"My mortal foe can no ways wish me a greater harm than England's hate; neither should death be less welcome unto me than such a mishap betide me."
Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 2, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923). |
"When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, "Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.""
Elizabeth I (1533-1603), British monarch, Queen of England (1558-1603). As quoted in The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth, ch. 7, by Frederick Chamberlin (1923).
Said "to the Speaker, Knights, and Burgesses of the Lower House who [in 1559, the second year of her reign] laid an address before her in the great gallery of Whitehall Palace urging her to marry." For years thereafter, Elizabeth would vacillate about her marital intentions, sometimes declaring that to marry would be "necessary." However, despite many aggressive overtures from European nobility and imperative urging from within England, she never did, thus ruling alone and leaving behind no heir. |
|
Queen Elizabeth I
Free
Poetry E-Book: