Women From England

"The queen's majesty being right sorry to understand that the order of common prayer, set forth by the common consent of the realm and by authority of parliament in the first year of her reign, wherein is nothing contained but the scripture of God, and that which is consonant unto it, is now of late of some men despised, and spoken against, both by open preachings, and writings, and of some bold and vain curious men, new and other rites found out and frequented; whereupon contentions, sects, and disquietness doth arise among her people, and for one godly and uniform order, diversity of rites and ceremonies, disputations and contentions, schisms and divisions already risen, and more like to ensue: the cause of which disorders, her majesty doth plainly understand to be the negligence of the bishops and other magistrates, who should cause the good laws and acts of parliament made in this behalf to be better executed, and not so dissembled and winked at, as hitherto (it may appear) that they have been."

"The doubt of future foes exiles my present joy, And wit me warns to shun such snares as threaten mine annoy; For falsehood now doth flow, and subjects’ faith doth ebb, Which should not be if reason ruled or wisdom weaved the web. But clouds of joys untried do cloak aspiring minds, Which turn to rain of late repent by changed course of winds. The top of hope supposed the root upreared shall be, And fruitless all their grafted guile, as shortly ye shall see. The dazzled eyes with pride, which great ambition blinds, Shall be unsealed by worthy wights whose foresight falsehood finds. The daughter of debate that discord aye doth sow Shall reap no gain where former rule still peace hath taught to know. No foreign banished wight shall anchor in this port; Our realm brooks not seditious sects, let them elsewhere resort. My rusty sword through rest shall first his edge employ To poll their tops that seek such change or gape for future joy."

"Was I not born in the realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country? Is there any cause I should alienate myself from being careful over this 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."

"I will make you shorter by the head."

"Though I be a woman yet I have as good a courage answerable to my place as ever my father had. I am your anointed Queen. I will never be by violence constrained to do anything. I thank God I am endued with such qualities that if I were turned out of the Realm in my petticoat I were able to live in any place in Christendom."

"Kings were wont to honour philosophers, but if I had such I would honour them as angels that should have such piety in them that they would not seek where they are the second to be the first, and where the third to be the second and so forth."

"[I]n sundry places of our realm of late...there is crept and brought into the church by some few persons, abounding more in their own senses than wisdom would, and delighting with singularities and changes, an open and manifest disorder and offence to the godly wise and obedient persons, by diversity of opinions and specially in the external, decent, and lawful rites and ceremonies to be used in the churches...the inconvenience thereof were like to grow from place to place, as it were by an infection, to a great annoyance, trouble, and deformity to the rest of the whole body of the realm, and thereby impair, deface, and disturb Christian charity, unity, and concord, being the very bands of our religion."

"Wherefore, although our earnest care and inward desire hath always been, from the beginning of our reign, to provide that by laws and ordinances agreeable to truth and justice, and consonant to good order, this our realm should be directed and governed, both in the ecclesiastical and civil policy, by public officers and ministers following, as near as possibly might be, one rule, form, and manner of order in all their actions, and directing our people to obey humbly and live godly, according to their several callings, in unity and concord, without diversities of opinions or novelties of rites and manners, or without maintenance or breeding of any contentions about the same."

"Like as no one thing, in the government and charge committed unto us by the favourable goodness of Almighty God, doth more profit and beautify the same to his pleasure and acceptation, to our comfort and ease of our government, and, finally, to the universal weal and repose of our people and countries, than unity, quietness, and concord, as well amongst the public ministers having charge under us, as in the multitude of the people by us and them ruled; so, contrariwise, diversity, variety, contention, and vain love of singularity, either in our ministers or in the people, must needs provoke the displeasure of Almighty God."

"[I] would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married."

"But to grant them churches, wherein they might celebrate mass, and have congregations and public assemblies, she could not with the safety of her realm, and without wrong to her own honour and conscience: neither did she see cause, why she should grant it, seeing England embraced not new or strange doctrine, but the same which Christ commanded, and what the primitive and catholic church had received, and was approved by the ancient fathers, as might be testified by their writings. Therefore for her to allow churches which contradicted the truth and the gospel, were not only to repeal the laws established by act of parliament, but to sow religion out of religion, to distract good people's minds, to cherish factions, to disturb religion and the commonwealth, and to mingle divine and human things."

