Best Quotes from Elizabeth, The Queen by Alison Weir with Page Numbers

‘I give you this charge that you shall be of my Privy Council and content to take pains for me and my realm.’

‘I stood in danger of my life; my sister was so incensed against me.’

‘This advancement is a work of His mercy.’

‘O Lord, Almighty and Everlasting God, I give Thee most hearty thanks that Thou hast been so merciful unto me as to spare me to behold this day.’

‘Some have fallen from being princes of this land to be prisoners in this place. I am raised from being a prisoner in this place to be a prince of this land.’

‘I will yield thereto, desiring from the bottom of my heart that I may have assistance of His grace to be the minister of His heavenly will in this office now committed to me.’

‘I mean to direct all mine actions by good advice and counsel.’

‘God forgive you the past, as I do.’

‘The law of Nature moves me to sorrow for my sister.’

‘Whenever I have one who requires to be safely and straitly kept, I will send him to you!’

‘O Almighty and Everlasting God, I give Thee most hearty thanks that Thou hast been so merciful unto me to spare me to behold this joyful day.'

‘I will not spare, if need be, to spend my blood. God thank you all.'

‘In my opinion, she exceeded the bounds of gravity and decorum.’

‘Be ye well assured, I will stand your good Queen. I wish neither prosperity nor safety to myself which might not be for our common good.'

‘Time! And Time hath brought me hither.’

‘I am already bound unto a husband, which is the kingdom of England.’

‘Every one of you, and as many as are Englishmen, are children and kinsmen to me.'

‘Princes cannot like their children, those that should succeed unto them.’

‘In the end, this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.'

‘I would rather be a beggarwoman and single, far rather than a queen and married.’

‘There is only one Jesus Christ. The rest is a dispute over trifles.’

‘If I were not certain that mine were the true way to God’s will, God forbid that I should live to prescribe it to you.’

‘I have ever used to set the Last Judgement before mine eyes and go to rule as I shall be judged to answer before a higher Judge.’

‘I think that, at the worst, God has not yet decided that England shall cease to stand where she does.’

‘Consciences are not to be forced.’

‘Do not talk about that!’ snapped the Queen, but the Dean ignored her.

‘To your text, Mr Dean! To your text!’ she would shout.

‘I see that the greatest clerics are not the wisest men.’

‘A man’s conscience was his own.’

‘The worship of saints was abhorrent to Protestants, she encouraged the popular cult of St George.’

‘In this world she had so much sorrow and tribulation and so little joy.’

‘If she had ever had the will, or had found pleasure in such a dishonourable life – from which, may God preserve her – she did not know of anyone who could forbid her.’

‘If she had showed herself gracious to Dudley, ‘he had deserved it for his honourable nature and dealings.’

‘I will take a husband who will give the King of France some trouble, and do him more harm than he expects.’

‘Here is a great resort of wooers and controversy amongst lovers.’

‘It is better that the Queen should marry someone who has seen her and whom she can love.’

‘She preferred with God’s help to abide therein of our free determination.’

‘I take Almighty God to be my record; I never altered my mind or thought from my youth touching my religion.’

‘She could enjoy all the advantages of male companionship without having to commit herself either to marriage, the loss of her independence, or the surrender of her body.’

‘Her Majesty, supposing herself to be thus established, is by no means inclined to marry to any foreign prince.’

‘If you doubt, I pray you, ask the question for the sooner you can advise me [to travel] thither, the more I shall thank you.’

‘God send Her Majesty understanding of what shall be her surety.’

‘Who can or will stand fast against the Queen’s arguments and doubtful devices?’

‘You must needs return. I dare not write that I might speak.’

‘So should it well appear to the world my innocency by my dealing in the matter.’

‘It is a matter full of shame and infamy. Likely enough a revolution may come of it.’

‘For myself, I judge it a very misfortune [i.e. accident] because it chanced at that honest gentleman’s house.’

‘Each man should consider that before he divides himself between loving and serving his Queen, he must remain on guard against the power of jealousy and suspicion.’

‘How shall we know if she shall not bear an heir, if she marry me?’

‘She must have fallen down a staircase.’

I wish I were either dead or hence, that I might not hear the dishonourable and naughty reports that are made of the Queen.

How much it imports the Queen’s honour to have the reports of Amy’s death ceased.

God and religion, which be the fundaments, shall be out of estimation, the Queen our Sovereign discredited, condemned and neglected.

Elizabeth, aware of public opinion, meant to remain in control of her destiny.

