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Queen Elizabeth I: If you can't read my silence, you're nothing.
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Queen Elizabeth I: What in God's name do we have in common with the Dutch?
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Our religion, ma'am!
Queen Elizabeth I: The Dutch have no religion, they have cheese.
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Queen Elizabeth I: I know that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King! And a King of England, too!
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Queen Elizabeth I: A man can be a good Catholic and a good Englishman.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Not at the same time, Ma'am.
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William Cecil, Lord Burghley: The bloody and deceitful man shall not live out half his days.
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[last lines]
Queen Elizabeth I: Fetch me a priest, girl. I'm minded to die.
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[talking about Sir Francis Bacon]
Queen Elizabeth I: Bacon, people who compliment me on my breasts, even in Latin, run the risk of being thought impertinent.
[to Essex]
Queen Elizabeth I: We understand he's fond of the company of pretty youths. No wonder he's the Member for *Middlesex*!
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Queen Elizabeth I: I lack the assurance of youth. I question everything.
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Sir Francis Walsingham: I think the French make better acquaintances than friends.
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[Elizabeth is visiting Mary Stuart secretly]
Mary Queen of Scots: You were not announced.
Queen Elizabeth I: I am not here.
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Queen Elizabeth I: Princes never cheat at cards. They simply have the rules altered to suit their needs.
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William Cecil, Lord Burghley: For 19 years, Your Majesty, this council has implored you to secure your succession by marriage. You have refused all suitors, but now...
Queen Elizabeth I: I do not say I will not marry, Lord Burghley. The question before us is whom.
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Queen Elizabeth I: Oh Robin, I'm set about by enemies and I know not who to trust.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Well not France, I beg you.
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Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: [to Elizabeth] What do you imagine Monsieur will do with me after he has your hand?
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: [faking a French accent] Shall I be Catholic?
[stronger French accent]
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Shall we all be Catholic?
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Queen Elizabeth I: [to Leicester] The only thing that will kiss in this affair are lawyers pens and lawyers papers.
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Queen Elizabeth I: Great things hang on a kiss, Robin, when princes are involved...
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[Elizabeth is going to visit Mary Stuart at Fotheringay Castle]
Queen Elizabeth I: I understand she's grown very fat. Well, she's had nothing to do but eat and sleep.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: And plot, Your Majesty.
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Queen Elizabeth I: Come ladies, we are going to watch the Earl of Essex at his favourite pastime, which is trying to kill people.
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[Signing Mary's death-warrant]
Queen Elizabeth I: I want to hear no more of this... but someone is to give me an account of it when it is done.
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Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Her favour changes with her moods, for she is a woman. But if you love her, love her constancy, for it is there.
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Executioner: Pardon me.
Mary Queen of Scots: I hope that you shall make an end of all my troubles.
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Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: This marriage will not go. Her heart will be broken.
[to Burleigh]
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Not yours.
[to Walsingham]
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Or his, if he had one!
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Queen Elizabeth I: I will die at a time of my own choosing, and not before.
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Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex: How can I read when you look at me like that?
Queen Elizabeth I: How do I look at you?
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex: As if you are deciding whether to eat me.
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Queen Elizabeth I: The hardest thing to govern is the heart.
Elizabeth I Quotes
Extended Reading