"And whereas you would frighten us, by telling how emperors, kings, and princes have owned the bishop of Rome's authority; it was contrary in the beginning. For our Saviour Christ paid his tribute unto Caesar, as the chief superior; which shews your Romish supremacy is usurped."

"Our realm and subjects have been long wanderers, walking astray, whilst they were under the tuition of Romish pastors, who advised them to own a wolf for their head, (in lieu of a careful shepherd,) whose inventions, heresies, and schisms be so numerous, that the flock of Christ have fed on poisonous shrubs for want of wholesome pastures... and your own Romish idolatry maketh you liars."

"I am already bound unto an husband, which is the kingdom of England... for every one of you, and as many as are English, are my children and kinsfolks."

"This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."

"Much suspected by me, Nothing proved can be, Quoth Elizabeth prisoner."

"'Twas God the Word that spake it, He took the Bread and brake it: And what that Word did make it, That I believe and take it."

"Master Tyrwhit and others have told me that there goeth rumors abroad which be greatly both against mine honor and honesty, which above all other things I esteem, which be these: that I am in the Tower and with child by my lord admiral. My lord, these are shameful slanders, for the which, besides the great desire I have to see the king’s majesty, I shall most heartily desire your lordship that I may come to the court after your first determination, that I may show myself there as I am. Written in haste from Hatfield this 28 of January. Your assured friend to my little power, Elizabeth."

"Commonwealth schoolchildren are often taught one of the key events in British history with the help of a mnemonic: "King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded: One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded." Beheaded! In 1536 Henry had his wife Anne Boleyn decapitated on trumped-up charges of adultery and treason because she gave him a son that did not survive, and he had become attracted to one of her ladies-in-waiting. Two wives later he suspected Catherine Howard of adultery and sent her to the ax as well. (Tourists visiting the Tower of London can see the chopping block for themselves.) Henry was clearly the jealous type: he also had an old boyfriend of Catherine’s drawn and quartered, which is to say hanged by the neck, taken down while still alive, disemboweled, castrated, decapitated, and cut into four. The throne passed to Henry’s son Edward, then to Henry’s daughter Mary, and then to another daughter, Elizabeth. “Bloody Mary” did not get her nickname by putting tomato juice in her vodka but by having three hundred religious dissenters burned at the stake. And both sisters kept up the family tradition for how to resolve domestic squabbles: Mary imprisoned Elizabeth and presided over the execution of their cousin, Lady Jane Grey, and Elizabeth executed another cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. Elizabeth also had 123 priests drawn and quartered, and had other enemies tortured with bone-crushing manacles, another attraction on display in the Tower. Today the British royal family is excoriated for shortcomings ranging from rudeness to infidelity. You’d think people would give them credit for not having had a single relative decapitated, nor a single rival drawn and quartered."

"Elizabeth, great empress of the world, Britannia's Atlas, star of England's globe, That sways the massy sceptre of her land, And holds the royal reins of Albion."

"Greater than Alexander she was, for the world which he subdued by force, she conquered by love."

"This woman was as vital as Winston Churchill, and, like him, made romantic leadership an art of government. The name ‘Gloriana’ and the phrase ‘via media’ seem odd companions. But the liberal way of life is richest and fullest, and it was well for England that when men's passions led them from it, Queen Elizabeth preserved the tradition. Her Puritan fanatics had no more obstinate opponent: she, in turn, had no more devoted worshippers. It is the strangest paradox of her reign and the supreme tribute to her greatness."

"It is difficult to convey a proper appreciation of this amazing Queen, so keenly intelligent, so effervescing, so intimate, so imperious and regal. She intoxicated Court and country, keyed her realm to the intensity of her own spirit. No one but a woman could have done it, and no woman without her superlative gifts could have attempted it without disaster."

