Elizabeth quotes

View Quote Anjou: The Queen is very intimate with Lord Robert, no? With me she plays the shrew. With him the lover? Her life depends on the feelings of my heart, yes?
Monsieur de Foix: She is a woman, Sire. They say one thing but mean another. No man can unlock their secrets.
Anjou: (In French) Unless they have a very big key! Yes! A VERY BIG KEY!

View Quote Anjou: Yes, I am Anjou, yes! I am Anjou. My God! She loves it! And I can't wait... [In French] Je le rêve du moment quand nous sommes nus ensemble au lit où je peux caresser votre cuisse et peut-être même votre quinny? Aimeriez-vous cela? [English Translation] I dream of the moment when we are naked together in bed where I can stroke your thigh and perhaps even your quinny? Hm? Would you like that?
Elizabeth: Remove your hand. Perhaps, Your Grace, we shall think on it, but I am deeply religious.
Anjou: But I am very religious, too. Very religious, yes!

View Quote Arundel: Madam, you are cold.
Elizabeth: I do not need your pity.
Arundel: Accept it, then, for my sake.
Elizabeth: Thank you. I shall not forget this kindness.

View Quote Cecil: Does Her Majesty sleep?
Kat Ashley: Not yet, Sir William. She is... overwrought.
Cecil: I will need you to show me Her Majesty's sheets every morning. I must know all her proper functions.
Kat Ashley: Proper functions, My Lord?
Cecil: Indeed. Her Majesty's body and person are no longer her own property. They belong to the State.

View Quote Cecil: Your Majesty has inherited a most parlous and degenerate state. It's threatened from abroad by France and Spain and is weaker in men, monies and riches than I have ever known it.
Elizabeth: What are you saying?
Cecil: Madam, your treasury is empty. The Navy is run-down, there is no standing army, and no munitions. There is not a fortress that could withstand a single shot.
Elizabeth: I have no desire for war, sir.
Cecil: But that is not the end of it. Apart from abroad, here at home there are those who wish Your Majesty ill. Mary of Scots has already laid claim to your throne, and Norfolk...Norfolk covets it relentlessly. Madam, until you marry and produce an heir, you will find no security.
...
Elizabeth: I do not see why a woman need marry at all.

View Quote Cecil: Your Majesty must publicly dissociate herself from this most bloody act.
Elizabeth: I never ordered it.
Cecil: Of course, Madam, of course. You must also make conciliatory gestures towards the Spanish. Your dependence upon their goodwill is greater than ever.
Elizabeth: I must... The word "must" is not used to princes. I have followed your advice in all the affairs of my kingdom, but your policies would make England nothing but part of France or Spain. From this moment I am going to follow my own opinion.
Cecil: Forgive me, Madam, but you are only a woman.
Elizabeth: I may be a woman, Sir William, but if I choose I have the heart of a man! I am my father's daughter. I am not afraid of anything.
Cecil: I... I deeply regret, Madam, if I have caused you such offence, though God knows all my advice has only ever been to secure Your Majesty's throne.
Elizabeth: And I am grateful for it. I have decided to create you Lord Burghley, so you may enjoy your retirement in greater ease.

View Quote Dudley: You blush, Lady Knollys. Are you in love?
Isabel Knollys: No, my lord.
Dudley: Then you should be, or waste all that beauty.

View Quote Dudley: For God's sake, you are still my Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: I am not your Elizabeth! I am no man's Elizabeth. And if you think to rule here, you are mistaken. I will have one mistress here... and no master!

View Quote Dudley: It matters nothing to me. I can live without her most happily. Better than I could live with her. I have no need of her love. Have I not suffered enough already for loving her and showing it?
Anjou: I envy you, my Lord. To love a woman so deeply.
Dudley: Monseigneur... envy no man for that. Such love is hateful. It tears the soul apart. Envy a man who has never known such love.

View Quote Dudley: When you are Queen...
Elizabeth: I am not... I am not Queen yet.
Dudley: You will be. Elizabeth, Queen of England. A court to worship you. A country to obey you. Poems written celebrating your beauty. Music composed in your honour, and they will be nothing to you. I will mean nothing to you.
Elizabeth: (Laughs) How could you ever be nothing to me? Robert, you know you are everything to me.
Dudley: All that I am it is you.

View Quote Dudley: You are in the greatest danger. You must believe me. But you have a friend. Someone who can guarantee your safety and your throne.
Elizabeth: A friend?
Dudley: The King of Spain.
Elizabeth: [to her servants] Leave us. [to Dudley] How would he guarantee it?
Dudley: He would marry you.
Elizabeth: Only to make an alliance. Nothing more. He would not expect to...
Dudley: He would live in Spain.
Elizabeth: Why do you do this, Robert?
Dudley: Because I love you. And though you will not see me, I am the only one who would care for you.
Elizabeth: You love me so much you would have me be your whore?
Dudley: For God's sake, I do this for us. I ask you to save some part of us!
Elizabeth: Lord Robert, you may make whores of my Ladies but you shall not make one of me.

View Quote Dudley: Your Majesty...
Elizabeth: They are all gone to the Tower. Your friends. Tell me, how should I serve thee, Robert?
Dudley: My course is run.
Elizabeth: Just tell me why.
Dudley: Why? Madam, is it not plain enough to you? It is no easy thing to be loved by the Queen. It would corrupt the soul of any man. Now, for God's sake, kill me.
Elizabeth: No...I think rather to let you live.
Walsingham: Madam, that is not wise. Lord Robert has committed treason. He must be made example of.
Elizabeth: And I will make an example of him. He shall be kept alive to always remind me of how close I came to danger.

View Quote Elizabeth: He then said that this King would marry me but would not expect to share my bed more than two or three times a year.
Dudley: As much as that?
Elizabeth: Well, he...he is enraptured.
Dudley: Naturally.
Elizabeth: But... his affairs would otherwise keep him in Spain.
Dudley: Then the King is a fool. What could ever be important enough to keep him from your bed?
Elizabeth: Robert, you should not say such things.
Dudley: Then I shall only think them.

View Quote Elizabeth: I have rid England of her enemies. What do I do now? Am I to be made of stone? Must I be touched by nothing?
Walsingham: Aye, Madam, to reign supreme. All men need something greater than themselves to look up to and worship. They must be able to touch the divine here on earth.

View Quote Elizabeth: I narrowly escaped with my life, sir. I cannot now discuss marriage.
Cecil: Forgive me...the one cannot be separated from the other.