Elizabeth I's 'Golden Speech' to Parliament

Short clip on Elizabeth's last speech to Parliament made in November 1601. It became known as the 'Golden Speech', one of her most notable speeches along with the infamous words she spoke at Tilbury in 1588.

She concluded her speech by saying:

"The cares and trouble of a Crowne I cannnot more fitly resemble then to the Drugges of a learned Physitian, perfumed with some Aromaticall sauour, or to bitter Pils guilded ouer, by which they are made more exceeptable or lesse offensiue, which indeed are bitter and vnpleasant to take; and for my owne part, were it not for Conscience sake to discharge the dutie that God hath layd vpon me, and to maintaine his glorie, and keepe you in safetie; in mine owne disposition I should be willing to resigne the place I hold to any other, and glad to be freed of the Glory with the Labors, for it is not my desire to liue nor to reign longer then my life and reigne shall bee for your good. And though you haue had and may haue many mightier and wiser Princes sitting in this Seat, yet you neuer had nor shall haue any that will loue you better.

Thus Mr. Speaker, I commend mee to your loyall Loues, and yours to my best care and your further Councels, & I pray you Mr. Controullor, & Mr. Secretary, and you of my councell, that before these Gentlemen depart into their Countreys you bring them all to kisse my Hand."

The speech itself is rather long so I won't post it all -- the entire speech can be found here:

http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/eliz1.html

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Elizabeth
• Tudor
• Golden
• Speech
• Parliament
• November
• 1601
• taxes

[caleb700]

Great Video

Elizabeth was an amazing queen

thanks for posting'

i love british history.

[bogdyi89]

Long live Her Sovereign Majesty !!

[chocogenie]

@misshattie81 David Starkey I think :)

[misshattie81]

I love this guy and all of the videos he does! What is his name? Thank you for posting!!

[rog5762]

'and though you have had and may have many mightier princess sitting in this seat,you will never have or shall have any that will love you better'...This is so true even today...God rest her soul in the Kingdom of GOD.

If there was time travel..the point in time i would pick to go is the LAST few moments of Elizabeth..giving her the blessing of GOD at her side.The funeral must've been an astounding and overwhelming event.The LAST real RULER of England.

[TheIcelandicPatriot]

@nidalamda you got to be joking? she's horrible. 

[OWTS1885]

Starkey has a great knowledge of history but has sold his soul...

[lichtbroeder]

@nidalamda Glenda Jackson was excellent as Elizabeth, but so was Helen Mirren.

[KateFan]

@rlk1504 It's simply called "David Starkeys' Elizabeth". It was originally a documentary series on the UK's minor Channel 4, although it has been repeated by others including the History Channel AFAIK. Whats remarkable is that it received surprisingly high ratings, beating some of the "big" programmes on the major channels which caused quite a stir at the time. It's available on DVD from Amazon and possibly elsewhere, it's where I bought my copy from.

[joeyNskye]

@rlk1504 - the documentary is Elizabeth I and is a four part BBC documentary. The narrator is David Starkey, a leading name in Tudor history, and is in four parts, documenting different stages of Elizabeth's life and reign.

[rlk1504]

I have a question: does anyone know the title of the documentary, or who made it or who is the narrator....or something about it??? please, it's important. thank you

[coconutgrove8]

I find it a little ironic that the Britain in the 1600's was investigating monopolies, but it took the united states 300 years later to do the same...way to learn from history U.S