Artist unknown, The British Library

The funeral procession for Elizabeth, 1603.

Poems and Politics

Her first known poem was scratched with a diamond on the window of a room where she had been imprisoned after Thomas Wyatt (the poet's son) tried to assassinate Elizabeth's half-sister Queen Mary. Elizabeth, suspected of helping him, was arrested.

The poem is to the point: "Much suspected by me,/ Nothing proved can be,/ Quoth Elizabeth prisoner."

And here is another short one, written in the same atmosphere of conspiracy and intrigue.

No crooked leg, no bleared eye,
No part deformed out of kind,
Nor yet so ugly half can be
As is the inward suspicious mind.

Queen Elizabeth was skilled at endearing herself to the English public. This image shows "Good Queen Bess" on horseback.

Elizabeth the Eloquent

This 1575 oil painting by Nicholas Hilliard depicts the "Good Queen Bess" at the height of her reign.

There is a story of an ambassador from Poland who dared give a speech critical of England's war with Spain. He gave it in a florid Latin, reading off a page. When he had finished, Elizabeth thought for a moment, rose, and delivered a long, caustic off-the-cuff speech in impeccable, forceful Latin. Listeners were stunned. One learned courtier is quoted as saying he'd never heard such perfect Latin. Elizabeth is said to have turned her back on the quivering ambassador and quipped, "He has made me pull out my rusty Latin."

Usually, though, she spoke in English. Her speech to the troops who were gathered to repel the mightiest fleet that had ever sailed, the Spanish Armada, may have had something to do with that crucial victory. She surprises the soldiers by walking among them, saying, "I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honor and my blood, even in the dust."

The big problem for the Tudor dynasty was heirs. People were understandably worried when Elizabeth did not marry. Parliament periodically sent delegations to the Queen urging her to give up her virginity. In this 1566 speech, she responds to their suspicion that she was being disloyal to the realm by remaining unmarried.

"Was I not born in the realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country? Is not my kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to others' harm? What turmoil have I made in this commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard to the same? How have I governed since my reign? I will be tried by envy itself. I need not to use many words, for my deeds do try me."

The Quotable Queen

In this figure, Elizabeth I is represented as England's patron saint, St. George, as she slays the dragon of her enemies.

Elizabeth's most quoted piece of prose is probably a speech she gave to the last session of Parliament over which she would preside. People had expected a harangue about finances. Instead they heard what came to be known as "The Golden Speech." Like the kings of heroic epic, she says she will return to the people the wealth their loyalty has helped her win: "My heart was never set on any worldly goods. What you bestow on me, I will not hoard it up, but receive it to bestow on you again."

Elizabeth bestowed upon England half a century of stability, a time for it to grow from a fractious island kingdom into a real player on the European stage. The whole latter half of the 16th century is called the Elizabethan Age, after her. And the arts flourished, both inside and outside the palace.

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