Motives to Motivate: Queen Elizabeth’s Speech at Tilbury

Queen Elizabeth I’s speech to the troops at Tilbury Camp before they were to take on the Spanish Armada is perhaps the moment of attainment of her enduring legacy. While some have doubted the authenticity of the recorded version of this famous oration, her mythical status endures, nonetheless. For centuries people from all walks of life, scholarly or otherwise, have been drawn to the character of Elizabeth, the self-entitled Virgin Queen. From an objective viewpoint, the famous words spoken by Elizabeth to rile the troops at Tilbury was simply that: a motivational speech; however, a closer look at the politics involved proves that Elizabeth’s words and gestures that day incited an unlikely victory not only over the Spanish but also over her English subjects.

Life for women in Elizabethan England was not one in which the female gender could easily be leveraged, even for the Queen herself. Elizabeth’s clever scheme to win the favor of her people, despite her gender (and her debated right to the throne as the so-called bastard child of Henry VIII), is truly one to marvel at. As John N. King writes in “Queen Elizabeth I: Representations of the Virgin Queen, “although Elizabeth I vowed herself to a life of perpetual virginity, she entered into a symbolic marriage with England as her husband” (30). The speech at Tilbury, which shocked her subjects by her candor in speech, let alone her presence on the adjacent battlefield, was the ultimate way to show her devotion to her symbolic spouse; here her promise to her country was ratified.

Elizabeth’s reasons for her vow of celibacy and virginity are much more complex than they might at first seem. As a woman Elizabeth was inevitably perceived as weak (King 30). Her chastity alone was not enough to gain her respect; this was dependent on her symbolic marriage to her country, which by the rejection of her personal interests, her kingdom became her absolute priority (King 30). As King describes in further detail, “her maidenly chastity was therefore interpreted not as a sign of political or social deficiency, but rather as a paradoxical symbol of the power of a woman who survived to govern…” (30). King goes on to note that it was in spite of the odds against her-- illegitimacy, female subordination, a patriarchal culture, her refusal to marry--her careful representation of herself convinced the people of her rightful place on the throne (30).

As we can see from the political circumstances that surrounded her placement on the English throne, Elizabeth’s speech at Tilbury, like all of her public appearances and orations, was carefully calculated for a specific purpose. While from representations we are given to the true nature of the Queen suggest that she truly was a passionate ruler of her people who desperately wanted a victory over the Spanish, not just for herself, but for her people, there was more at stake than an attempt to motivate the troops. This is not to undermine the importance of the battle--a shocking victory at sea that set the standard for the supremacy of the Royal Navy at a critical time in history. But when it comes to Elizabeth’s motives for appearing that day in front of her troops as they were about to take on the Spanish fleet, it is impossible to separate the victory in battle from her own victory as a legendary monarch who achieved the support of her subjects as a true and powerful leader.

Among Elizabeth’s noted talents was her command of speech, and her oration to the troops on August 9, 1588, was no exception. Janet M. Green describes Elizabeth’s educational background and knack for rhetoric in an article entitled “’I My Self’: Queen Elizabeth I’s Oration at Tilbury Camp.” It is true that Elizabeth received a very thorough education, but the ways she put it to use attests to her own natural-born intellect. Green notes all of the classic methods of rhetoric that Elizabeth crams into this rather short speech at Tilbury, and the brevity proves her mastery of words as they endure: “ 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…”(quoted in Green 443). Elizabeth’s presence there, both her physical attendance and the way she represented herself seem to have matched the words she spoke as her troops were to take on one of the most famous and unexpected victories in history.

In another article pertaining to Elizabeth’s gift of oration and rhetoric, Allison Heisch uses Elizabeth I as an example of the link between language and command. Heisch describes how “the ways in which Elizabeth explored and exercised her monarchal power and which rhetoric may become an instrument of power” (31). Heisch’s article suggests that in many ways, the “oratorical performance” that Elizabeth often gave was akin to an actor playing a role (35). This concept seems to ring true with respect to her speech at Tilbury as well as the parliamentary speeches that are the focus of Heisch’s study. Regardless of their difference in nature, the speech at Tilbury employed many of the same tactics Elizabeth so cunningly used as she addressed a parliament full of men. As Heisch writes, “[Elizabeth] was keenly aware that her greatest political disadvantage lay in the lamentable fact of her gender, and she was shrewd enough to understand that the liability could be manipulated to her advantage in a variety of ways” (35). The myriad ways in which Elizabeth turned her weakness into strength culminates by way of her Tilbury speech at one of the most decisive moments in English history and in her personal monarchal legacy: the undertaking of the Spanish Armada.