Elizabeth regarded any threat to her independence with horror.

Never again, when it came to the game of courtship, would Elizabeth allow her private feelings to undermine her good sense.

I have heard of this before!

No, that I will in no wise agree to.

I cannot do without my Lord Robert, for he is like my little dog, and whenever he comes into a room, everyone at once assumes that I myself am near.

With these people, it is always wisest to think the worst.

Mary was an indomitable woman with strongly-held convictions and the courage to defend them.

Her own ambassador to England, William Maitland of Lethington, told Thomas Randolph that Mary lacked the mature judgement and political experience of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth believed that, if Mary showed herself willing to renounce her pretensions to the English throne, then she, Elizabeth, would be her friend.

Mary also realised that friendly personal relations between herself and Elizabeth could only be advantageous.

Think you that I could love my winding sheet, when, as examples show, princes cannot even love their children that are to succeed them?

It is hard to bind princes by any security where hope is offered of a kingdom.

If Mary chose a husband agreeable to the English, Elizabeth would be her good friend for life.

I have long enough been fed with fair words.

Consider well your steps.

When I am dead, they shall succeed that have most right.

‘Death possessed every joint of me.’

‘I hazard to lose both body and soul.’

‘God’s blessing on your heart, there continue.’

‘Yet desired I not then life so much for my own safety as for yours.’

‘If your parents had been of like mind, where had you been then?’

‘Though after my death you may have many stepdames, yet shall you never have a more natural mother than I mean to be unto you all.’

‘The marks they saw on her face were not wrinkles, but the pits of smallpox.’

‘I would far rather be a beggarwoman and single than a queen and married.’

‘I know your stately stomach. You think if you were married, you would only be a queen of England, and now ye are king and queen both.’

‘I hope I shall die in quiet with ‘Nunc dimittis,’ which cannot be without I see some glimpses of your following surety after my graved bones.’

I would have stayed single, did not the crown of England compel me to marry to the profit of England.

The Queen was in a great temper, and upbraided him with what had taken place with Heneage, and his flirting with the Viscountess, in very bitter words.

God’s death, my Lord, I have wished you well, but my favour is not so locked up for you that others shall not participate thereof.

I see also the amity between the countries like to be dissolved, and great mischiefs like to ensue.

Her majesty is laid aside, her wits not what they were, her beauty other than it was, her cheer and countenance changed into I wot not what.

I dare put myself in pledge to Your Highness that Your Majesty shall like him.

Without giving any hint of her intentions towards Darnley, Mary wrote twice to Elizabeth to urge that her claim to the succession be recognised.

I have never said to anybody that I would not marry the Earl of Leicester.

The House of Habsburg will find that I have always acted with due decorum.

After the comedy, there was a masquerade of satyrs, or wild gods, who danced with the ladies.

I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything.

If I were turned out of the realm in my petticoat, I were able to live in any place in Christendom.

I thank God I am endowed with such qualities.

I care not for death, for all men are mortal.

I will marry as soon as I can conveniently, and I hope to have children.

I will be tried by envy itself.

Touching the succession, the perils be so great to my person that the time will not yet suffer to treat of it.

It is monstrous that the feet should direct the head.

Beware however you prove your prince’s patience, as you have now done mine!

Let this my discipline stand you in stead of sorer strokes.

Pity me, kinsmen, for the sake of Him who pitied all the world!

I exhort you, I counsel you, I beg you, to take this event so to heart that you will not fear to proceed even against your nearest.

Elizabeth, as a prince, would not fail to revenge it to the uttermost.

Subjects had to be shown that they could not depose princes at will.

I see how things frame evil for me.

Being innocent as, God be thanked, I know I am, do you not wrong me by keeping me here, encouraging by that means my perfidious foes to continue their determined falsehoods?

It is unthinkable that a queen could be thus divested of her regal authority.

Our good Queen has the wolf by the ears.

What warrant have they in Scripture to depose their Prince?

The Queen of Scots is, and always shall be, a dangerous person to your estate.

‘If you would marry, it should be less; whilst you do not, it will increase.’

‘The Queen had never demonstrated any personal animosity towards Catholics in general. So long as they conformed outwardly, she was not interested in their private beliefs.’

‘Most English people ignored it; a man who nailed it to the door of the Bishop of London’s palace in St Paul’s Churchyard was arrested, tortured and executed.’

‘I know the identity of the troublemakers well enough,’ she declared, ‘and I would like to cut off a few heads.’

