Speech to the Troops at Tilbury

Summary

In August 1588 Queen Elizabeth I came by river to the army camped at Tilbury, on the north bank of the Thames estuary in Essex, where troops under her lieutenant general, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, waited to resist a Spanish landing. The Armada sent by Philip II had already been driven up the Channel and scattered after the fighting off Gravelines, but no one in England yet knew that it would not return, and the Duke of Parma's army still stood ready in the Spanish Netherlands to cross. On 9 August (Old Style) the queen reviewed the soldiers and addressed them. The speech as usually quoted is short, three paragraphs after the salutation My loving people. In the first, Elizabeth sets aside the advice of counsellors who warned her against trusting herself to armed multitudes: tyrants may fear, but she has placed her strength under God in the loyal hearts of her subjects. She has come not for recreation but resolved to live and die among them and to lay down her honour and her blood in the dust for God, kingdom, and people. The second paragraph contains the famous antithesis: she has the body of a weak and feeble woman but the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too. She scorns Parma, Spain, or any prince of Europe who would invade her borders and promises to take up arms herself as their general, judge, and rewarder. The third paragraph assures them of rewards in the word of a prince, commends Leicester as standing in her stead, and calls for obedience, concord in the camp, and valour in the field. The familiar text comes from a letter by Leonel Sharp, a chaplain at the camp, printed in 1654; an earlier manuscript version differs in wording, and scholars debate how closely either records what she said. The speech nonetheless became the defining image of Elizabeth as warrior queen and of England standing against invasion.

Plot or Argument

• Trust instead of fear (Paragraph 1)

  Addressing her loving people, the queen reports that some careful of her safety warned her against armed crowds. She answers that she will not live distrusting her faithful people, that only tyrants need fear, and that she has come resolved to live and die among them and to offer her honour and blood for God, kingdom, and people.

• A woman's body and a king's heart (Paragraph 2)

  Elizabeth concedes the weakness of her body and claims the heart and stomach of a king of England. She declares scorn for Parma, Spain, or any European prince who dares invade, and pledges to take up arms herself and be the army's general, judge, and rewarder.

• Rewards, a deputy, and the call to victory (Paragraph 3)

  She promises on the word of a prince that their forwardness will be rewarded, names her lieutenant general as her stand-in, and ends by asking for obedience, concord, and valour, through which they will shortly win a famous victory over the enemies of God, kingdom, and people.

Lessons

• Leadership by presence

  Elizabeth's first argument is her own body standing among armed men. By rejecting the advice to keep a safe distance, she makes her trust in her subjects visible and invites them to return it. The speech persuades as much by her coming as by her words.

  • Why does the queen begin by repeating the warning of those who feared for her safety?
  • What does she gain by saying she has come resolved to live and die among them?
  • When does a leader's physical presence matter more than anything she says?

• Turning weakness into strength

  Rather than deny the doubts her soldiers might have about a woman leading them in war, Elizabeth states them herself and then outbids them: a weak and feeble body, but the heart and stomach of a king. Naming the objection first disarms it and lets the claim of royal courage land with full force.

  • Why is it persuasive for a speaker to state the strongest objection against herself?
  • What does stomach mean here, and why pair it with heart?
  • Why does she add of a king of England too?

• Mutual obligation between ruler and people

  The speech binds sovereign and subjects in exchanges: their loyalty for her trust, their valour for her rewards, their obedience to her general for a shared victory. The repeated triad of God, kingdom, and people places both queen and army under the same higher loyalties.

  • List the promises the queen makes and those she asks for. Are they balanced?
  • Why does the triad God, kingdom, and people recur at the beginning and end?
  • What does this speech suggest a ruler owes to those who fight for her?

Context

England and Spain had been at open war since 1585, when Elizabeth sent troops to aid the Dutch revolt. The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587 removed a Catholic claimant and hardened Philip II's resolve to invade. The Armada sailed in 1588 to escort Parma's army across from Flanders; after running fights in the Channel and the fireship attack and battle off Gravelines, it was driven into the North Sea. In early August the threat of Parma's crossing still seemed real, and the queen's visit to Tilbury was meant to steady the defending army.

Composition

The speech survives in more than one version. The text stored here derives from a letter of Leonel Sharp, who was a chaplain at Tilbury and later wrote that he had been ordered to repeat the speech to the army the next day; it was printed in Cabala, sive Scrinia Sacra in 1654. An earlier manuscript in the British Library (Harley MS 6798) gives a different wording. Whether Elizabeth wrote it out beforehand, and how exactly she phrased it, cannot be settled.

Reception

Through engravings, histories, and later dramatizations the Tilbury speech became central to the legend of Gloriana. Its antithesis of a feeble body and a king's heart is among the most quoted sentences by any English monarch, and in 1940 the speech was recalled alongside Churchill's addresses as a precedent for a nation facing invasion.

