588).] |
||||
| "O Fortune! how thy restless
wavering state Hath fraught with cares my troubled wit! Witness this present prison whither fate Hath borne me, and the joys I quit. Thou causedest the guilty to be loosed From bands wherewith are innocents enclosed; Causing the guiltless to be strait reserved, And freeing those that death had well deserved: But by her envy can be nothing wrought, So God send to my foes all they have thought. A.D., MDLV. Elizabeth, Prisoner." [Written while a prisoner in the Palace of Woodstock, during
the reign of Mary Tudor.] |
 "As just and merciful as Nero and as good a Christian as Mahomet." [The view expressed in 1768 by John Wesley, English religious leader.] |
"After all the stormy, tempestuous, and blustering windy weather of Queen Mary was overblown, the darksome clouds of discomfort dispersed, the palpable fogs and mist of the most intolerable misery consumed, and the dashing showers of persecution overpast: it pleased God to send England calm and quiet season, a clear and lovely sunshine, a quitsest from former broils of a turbulent estate, and a world of blessings by good Queen Elizabeth." [Raphael Holinshed British chronicler, writing in about 1577.] |
||
| [More of Elizabeth's words]. | ||||
| "And thus was Queen
Elizabeth the arbiter of all the neighbouring parts of
Christendom. She at home brought the coin to a true standard;
navigation prospered; trade spread, both in the northern seas to
Archangel, and to the East and West Indies; and in her long wars
with Spain she was always victorious. That great Armada, set out
with such assurance of conquest, was, what by the hand of Heaven
in a storm, what by the unwieldiness of their ships, and the
nimbleness of ours, so shattered and sunk, that the few
remainders of it returned with irrecoverable shame and loss to
Spain again. She reigned in the affections of her people, and
was admired for her knowledge, virtues, and wisdom by all the
world. She always ordered her councils so, that all her
parliaments were ever ready to comply with them; for in
everything she followed the true interest of the nation."
[Gilbert Burnet, a Whig Bishop, in his History of the Reformation, published 1679-81.] |
 "To speak the truth, the only proper encomiast of this lady is time; which, for so many ages as it hath run, never produced anything like her, of the same sex, for the government of a kingdom." [The essayist, Francis Bacon, writing in the early 17th century.] |
"Never woman possessed
such glory and renown. Who may be accounted the greatest of men,
has been long and still is disputed; but who merits the
pre-eminence among womankind, will never be doubtful, while the
name of Elizabeth is preserved. Almost every virtue, which can
finish the character of a sovereign, entered into her
composition; and even her severity and frugality, where she
inclined towards the extreme, suited so peculiarly her
circumstances and situation, that the influence of these
qualities seemed equally beneficial with that of her more
shining virtues. Victory abroad, and tranquility at home, had
ever attended her; and she left the nation is such flourishing
circumstances, that her successor possessed every advantage,
except that of comparison with her illustrious name, when he
mounted the throne of England."
[The philosopher, David Hume, in his History of Great Britain, 1754.] |
||