"She had high Notions of the sovereign Power of Princes, and of her own absolute Supremacy in Church Affairs: And being of Opinion that all Methods of Severity were lawful to bring her Subjects to an outward Uniformity, she countenanced all the Engines of Persecution, as Spiritual Courts, High Commission, and Star-Chamber, and stretched her Prerogative to support them beyond the Laws, and against the Sense of the Nation. But with all these Blemishes Queen Elizabeth stands upon Record as a wise and politick Princess, for delivering the Kingdom from the Difficulties in which it was involved at her Accession; for preserving the Protestant Reformation against the potent Attempts of the Pope, the Emperor, and King of Spain abroad, and the Queen of Scots and her Popish Subjects at home; and for advancing the Renown of the English Nation beyond any of her Predecessors. Her Majesty held the Balance of Europe, and was in high Esteem with all foreign Princes, the greatest Part of her Reign; and tho' her Protestant Subjects were divided about Church Affairs, they all discover'd a high Veneration for her Royal Person and Government; on which Accounts she was the Glory of the Age in which she lived, and will be the Admiration of Posterity."

"She was the most remarkable princess that has appeared in the world for these many centuries. In all her actions she displayed the greatest prudence... I say, in conclusion, she was the most prudent in governing, the most active in all business, the most clear-sighted in seeing events, and the most resolute in seeing her resolutions carried into effect... in a word, [she] possessed, in the highest degree, all the qualities which are required in a great prince."

"A succession of dark plots, formed by Roman Catholics against the life of the Queen and the existence of the nation, kept society in constant alarm. Whatever might be the faults of Elizabeth, it was plain that, to speak humanly, the fate of the realm and of all reformed Churches was staked on the security of her person and on the success of her administration. To strengthen her hands was, therefore, the first duty of a patriot and a Protestant; and that duty was well performed. The Puritans, even in the depths of the prisons to which she had sent them, prayed, and with no simulated fervour, that she might be kept from the dagger of the assassin, that rebellion might be put down under her feet, and that her arms might be victorious by sea and land. One of the most stubborn of the stubborn sect, immediately after his hand had been lopped off for an offence into which he had been hurried by his intemperate zeal, waved his hat with the hand which was still left him, and shouted "God save the Queen!" The sentiment with which these men regarded her has descended to their posterity. The Nonconformists, rigorously as she treated them, have, as a body, always venerated her memory."

"That great Queen has now been lying two hundred and thirty years in Henry the Seventh's Chapel. Yet her memory is still dear to the hearts of a free people."

"Her hands were ever working for the defence of the Faith, defending it at home, defending it abroad, for her selfe defending it, and defending it for others; ever in travell for this holy businesse."

"So it was that in 1585, with the Anglo–Spanish War nearly upon Elizabeth’s shore, Elizabeth and Murad discussed an Anglo–Ottoman alliance against Catholic Spain grounded in religious commonality. Though the alliance never came to fruition, the resulting trade agreements between the two peoples gave England the impetus to become a worldwide empire of its own. Because England was a Protestant state, outside of papal authority, it was in a favored position to seek an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. Further, as a consequence of ignoring the 1578 papal ban on Christians dealing in arms with Muslims, England was in an ideal position to trade prosperously with the Ottomans—to the neglect of the Catholic states."

"In their political correspondence, the English and the Ottomans used the argument that they “were alike haters of the ‘idolatries’ practiced by the King of Spain”. Elizabeth I wrote a letter to Murad calling herself the “most mighty defender of the Christian faith against all the idolatry of those unworthy ones that live among Christians, and falsely profess the name of Christ”. So, in essence, Elizabeth framed her hopes of political alliance as being a partnership between the pious monotheists of England and Turkey against the idolatrous Spanish Habsburgs."

