The version that is most widely considered to be authentic was found in a letter from Leonel Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham.[1] Sharp had been attached to the Earl of Leicester at Tilbury during the threatened invasion of the Armada and he later became chaplain to Buckingham.[1] Sharp wrote: "The queen the next morning rode through all the squadrons of her army as armed Pallas attended by noble footmen, Leicester, Essex, and Norris, then lord marshal, and divers other great lords. Where she made an excellent oration to her army, which the next day after her departure, I was commanded to redeliver all the army together, to keep a public fast".[1] He also claimed: "No man hath it but myself, and such as I have given it to".[1] It was published in 1654 in a collection titled Cabala, Mysteries of State. (pp.372-374)[2][1] A late sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century copy of this speech (with minor variants to the published version) exists in the Harleian Collection of the British Library.[1][3]
My loving people.
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.
I know I have the body but of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.
I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.
Authenticity
The speech's veracity was accepted by the historian J. E. Neale in an article, 'The Sayings of Queen Elizabeth': "I see no serious reason for rejecting the speech. ... some of the phrases have every appearance of being the Queen's, and the whole tone of the speech is surely very much in keeping even with the few Elizabethan quotations that I have had room for in this article. ... I have little doubt that Sharp's version is a copy, at two or three removes, of a speech actually written by Elizabeth herself".[4] The speech has been accepted as genuine by the historians Mandell Creighton,[5] Garrett Mattingly,[6] Patrick Collinson ("...there is no reason to doubt its authenticity"),[7] Wallace T. MacCaffrey,[8] Lady Anne Somerset,[9] Antonia Fraser,[10] Alison Weir,[11] Christopher Haigh,[12] Simon Schama,[13] David Starkey[14] and Robert Hutchinson.[15]
Janet M. Green of Kent State University in an article for the Sixteenth Century Journal in 1997 states that "substantial evidence exists for believing the Tilbury oration is genuine, which falls into three categories: First, internal rhetorical characteristics link this oration very strongly to Elizabeth's others. Second, there is considerable contemporary evidence that she delivered a speech at Tilbury whose phrases, often remarked, were like those of the speech we have.... The internal evidence of the Tilbury oration provides the best argument for Elizabeth's authorship".[16]
David Loades has written: "Whether she used these words, we do not know, although they have an authentic, theatrical ring".[17]
However, there are some historians who question its authenticity, such as Miller Christy, in 1919.[18] Also sceptical were Felix Barker[19] and Susan Frye.[20]