‘We are in nothing moved to spare them.’

‘Now I see how unpleasant this matter of the Scots Queen is to Your Majesty, I never intend to deal further herein.’

‘It was at this time that Cecil began organising an efficient espionage network that could detect conspirators.’

‘By our means only, [Mary’s] life was saved in her captivity.’

‘I was abashed at Her Majesty’s speech, but I thought it not fit time nor place there to trouble her.’

‘The vermin are fled to foreign cover,’ observed Cecil on Christmas Day.

‘To be a king and wear a crown is more glorious to them that see it than it is a pleasure to them that bear it.’

‘I am answerable to none for my actions otherwise than as I shall be disposed of my own free will, but to Almighty God alone.’

‘And as for those rare and special benefits which many years have followed and accompanied me with happy reign, I attribute them to God alone.’

‘She is very much wedded to the people and thinks as they do.’

‘She would say her state did require her to command what she knew her people would willingly do from their own love to her.’

‘Her mind was oft-time like the gentle air that cometh from a westerly point in a summer’s morn: ‘twas sweet and refreshing to all around.’

‘My sex cannot diminish my prestige.’

‘Although I may not be a lioness, I am a lion’s cub, and inherit many of his qualities.’

‘I suppose few that be no professors have read more.’

‘We princes are set as it were upon stages in the sight and view of all the world.’

Elizabeth was always attended by seven Ladies of the Bedchamber, six maids of honour and four chamberers in her private apartments.

Elizabeth’s energy never flagged during these exhausting journeys, and she expected her courtiers to show the same enthusiasm.

In her progress, she was most easy to be approached; private persons and magistrates, country people and children came joyfully and without any fear to wait upon her.

She was received everywhere with great acclamations and signs of joy, whereat she was extremely pleased, and told me so, giving me to understand how beloved she was by her subjects.

Elizabeth took a personal interest in the gardens at Hampton Court, and gave orders for tobacco and potatoes, imported from the New World, to be planted there.

The court itself was not only the seat of government but also the stage on which the Queen could make a magnificent display.

Elizabeth understood the political importance of visible wealth.

Each nobleman’s house is her palace.

Elizabeth’s was a very visible monarchy.

Her spirit and soul agreed with her body and life, that to serve you is a heaven, but to lack you is more than hell’s torment.

‘If I be not much deceived’, noted Burghley, ‘Her Majesty is earnest in this.’

‘the curious and dangerous question of the succession would in the minds of quiet subjects be buried – a happy funeral for all England’.

‘Lord, what a people are these!’ exclaimed Dr Wilson, the Bishop’s interrogator. ‘What a queen, and what an ambassador!’

‘The Queen’s Majesty hath always been a merciful lady’, sighed Burghley, ‘and by mercy she hath taken more harm than justice, and yet she thinks she is more beloved in doing herself harm.'

‘Many members shed tears for the Queen,’ and even the convocation of bishops used many ‘godly arguments’ to persuade Elizabeth to agree to an attainder, pointing out that, if she did not put to death this husband murderer and arch-traitress, this Scottish Clytemnestra, she would offend God and her conscience.

‘There are but ten years between us!’ Lady Cobham dared not contradict her.

The Duke had no desire to become involved, at great danger to himself, in what was undoubtedly high treason.

‘You have promised to be mine, and I yours. I believe the Queen of England and country should like of it. You promised you would not leave me.’

‘The more hairy she is before, the more bald she is behind,’ observed Smith to Burghley.

‘I lack that I live by. The more I find this lack, the further I go from you. To serve you is heaven, but to lack you is more than hell’s torment.’

‘Jesu!’ sighed the Queen Mother. ‘Doth not your mistress see plainly that she will always be in such danger till she marry? If she marry into some good house, who shall dare attempt aught against her?’

‘But why stop at one child? Why not five or six?’ queried Catherine, who had borne ten. ‘Would to God she had one!’ retorted Smith, with feeling.

‘No, Madam,’ replied Bacon, ‘but Your Highness has made me too big for the house.’

‘Come hither, little Recorder,’ she said. ‘It was told me you would be afraid to look upon me or to speak boldly, but you were not so afraid of me as I was of you.’

‘How should we think His Majesty’s brother a fit husband for us, or how should we think that love may grow, continue and increase, which ought to be betwixt the husband and wife?’

‘I assure you I found Her Majesty as well disposed as ever’, the Earl wrote, ‘and so I trust it shall always continue. God be thanked, her blasts be not the storms of other princes, though they be very sharp sometimes to those she loves best.’