One of the most famous rejections of Elizabeth’s personal victory that day comes from Susan Frye in her article “The Myth of Elizabeth at Tilbury” in which the author rejects the records of the speech and believes it to be a myth. Frye pokes fun at the popular descriptions of Elizabeth that day: “A steel corset was found for her to wear and a helmet with white plumes was given to a page to carry. Bareheaded, the Queen mounted the white horse” (95). True this sounds like a fairy tale. It is also possible if not probable that details of the day have been altered to adhere to the legendary status history has given to Elizabeth; however, whatever details of clothing or her entrance on to the battlefield at Tilbury that may be embellished or fabricated, the myth of Elizabeth--as Frye calls it--lives on. A historical figure does not reach mythical status by being ordinary, and certainly, the records that endure pertaining to Queen Elizabeth I represent her as it seems she attempted to represent herself: as a monarch like no other. Frye insists that Elizabeth’s legendary status is simply that, a legend. But try as she might, Frye can not alter the fact that centuries of history have maintained that Elizabeth did indeed live up to be this larger than life character in a performance of her own making.

Other controversy pertaining to the authenticity of Queen Elizabeth I’s speech at Tilbury Camp stems from her own time and shortly thereafter. The cult of Elizabeth as the Virgin Queen was of course detested and refuted by the Catholic people of England who fought tirelessly against Elizabeth’s Protestant background. Those who wished to see her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scotts - who is perceived by historians to be a Catholic feminist, take the throne from under Elizabeth went as far as to plot several attempts at taking her life. Subsequently, the controversial beheading of Mary Queen of Scotts, only added fuel to the fire, so to speak, in the hatred of Elizabeth by some Catholics and political competitors with their own agendas. Attempts at undermining Elizabeth’s intelligence and remarkable wisdom portrayed through her speech at Tilbury are to be expected.

It is widely accepted that the idolization of Elizabeth went beyond typical flattery of a monarchal figure. Of course Elizabeth had her entourage, her ladies in waiting, and her admirers who wrote poems about her, but the level to which the adoration of Elizabeth reached is aptly called idolization. Written representations of the Virgin Queen are often exaggerated attempts of flattery, hyperbolic and likely untrue, but such was the trend during this height of English monarchal power. Frye makes an essential point about the idolization of Elizabeth calling it “political orthodoxy” (106). Frye explains, “Tilbury provided the ideal occasion to connect Elizabeth with the defeat of the Spanish and to assert the royal mythology that the Queen's chastity made her invulnerable to male threat”; furthermore, “Elizabeth's virtue was closely associated with the welfare of England throughout her reign” (106). This observation by Frye is echoed by Louis A. Montrose in his article, “Idols of the Queen: Policy, Gender, and the Picturing of Elizabeth I.” The Golden Age of Elizabethan England was indeed envisioned by those who lived under her reign as an inseparable image of their country’s prosperity with their idolized queen.

Elizabeth cannot be discredited for the defeat of the Spanish Armada, regardless of one’s opinion on the precise details of her speech that day. Given her capacity to tactfully gain the respect of her subjects, the details of the speech seem be perfectly in line with what we know of Elizabeth, given her skill in the art of rhetoric. Even the dramatic details of her armored corset and white horse are not out of the realm of possibility. While it is obvious that these details only bolster the notion that Elizabeth’s motives behind giving that famous speech at Tilbury were to fortify her position as devoted ruler of England, her alleged actions and words as her weak English defenses were about to take on the Spanish Armada are commendable as they are cunning. Elizabeth knew full well the impact she would have by the words she spoke, as is evident in all of her recorded correspondence and parliamentary speeches. Elizabeth believed in the power of language, rhetoric, and its impact on our perceived reality. Her address to the troops at Tilbury Camp not only riled the men, but it also maintained her status as the legitimate and loyal ruler of England and secured her legacy as one of the most popular and influential monarchs in English history.

Bibliography

Frye, Susan. “The Myth of Elizabeth at Tilbury.” The Sixteenth Century Journal. 23, No. 1 (1992: 95-114. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2542066

Green, Janet M. ""I My Self": Queen Elizabeth I's Oration at Tilbury Camp." The Sixteenth Century Journal. 28, no. 2 (1997): 421-445. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2543451 (accessed October 26, 2013).

Heisch, Allison. “Queen Elizabeth I: Parliamentary Rhetoric and the Exercise of Power” Signs 1, No. 1 (1975): 31-55. The University of Chicago Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3172965 .

King, John N. “Queen Elizabeth I: Representations of the Virgin Queen.” Renaissance Quarterly. 43, no. 2 (1990): 30-74. The University of Chicago Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2861792

Montrose, Louis A. “Idols of the Queen: Policy, Gender, and the Picturing of Elizabeth I.” Representations. 68 (1999): 108-161. University of California Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2902957