"So the development of the galleon enabled the rich and powerful colonial empire of Spain to plot the destruction of Elizabeth’s reign and the restoration of a Catholic English state. In 1582, Spain began construction of a new Armada. In light of Spain’s new military project, and with no imminent Turkish threat to English soil, Elizabeth I made the daring move to send the first English ambassador to Constantinople to bargain with Sultan Murad III of the Ottoman Empire. William Harborne was chosen for the task, having travelled to Constantinople throughout the 1570s with British merchants in the Levant Trading Company. Through her ambassador, Elizabeth and Murad corresponded back and forth in Latin, each concerned with Spanish and Habsburg dominance. Murad was quite beguiling in his treatment of the sovereign of England, referring to Elizabeth as:The pride of women who follow Jesus, the most excellent of the ladies honored among the Messiah’s people, the arbitress of the affairs of the Christian community, who trails the skirts of majesty and gravity, the queen of the realm of Ingiltere, Queen Eliz’ade. Ambassador Harborne, in turn, referred to Murad as “the most august and benign Caesar”—illustrating Elizabeth’s view that England did not perceive the Ottomans as conquerors, while also diplomatically casting Murad as the rightful successor of the Byzantine Empire. Elizabeth’s ultimate goal was to persuade Murad to attack Spain as a diversion, so that England would have time to prepare for Spain’s assault of the English coast. While Elizabeth’s proposed Anglo–Ottoman alliance was never quite realized, trade between England and the Ottoman Empire flourished under the Levant Company."

"If where religion was concerned Elizabeth made "no windows into the hearts of men," she certainly left us the most unexpected window into her own soul. It is in the form of her own personal Book of Devotions... These prayers are far-and-away the most interesting of any that we have from Elizabeth's hand. They are written in a simple straightforward manner, and they reveal a deep personal faith which has every token of sincerity."

"Now, if ever any person had either the gift or the skill to winne the hearts of people, it was this Queene; and if ever shee did expresse the same, it was at that present, in coupling mildnesse with majesty as she did, and in stately stouping to the meanest sort. All her faculties were in motion, and every motion seemed a well guided action: Her eye was set upon one, her eare listened to another, her judgement rane upon a third, to a fourth shee addressed her speech: Her spirit seemed to be everywhere, and yet so entire in her selfe, as it seemed to bee no where else. Some she commended, some she pitied, some she thanked, at others she pleasantly and wittily jeasted, concerning no person, neglecting no office; and generally casting forth such courteous countenances, gestures and speeches, that thereupon the people againe redoubled the testimonies of their joy and afterwards, raising every thing to the highest straine, filled the cares of all men with immoderate extolling their Prince."

"The queen did fish for men's souls, and had so sweet a bait that no one could escape her net-work."

"Her mind was oftimes like the gentle air that cometh from the westerly point in a summer's morn; 'twas sweet and refreshing to all around her. Her speech did win all affections; and her subjects did try to show all love to her commands; for she would say, her state did require her to command what she knew her people would willingly do from their own love to her. Herein did she show her wisdom fully; for who did choose to loose her confidence; or who would withhold a show of love and obedience, when their sovereign said it was their own choice and not her compulsion? Surely she did play well her tables to gain obedience thus without constraint; again could she put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking, as left no doubtings whose daughter she was."

"[T]he person of our Salomon her gratious Majesty, whome I feare not to pronounce to have received the same Heroicall spirit, and most honorable disposition, as an inheritance from her famous father."

"In 1603, Elizabeth had seemed a foolish old woman, as men looked expectantly to a Stuart king. By 1630, when Stuart kings had proved rather a disappointment, she had become the paragon of all princely virtues."

"On her throne, Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen; towards the Church she was a mother, with her nobles she was an aunt, to her councillors a nagging wife, and to her courtiers a seductress."

"The expansive notions of religious authority and godly activism that found expression in Knox and Goodman's resistance theories would also continue to shape Protestant thought and activism under Elizabeth. English Protestants literally saw Elizabeth's accession as a godsend, and when James Pilkington called for reformation in 1560, he depicted the monarch as playing an important and helpful role in establishing true religion. Rather than making the prince the necessary source of religious authority in England, however, he cast the monarch as a powerful partner in a task that God Himself laid upon all His people, a task that must proceed, with or without the monarch's assistance. Elizabeth completely rejected this limited view of her authority- just as she rejected the notion that even her most exalted subjects could demand that she name a successor or execute a fellow monarch- but to her great consternation, many of her most fervent subjects did not."