‘Sometimes, Sire, it is necessary for Princes to do what displeases them,’ Alva pointed out.

‘I will not leave my prison save as Queen of England,’ she once declared, and events proved that she meant it.

‘Never seem deeply to condemn her frailties, but rather joyfully commend such things as should be in her, as though they were in her indeed.’

That she would remain there is a tribute to her political skill and tenacity, and the loyalty and abilities of her advisers.

Elizabeth had offered to act as mediator between the Dutch and Don John of Austria, though in January 1577 the Dutch rejected this, being more interested in Leicester’s offer of military assistance.

‘No one thing hath procured her so much hatred abroad as these wooing matters,’ observed an exasperated Walsingham.

I pray you, keep your horses and do not alight.

I do this because thy father was ready to serve and love us in trouble and thrall.

Elizabeth recognized that he had real abilities that could be put to good use.

She only picked at her food, although she enjoyed the masque that was presented afterwards.

I assure you, I think Her Majesty never came to a place in her life she liked better or commended more.

Fortunately, the Italian expert in pyrotechnics who had been hired for the occasion was persuaded not to carry out his original plan to shoot live dogs and cats into the air.

Her Majesty stayed for five days, taking picnics in the little banqueting house in the orchard.

Drake answered that the most effective way to do this would be to prey on Philip’s ships and settlements in the Indies, with which Elizabeth wholeheartedly agreed.

‘It is a fine thing for an old woman like me to be thinking of marriage!’

‘I have never in my life seen a creature more agreeable to me.’

‘I am, and am not, freeze, and yet I burn, Since from myself my other self I turn.’

‘Oh, let me live with some more sweet content, Or die, and so forget what love e’er meant.’

‘They need not think that it is going to end this way. I must get married.’

‘You realise, my dearest, that the greatest difficulties lie in making our people rejoice and approve.’

‘There is no prince in the world to whom I think myself more bound, nor with whom I would rather pass the years of my life, both for your rare virtues and sweet nature.’

‘As but one sun lights the East, so I shall have but one queen in England.’

‘God save Queen Elizabeth!’

‘I will wait to say more till the curtain is drawn, the candle out, and Monsieur in bed.’

"Those that trick princes trick themselves."

"If Her Majesty be not already resolved, it will behove her to grow to some speedy resolution, for the entertaining of it doth breed her greater dishonour than I dare commit to paper."

"I believe that Your Majesty is disinclined to marry, either of your own disposition, or by persuasion of others whom you trust."

"But the burning question was when?"

"Our souls are meant to be united."

"I think not myself well-used."

"I should repute it a great favour to be committed to the Tower, unless Her Majesty may grow more certain her resolutions there."

"Her Majesty is slow to believe that the great increase of Papists is a danger to the realm."

"If you mean it not, then assure yourself it is one of the worst remedies you can use."

"I am an old woman, to whom paternosters will suffice in place of nuptials."

‘Melancholy doth possess us’, wrote Walsingham to a friend, ‘as both public and private causes are at stay for a season.’

Your Majesty only has been the maintainer and setter forth of His true religion against all policy and counsel of man, yet you see how He has served and kept you thereby.

‘It makes all my joints to tremble when I consider the loss of such a jewel,’ wrote one MP.

He who is on high has defended me until this hour, and will keep me still, for in Him I do trust.

In all Christendom, I shall find enough of heirs who will have talons strong enough to grasp what I may put in their hand.

‘Her Majesty will make trial of me how I love her and what will discourage me from her service, but resolved I am that no worldly respect shall draw me back from my faithful discharge of my duty towards her.’

You have several other children, but for myself I find no consolation, if it be not death, in which I hope we shall be reunited.

The bond of Association was shown to Mary Stuart, and it was thus made very clear to her that, if she continued her intrigues, her life would be in the gravest danger.

The Queen was pressed to bring Mary to justice, for there was enough evidence to convict her, but she refused out of hand.

I will not have anyone put to death ‘for the fault of another’ nor permit any legislation that would offend the consciences of my good subjects.

‘I cannot imagine how it may be possible for them to convey a piece of paper as big as my finger,’ Paulet observed with satisfaction.

‘Rob, I am afraid you will suppose by my wandering writings that a midsummer moon hath taken large possession of my brains this month, but you must take things as they come in my head, though order be left behind me.’

‘In England, under Her Majesty’s jurisdiction, a free prince offending is subject to her laws,’ he told Mary.

