Tilbury Speech

The speech was delivered by Queen Elizabeth I to her troops in August 1588. England prepared for a battle against King Philip of Spain and his Armada.

Prior to the speech the English troops had made a partial victory by destroying several Spanish ships at the naval battle of Gravelines, but the danger of invasion was not averted yet. In her speech Elizabeth commented on the allegation that she as a female monarch was weaker than a male successor 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."

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

Listen to a reading of the speech (first version by Dr Leonel Sharp) on Youtube:

[1]

Sources:

www.tudorhistory.org [2]

www.wikipedia.org [3]

www.englishhistory.net [4]