"The Queen...presently undertakes Sir Philip; and (like an excellent Monarch) lays before him the difference in degree between Earls, and Gentlemen; the respect inferiors ought to their superiors; and the necessity in princes to maintain their own creations, as degrees descending between the people's licentiousness, and the annoynted Soveraignty of Crowns: how the Gentlemans neglect of Nobility taught the Peasant to insult upon both."

"In the year '88, I did then live at the upper end of the Strand near St. Clement's Church, when suddenly there came a report unto us...that the Queen was gone to council, and if you will see the Queen you must come quickly. Then we all ran; when the Court gates were set open... the Queen came out in great state. Then we cried, "God save your majesty! God save your majesty!" Then the Queen turned unto us and said, "God bless you all, my good people!" Then we cried again, "God save your majesty! God save your majesty!" Then the Queen said again unto us, "You may well have a greater prince; but you shall never have a more loving prince:" and so looking one upon another awhile the Queen departed. This wrought such an impression upon us, for shows and pageants are ever best seen by torch-light, that all the way long we did nothing but talk what an admirable queen she was, and how we would adventure our lives to do her service."

"[O]ur thanks, most due, to Almighty God, what cause have we all Englishmen so to do, that is, to render most ample thanksgiving to the mercifulness of God, who hath granted, conserved, and advanced, to the seat-regal of this realm, so good, godly, and virtuous a queen; such a chosen instrument of his clemency, so virtuously natured, so godly disposed, so merciful without marring, so humble without pride, so moderate without prodigality, so maidenly without pomp."

"It appears to me that she is a woman of extreme vanity, but acute. I would say that she must have great admiration for the King her father's mode of carrying on matters."

"She seems to me incomparably more feared than her sister and gives her orders and has her way as absolutely as her father did."

"God has put into your hands the balance of power and justice, to poise and counterpoise at your will the actions and counsels of all the Christian kings of your time."

"Elizabeth pursued the only policy open to a sixteenth-century monarch: she promoted her country's interests by promoting her own, tried to avoid military or diplomatic defeat, tried to preserve unity at home, tried to adjust her resources to the sacred cause of public display. Certainly she sought ‘greatness’, but if she had to define it she would have spoken of Henry V and Henry VIII rather than of unknown lands over the seas."

"Queen Elizabeth, of Blessed Memory, ruled over her people for forty-five years, about half as long as most of them had any cause to expect to live. When she herself died, nearly seventy years old, there were very few alive who could even recall that another sovereign had ever sat on the throne of England. And though towards the end she had been not only old but also somewhat out of touch with the attitudes and ambitions of a new generation, she retained to the last the love and worship of a nation accustomed to a monarchy clothed in the splendour of divine right but also embodied in palpably real people. Whatever else the Tudors may have been, they were aggressively alive, sculpted in the round, formidable personalities of the kind that create living legends in their own lifetime and do not lose their vitality even in death. The Queen's long reign accomplished the promise of her father's rule; the age of Elizabeth is rightly regarded, not only by historians but also in the popular memory, as a time of greatness breeding greater things still than it actually witnessed."

"To report her death, like a thunder-clap, was able to kill thousands. It took away hearts from millions. For having brought up even under her wing a nation that was almost begotten and born under her, that never shouted any other ave than for her name, never saw the face of any prince but herself, never understood what that strange outlandish word 'change' signified—how was it possible but that her sickness should throw abroad universal fear, and her death an astonishment?"

"Queen Elizabeth of famous memory,—we need not be ashamed to call her so! ... that Lady, that great Queen."

"Not surprisingly, the cult of Elizabeth grew directly in proportion to the perceived Catholic menace. In the autumn of 1626, while ladies at court were dallying with the Mass, and while Spanish forces appeared ascendant in Europe, the anniversary of Elizabeth's accession produced a resounding clamour of bells. "Today these bells rang merrily in remembrance of famous Queen Elizabeth" wrote one London correspondent on 17 November. Similarly in 1630 there was "universal ringing of bells for Queen Elizabeth's coronation" on 17 November... This anniversary ringing, quite innocent of official prompting, combined elements of reassurance and defiance, as if the commemoration of Elizabeth could somehow restore the virtues of her reign. "Our Elizabeth" had become the unofficial patron saint of England."