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Queen Elizabeth by Steven van der Meulen
Queen Elizabeth by Steven van der Meulen, 1560s
Philip Mould Fine Paintings, London


Queen Elizabeth I Quotes


    As the saying is,
    So many heads, so many wits.
    _
    Godly Meditation of the Christian Soul


    They are most deceived that trusteth most in themselves.
    _
    To Edward Seymour, Lord Protector of King Edward, 1549,
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 1.



    ... What a family is without a steward, a ship
    without a pilot, a flock without a shepherd, a
    body without a head, the same, I think, is a kingdom
    without the health and safety of a good monarch.
    _
    To her brother, King Edward, c.1550.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 1.



    That milkmaid's lot is better than mine,
    and her life merrier.
    _
    To one of her attendants, 1554,
    while imprisoned by her sister, Queen Mary.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 1.



    There is one thing higher than Royalty:
    and that is religion, which causes us
    to leave the world, and seek God.
    _
    To her ladies-in-waiting.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 9.



    Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and
    silence you have not already tested.
    _
    To Erik, King of Sweden, in 1561.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    I would rather be a beggar and single
    than a queen and married.
    _
    To the Ambassador of the Duke of Wurtemberg, 1564.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 2.



    It is a natural virtue incident to our sex
    to be pitiful of those that are afflicted.
    _
    Chamberlin, The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.


    Princes have big ears which hear far and near.
    _
    To the Fenelon, the French Ambassador.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 13.



    Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and
    instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and
    as dangers to their states.
    _
    To the Fenelon, the French Ambassador.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 13.



    ... It is true that the world was made in six days,
    but it was by God, to whose power the infirmity of men
    is not to be compared.
    _
    To the French Ambassador when he complained
    about waiting six days for an answer to
    Elizabeth marrying a prince of France.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 23.



    I do not want a husband who honours me as a queen,
    if he does not love me as a woman.
    _
    To the French Ambassador.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 7.



    Although my royal rank causes me to doubt whether my
    kingdom is not more sought after than myself, yet I
    understand that you have found other graces in me.
    _
    To Francis, Duke of Alençon and Anjou, c.1572.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 23.



    There is small disproportion betwixt a fool who
    useth not wit because he hath it not and him
    that useth it not when it should avail him.
    _
    To Baron Buckhurst (Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset), c.1587.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    The end crowneth the work.
    _
    Chamberlin, The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.


    If we still advise we shall never do.
    _
    To Sir Henry Sidney, on the Irish question.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    Where minds differ and opinions swerve
    there is scant a friend in that company.
    _
    Chamberlin, The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.


    Those who appear the most sanctified are the worst.
    _
    To the Spanish Ambassador, on arrested Catholics.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    The past cannot be cured.
    _
    To the Spanish Ambassador.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    A clear and innocent conscience fears nothing.
    _
    To the Spanish Ambassador.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    The stone often recoils on the head of the thrower.
    _
    To Mary, Queen of Scots.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 18.



    A strength to harm is perilous in the hand
    of an ambitious head.
    _
    To Sir Henry Sidney.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 13.



    He who placed me in this seat will keep me here.
    _
    In 1601, when Essex instigated a revolt.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 9.



    A fool too late bewares when all the peril is past.
    _
    To Sir Henry Sidney.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 11.



    I regret the unhappiness of princes who are
    slaves to forms and fettered by caution.
    _
    To King Henry IV of France, 1601.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 23.



    The word "must" is not to be used to princes.
    _
    Chamberlin, The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 24.


    Must! Is must a word to be addressed to princes?
    Little man, little man! thy father, if he had
    been alive, durst not have used that word.
    _
    To Robert Cecil near the end of her life.
    Green, J. R.
    A Short History of the English People.



    The name of a successor is like
    the tolling of my own death-bell!
    _
    Said near the end of her reign.
    Chamberlin,
    The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth (1923), ch. 24.













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Index of Encyclopedia Entries:

Medieval Cosmology
Prices of Items in Medieval England

Edward II
Piers Gaveston
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster
Roger Mortimer, Earl of March

Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)

Edward III
Edward, Black Prince of Wales
Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster
Edmund of Langley, Duke of York
Thomas of Woodstock, Gloucester
Richard of York, E. of Cambridge
Richard II
Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford
Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk
Ralph Neville, E. of Westmorland
Edmund Mortimer, 3. Earl of March
Roger Mortimer, 4. Earl of March
Edmund Mortimer, 5. Earl of March
Sir Henry Percy, "Harry Hotspur"
Owen Glendower
Henry IV
Edward, Duke of York
Henry V
Thomas, Duke of Clarence
John, Duke of Bedford
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester
John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
The Battle of Castillon, 1453
William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk
Thomas de Montacute, E. of Salisbury
Richard de Beauchamp, E. of Warwick
Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter
Cardinal Henry Beaufort
John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset
Catherine of Valois
Owen Tudor

