British Library: Elizabeth I’s manuscript draft of a speech on her marriage, 1563

This manuscript, in Elizabeth I’s own hand, is a draft version of a speech given to Parliament on 10 April 1563. The speech is a response to a petition from the House of Lords urging the Queen to marry and produce an heir. It is one of a number of speeches she wrote between 1559 and 1567 in response to continued pressure from Parliament to marry. Throughout these debates, Elizabeth reserved the right to choose who she would marry, and indeed whether or not she would marry at all. From the early 1580s she began to be represented as a perpetual Virgin Queen.
The text shows numerous corrections as Elizabeth carefully selected her words. The speech was delivered by the Lord Keeper Nicolas Bacon on behalf of the Queen, although she was present at the time. Another British Library manuscript (Add MS 32379, f. 21) has Nicolas Bacon’s fair copy of the speech with some variations from Elizabeth’s draft. Bacon’s copy is most likely to be the version delivered in Parliament.
This speech is tentative and ambiguous compared to some of her other speeches on the subject of marriage, which were often angry and insistent that subjects should not rule a monarch. In the insertion written sideways along the left of the page, Elizabeth seeks to pacify the Lords by admitting that, while celibacy is best for a private woman, ‘so do I strive with my selfe to thinke it not mete [appropriate] for a prinse’. She also closes the speech by saying that she hopes she will die peacefully, which can only happen if she sees a glimpse of their security after her death, i.e. by knowing that the succession has been secured. However, she doesn’t commit herself or completely relinquish her own power. While Elizabeth urges the Lords to put from their minds the idea that she is determined never to marry, she also insists on the importance of her own will: ‘if I can bend my wyl to your nide [need] I wyl not resist suche a mynde’. In other words, if she can make herself want what they want – for her to get married – then she will not resist the idea.  ... [mehr] https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/elizabeth-is-manuscript-draft-of-a-speech-on-her-marriage-1563