View source for Tilbury Speech

Speech delivered by Queen [[Elizabeth I]] to her troops in August 1588 when England was preparing for the battle against [[Philip II]] of Spain and his [[Armada]].

Before Elizabeth delivered the speech, the English troops had already achieved a partial victory. But although they destroyed several Spanish ships at the naval battle of Gravelines, the danger of invasion was not yet over. In her speech, Elizabeth commented on the allegation that a female monarch was weaker than a man and therefore not suited to lead the nation into war. Hence the probably most famous line from the Tilbury speech: "I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king." (This line may be understood against the cultural background of the [[one-sex model]] and the myth, or legal fiction, of the [[The King's Two Bodies|king's two bodies]].)

There are two versions of the speech. The first, more common version is taken from a letter that Dr Leonel Sharp wrote to the Duke of Buckingham in 1623, recalling the speech. The second version, as recalled by William Leigh, dates back to 1612.

== Sources ==
* www.tudorhistory.org [http://tudorhistory.org/primary/tilbury.html]
* www.englishhistory.net [http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/eliz5.html]