Charles VII, King of France
Joan of Arc
Louis XI, King of France
Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy


The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485
Causes of the Wars of the Roses
The House of Lancaster
The House of York
The House of Beaufort
The House of Neville

The First Battle of St. Albans, 1455
The Battle of Blore Heath, 1459
The Rout of Ludford, 1459
The Battle of Northampton, 1460
The Battle of Wakefield, 1460
The Battle of Mortimer's Cross, 1461
The Second Battle of St. Albans, 1461
The Battle of Towton, 1461
The Battle of Hedgeley Moor, 1464
The Battle of Hexham, 1464
The Battle of Edgecote, 1469
The Battle of Barnet, 1471
The Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471
The Treaty of Pecquigny, 1475
The Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485
The Battle of Stoke Field, 1487

Henry VI
Margaret of Anjou
Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York
Edward IV
Elizabeth Woodville
Richard Woodville, 1. Earl Rivers
Anthony Woodville, 2. Earl Rivers
Jane Shore
Edward V
Richard III
George, Duke of Clarence

Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
John Neville, Marquis of Montague
George Neville, Archbishop of York
John Beaufort, 1. Duke Somerset
Edmund Beaufort, 2. Duke Somerset
Henry Beaufort, 3. Duke of Somerset
Edmund Beaufort, 4. Duke Somerset
Margaret Beaufort
Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond
Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke
Humphrey Stafford, D. of Buckingham
Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
Thomas, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby
Archbishop Thomas Bourchier
Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex
John Mowbray, 3. Duke of Norfolk
John Mowbray, 4. Duke of Norfolk
John Howard, Duke of Norfolk
Henry Percy, 4. E. Northumberland
William, Lord Hastings
Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter
William Herbert, 1. Earl of Pembroke
John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
Thomas de Clifford, 8. Baron Clifford
John de Clifford, 9. Baron Clifford
John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester
Thomas Grey, 1. Marquis Dorset
Sir Andrew Trollop
Archbishop John Morton
Edward Plantagenet, E. of Warwick
John Talbot, 2. E. Shrewsbury
John Talbot, 3. E. Shrewsbury
John de la Pole, 2. Duke of Suffolk
John de la Pole, E. of Lincoln
Edmund de la Pole, E. of Suffolk
Richard de la Pole
Sir James Tyrell
Jack Cade's Rebellion, 1450


Tudor Period

King Henry VII
Queen Elizabeth of York
Lambert Simnel
Perkin Warbeck

King Ferdinand II of Aragon
Queen Isabella of Castile
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

King Henry VIII
Queen Catherine of Aragon
Queen Anne Boleyn
Queen Jane Seymour
Queen Anne of Cleves
Queen Catherine Howard
Queen Katherine Parr

King Edward VI
Queen Mary I
Queen Elizabeth I
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond

Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland
James IV, King of Scotland
The Battle of Flodden Field, 1513
James V, King of Scotland
Mary of Guise, Queen of Scotland

Mary Tudor, Queen of France
Louis XII, King of France
Francis I, King of France
The Battle of the Spurs, 1513
Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Eustace Chapuys, Imperial Ambassador
The Siege of Boulogne, 1544

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex
Thomas, Lord Audley
Thomas Wriothesley, E. Southampton
Sir Richard Rich

Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk
Thomas Boleyn, Earl of Wiltshire
George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford
John Russell, Earl of Bedford
Thomas Grey, 2. Marquis of Dorset
Henry Grey, D. of Suffolk
George Talbot, 4. E. Shrewsbury
Francis Talbot, 5. E. Shrewsbury
Henry Algernon Percy,
     5th Earl of Northumberland
Henry Algernon Percy,
     6th Earl of Northumberland
Ralph Neville, 4. E. Westmorland
Henry Neville, 5. E. Westmorland
William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester
Sir Francis Bryan
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral
Edward Seymour, Protector Somerset
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury
Henry Pole, Lord Montague
Sir Geoffrey Pole
Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland
Henry Manners, Earl of Rutland
Henry Bourchier, 2. Earl of Essex
Henry Radcliffe, 2. Earl of Sussex
George Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon
Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter
William, Lord Paget
George Brooke, Lord Cobham
Sir Richard Southwell
Thomas Fiennes, 9th Lord Dacre
Lady Jane Grey
Sir Thomas Arundel
Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Younger

Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio
Cardinal Reginald Pole
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London
Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London
John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester
John Aylmer, Bishop of London
Thomas Linacre
William Grocyn
Archbishop William Warham
Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester
Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford

Pope Julius II
Pope Leo X
Pope Clement VII
Pope Paul III
Pope Pius V

Pico della Mirandola
Desiderius Erasmus
Martin Bucer
Richard Pace
Christopher Saint-German
Thomas Tallis
Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent
Hans Holbein, the Younger
The Sweating Sickness

Dissolution of the Monasteries
Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536
Robert Aske
Lord Thomas Darcy
Sir Robert Constable

Oath of Supremacy
The Act of Supremacy, 1534
The Act of Succession, 1534
The Ten Articles, 1536
The Six Articles, 1539
The Second Statute of Repeal, 1555
The Act of Supremacy, 1559
Articles Touching Preachers, 1583

William Cecil, Lord Burghley
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Nicholas Bacon
Sir Thomas Bromley

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick
Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon
Sir Thomas Egerton, Viscount Brackley
Sir Francis Knollys
Katherine "Kat" Ashley
Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester
George Talbot, 6. E. of Shrewsbury
Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury
Gilbert Talbot, 7. E. of Shrewsbury
Sir Henry Sidney
Sir Robert Sidney
Archbishop Matthew Parker
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich
Sir Christopher Hatton
Edward Courtenay, E. Devonshire
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland
Thomas Radcliffe, 3. Earl of Sussex
Henry Radcliffe, 4. Earl of Sussex
Robert Radcliffe, 5. Earl of Sussex
William Parr, Marquis of Northampton
Henry Wriothesley, 2. Southampton
Henry Wriothesley, 3. Southampton
Charles Neville, 6. E. Westmorland
Thomas Percy, 7. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 8. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9. E. Nothumberland
William Herbert, 1. Earl of Pembroke
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham
Thomas Howard, 1. Earl of Suffolk
Henry Hastings, 3. E. of Huntingdon
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland
Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland
Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland
Henry FitzAlan, 12. Earl of Arundel
Thomas, Earl Arundell of Wardour
Edward Somerset, E. of Worcester
William Davison
Sir Walter Mildmay
Sir Ralph Sadler
Sir Amyas Paulet
Gilbert Gifford
François, Duke of Alençon & Anjou

Mary, Queen of Scots
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell
Anthony Babington and the Babington Plot
John Knox

Philip II of Spain
The Spanish Armada, 1588
Sir Francis Drake
Sir John Hawkins

William Camden
Archbishop Whitgift
Martin Marprelate Controversy
John Penry (Martin Marprelate)
Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury
John Dee, Alchemist

Philip Henslowe
Edward Alleyn
The Blackfriars Theatre
The Fortune Theatre
The Rose Theatre
The Swan Theatre
Children's Companies
The Admiral's Men
The Lord Chamberlain's Men
Citizen Comedy
The Isle of Dogs, 1597

Common Law
Court of Common Pleas
Court of King's Bench
Court of Star Chamber
Council of the North
Fleet Prison
Assize
Attainder
Oyer and terminer
Praemunire


King James I of England
Anne of Denmark
Henry, Prince of Wales
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Arabella Stuart, Lady Lennox
William Alabaster
Bishop Hall
Bishop Thomas Morton
Archbishop William Laud
John Selden
Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford
Henry Lawes

King Charles I
Queen Henrietta Maria

King Charles II
King James II
Test Acts

Greenwich Palace
Hatfield House
Richmond Palace
Windsor Palace
Woodstock Manor

The Cinque Ports
Mermaid Tavern
Malmsey Wine
Great Fire of London, 1666
Merchant Taylors' School
Westminster School
The Sanctuary at Westminster
"Sanctuary"


Images:

Chart of the English Succession from William I through Henry VII

Medieval English Drama

London in the time of Henry VII. MS. Roy. 16 F. ii.
London, 1510, the earliest view in print
Map of England from Saxton's Descriptio Angliae, 1579
Location Map of Elizabethan London
Plan of the Bankside, Southwark, in Shakespeare's time
Detail of Norden's Map of the Bankside, 1593
Bull and Bear Baiting Rings from the Agas Map (1569-1590, pub. 1631)
Sketch of the Swan Theatre, c. 1596
Westminster in the Seventeenth Century, by Hollar
Visscher's Panoramic View of London, 1616. COLOR
c. 1690. View of London Churches, after the Great Fire
The Yard of the Tabard Inn from Thornbury, Old and New London




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