‘I was not wont to have my clothes plucked off by such grooms, nor did I ever put off my clothes before such a company.’

‘Thou hast cause rather to joy than to mourn, for now shalt thou see Mary Stuart’s troubles receive their long-expected end.’

‘Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.’

‘I hope you shall make an end of all my troubles.’

‘I will confess nothing because I have nothing to confess.’

‘This justice was done on a bad woman protected by bad men.’

‘I tell you that in this late Act of Parliament you have laid a hard hand on me, that I must give directions for her [Mary’s] death, which cannot be but a most grievous and irksome burden to me.’

Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects.

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.

I have 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 or die amongst you all.

To lay down for my God and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

Rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms.

By your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of God, of my kingdom, and of my people.

My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes.

It is a comfort to see how great magnanimity Her Majesty shows, who is not a whit dismayed.

God blew with His winds, and they were scattered.

She certainly is a great queen, and were she only a Catholic, she would be our dearly beloved daughter.

She doth not contradict confidently, which they that know the minds of women say is a sign of yielding.

By God’s blood, it was fit that someone or other should take him down and treat him better manners, otherwise there will be no rule in him.

I do confess that, as a man, I have been more subject to your natural beauty than as a subject to the power of a king.

If I had a thousand tongues instead of one, I would not be able to express my thanks.

As long as Your Majesty will fix to have me, I am fixed and immoveable.

For my cause is just, and it standeth upon a sure foundation – that I shall not fail, God assisting the quarrel of the righteous.

If you will not serve me in this, I will seek all England for a solicitor.

Look to thyself, good Essex, and be wise to help thyself without giving thy enemies advantage.

God bless thee and increase thy sons in number, holiness and virtue.

His great preparations and mighty forces do not stir me. I doubt not but, God assisting me, I shall be able to defeat and overthrow him.

The Queen of the Seas.

I assure you I am much distasted with the glorious greatness of a favourite.

Either for fear or favour, you regard my Lord of Essex more than myself.

When I see the admirable work of the eastern wind, so long to last beyond the custom of Nature, I see, as in a crystal, the right figure of my folly.

Remember that who doth their best shall never receive the blame.

Since words be not able to interpret for me, then to your royal dear heart I appeal.

Let Her Majesty understand how her singular kindness doth overcome my power to acquit it.

Serve God by serving the Queen, for all other service is indeed bondage to the Devil.

Most dear Lady, your kind and often sending is able either to preserve a sick man that were more than half dead to life again.

The intolerable wrong you have done both me and yourself not only broke all the laws of affection.

"When Essex flung open her door and fell to his knees, … she did not lose her composure, but offered Essex her hand to kiss."

"The world, however, did not realise the quality of her indignation, and looked daily for his release."

"Having demonstrated that she was still in authoritative control of her realm, the Queen expressly ordered that Essex and Southampton be taken that night under guard to Lambeth Palace rather than the Tower."

"She would have gone out in person to see what any rebel of them all durst do against her, had not her councillors, with much ado, stayed her."

"Indeed, it was so."

"Elizabeth resolved to teach him a lesson. 'Such contempt ought to be publicly punished,' she told her Council."

"The condemned were generally expected to express humble submission, and Essex’s speech was reckoned by many of those present to be unfittingly arrogant for one on the brink of Divine Judgement."

"I have bestowed my youth in wantonness, lust and uncleanness; I have been puffed up with pride, vanity and love of this wicked world’s pleasures."

"I protest I never meant, nor violence to her person, … and then after it, have been led away to death by the wicked devices of my very friends."

"Many spectators were weeping by now."

Know that I accept them with no less joy than your loves can have desired to offer such a present.

I account them invaluable; and though God hath raised me high, yet this I account the glory of my crown, that I have reigned with your loves.

I was never so much enticed with the glorious name of a king, or royal authority of a queen, as delighted that God hath made me His instrument to maintain His truth and glory.

For my own part, were it not for conscience’s sake to discharge the duty that God hath laid upon me, and to maintain His glory and keep you in safety, in mine own disposition I should be willing to resign.

What you do bestow on me, I will not hoard up, but receive it to bestow on you again.

I know not one man in this kingdom that will bestow six words of argument, if she deny it.

I do assure you, there is no prince that loves his subjects better.

To be a king and wear a crown is more glorious to them that see it than it is a pleasure to them that bear it.

The Queen grew worse and worse, because she would be so, none about her being able to persuade her to go to bed.

When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less.