Comparisons

• st-crispins-day-speech

  Shakespeare's Henry V, written about a decade after Tilbury, also rallies an outnumbered English army by promising to share its danger and honour; Elizabeth speaks before a battle that never came.

• we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches

  Churchill in 1940 and Elizabeth in 1588 both address an England expecting invasion from across the narrow sea and turn defiance into a shared resolve.

• the-trial-of-joan-of-arc

  Joan and Elizabeth are the two famous women of the period who presented themselves to soldiers as leaders in war under God, though Joan rode into battle and Elizabeth reviewed an army awaiting one.

• henry-v

  The whole play explores the king as both man and office, the same doubleness Elizabeth exploits in contrasting her natural body with her royal heart.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The opening concession: she repeats her counsellors' warning against armed multitudes before overturning it.
• The antithesis of tyrants who fear and a queen who trusts in the loyal hearts of her subjects.
• The admission of a weak and feeble body followed immediately by the claim of a king's heart and stomach.
• The repetition of I myself as she promises to take up arms and command.
• The triad of God, kingdom, and people at the end of the first and last paragraphs.

Key terms and names

Tilbury

A fort and camp on the Essex shore of the Thames estuary, where the army gathered to block an advance on London.

Parma

Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, commander of Philip II's army in the Netherlands, whose invasion force the Armada was meant to escort.

Lieutenant general

The commander acting in the monarch's place; here Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, whom the queen praises as her stand-in.

Stomach

In Elizabethan usage, courage or spirit as well as appetite; paired with heart, it means a king's boldness.

In the word of a prince

A sovereign's solemn pledge; prince here means any ruling monarch, male or female.

Antithesis

The balancing of opposites in parallel phrases, as in the contrast of a feeble woman's body with a king's heart.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What warning had the queen received about coming to Tilbury, and how does she answer it?
2. Comprehension What three things does she ask of the soldiers in the last sentence?
3. Interpretation Why does Elizabeth say Let tyrants fear? What is she implying about herself and about Philip of Spain?
4. Interpretation How does the queen use her womanhood in the speech: as a weakness to overcome, a claim to sympathy, or both?
5. Interpretation Elizabeth promises to be general herself, then names Leicester to stand in her stead. How does she keep this from sounding like a retreat?
6. Big Question Is a ruler who places her strength in the loyal hearts of her subjects stronger or weaker than one who rules by fear?
7. Big Question Does a leader have a duty to share the dangers she asks others to face?

Faith Connections

• Judges 4-5 (Scripture)

  Deborah, who goes with Barak to war and sees Sisera defeated, was a figure to whom Elizabeth was often compared in her reign; the parallel of a woman leading Israel under God shaped how her subjects read moments like Tilbury.

• 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (Scripture)

  Paul glories in weakness because Christ's strength is made perfect in it; Elizabeth's contrast of a feeble body with a king's heart echoes, in a political key, the paradox of strength in weakness.

• John 10:11 (Scripture)

  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; the queen's pledge to lay down her blood for her people draws on the ideal of the ruler as self-giving shepherd.

• Thomas Aquinas, De Regno I (Great Conversation)

  Aquinas contrasts the king who seeks the common good and is loved by his subjects with the tyrant who must live in fear of them, the same distinction Elizabeth draws in Let tyrants fear.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: A tyrant must fear his subjects, but a rightful ruler trusts them; Elizabeth has always placed her strength in her people's loyalty under God; therefore she can stand unguarded among her army, share its danger, and confidently promise victory if they remain obedient, united, and brave.

Rhetorical device: Antithesis. In Paragraph 2 she sets the body but of a weak and feeble woman against the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too.

Debate: Resolved: Elizabeth's visit to Tilbury did more for England's defense than the words she spoke there.

Memory Work

I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too,

to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Analyze how Elizabeth addresses the possible doubts of her soldiers, about her safety, her sex, and her absence from the coming battle, and argue which answer is most persuasive.

Comparison with The St Crispin's Day Speech: Compare Elizabeth's speech at Tilbury with Henry's speech before Agincourt in Shakespeare. How does each ruler bind the soldiers to himself or herself, and what does each promise them?

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Have students deliver the speech aloud from a chair or platform, then discuss which phrases are built to carry across an open field to a crowd of soldiers.

• Fiction

  Write the evening after the speech from the point of view of a soldier at Tilbury writing home, describing the queen and what she said.

• Essay

  Compare the Sharp text with the shorter Harley manuscript version and argue which better suits the occasion, or explain what the differences reveal about how speeches were remembered.

Further Reading

• Elizabeth I: Collected Works, Leah S. Marcus, Janel Mueller, and Mary Beth Rose (eds.)

  Prints the queen's speeches, including the Tilbury versions, with notes on their sources.

• The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Garrett Mattingly

• Elizabeth I, Anne Somerset

• The Spanish Armada, Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker