Speech Before the Spanish Armada Invasion

(Speech by Queen Elizabeth I)

KEY IDEA During the Renaissance, a nation’s leaders did not have to run for office. However, both Sir Thomas More and Elizabeth I suggest that even kings and queens must demonstrate effective leadership to win the support of their people.

Before Reading: Meet Sir Thomas More (1478–1535) and Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603)

Sir Thomas More was uncommonly gifted. He became a powerful statesman and—400 years after his death—a saint. More was also considered one of the greatest lawyers and scholars of his day.

A Utopian VisionBorn in London in 1478, More entered Parliament when he was 26. His experience in the political world convinced him that the time was ripe for change. In 1516, More wrote Utopia, a fictional work in which he enumerates the political, economic, and social problems afflicting 16th-century Europe. He also describes an ideal state ruled by reason.

A Fatal Falling OutThe publication of Utopia thrust More into the spotlight, and in 1517 he joined King Henry VIII’s council. Twelve years later, Henry appointed More lord chancellor. However, a rift soon developed between More and Henry over the king’s desire to break England’s ties with the Roman Catholic Church. In 1534, More refused to approve legislation that would install Henry as head of the Church of England. More was tried and found guilty of treason. His final words as he stood before the executioner were, “The King’s good servant, but God’s first.”

On the day Elizabeth I was crowned, crowds cheered as she was carried through the streets. It was an auspicious beginning to her 45-year reign as queen of England.

Stark BeginningThe daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth probably had a lonely childhood. Her father was deeply disappointed that his wife hadn’t produced a male heir. Two years after Elizabeth’s birth, he had her mother executed on charges of treason.

Despite his bitterness at not having a son, Henry provided Elizabeth with an excellent education normally given only to boys. This education would prove invaluable when she became queen.

Glorious ReignElizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558. Her reign was a time of great prosperity and artistic achievement. Elizabeth also proved to be a shrewd politician and orator. In 1588, when a fleet of Spanish ships known as the Spanish Armada was preparing to invade

England, Elizabeth delivered an inspiring speech to her soldiers. Despite having fewer ships and soldiers, the English fleet defeated the Armada.

While Reading

Literary analysis: rhetorical devices

Both Sir Thomas More and Elizabeth I use rhetorical devices— techniques that communicate their ideas and strengthen their arguments. As you read, pay attention to their use of the following techniques:

• An analogyis a comparison made between two dissimilar things in order to explain an unfamiliar subject in terms of a familiar one. For example, More compares a bad ruler to an incompetent physician who cannot cure a disease except by creating another.

• Repetitionis the repeated use of a word or phrase. For example, Elizabeth I repeats the phrase “I myself” to emphasize her personal involvement in England’s defense.

• A rhetorical questionis a question to which no answer is expected. (Who is more eager for revolution than he who is discontented with his present state of life?)

• Antithesisexpresses contrasting ideas in parallel grammatical structures. (I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king. . . .)

Reading skill: draw conclusions

When you draw conclusionsabout a text, you make judgments based on statements in the text. For example, if a writer often criticizes corruption in public officials, you might conclude that the writer values honesty and integrity. As you read the following selections, note main ideas and supporting details that help you draw conclusions about Thomas More’s and Queen Elizabeth’s views of the proper role of a ruler.

from Utopia

Suppose I should show that men choose a king for their own sake and not for his—to be plain, that by his labor and effort they may live well and safe from injustice and wrong. For this very reason, it belongs to the king to take more care for the welfare of his people than for his own, just as it is the duty of a shepherd, insofar as he is a shepherd, to feed his sheep rather than himself[103]. The blunt facts reveal that it is wrong to think that the poverty of the people is the safeguard of peace. Where will you find more quarreling than among beggars? Who is more eager for revolution than he who is discontented with his present state of life? Who is more reckless in the endeavor to upset everything, in the hope of getting profit from some source or other, than he who has nothing to lose? Now if there were any king who was either so despicable or so hateful to his subjects that he could not keep them in subjectionotherwise than by ill usage, plundering, and confiscation and by reducing them to beggary, it would surely be better for him to resign his throne than to keep it by such means—means by which, though he retain the name of authority, he loses its majesty. It is not consistent with the dignity of a king to exercise authority over beggars but over prosperous and happy subjects. This was certainly the sentiment of that noble and lofty spirit, Fabricus, who replied that he would rather be a ruler of rich people than be rich himself. To be sure, to have a single person enjoy a life of pleasure and self-indulgence amid the groans and lamentationsof all around him is to be the keeper, not of a kingdom, but of a jail. In fine, as he is an incompetent physician who cannot cure one disease except by creating another, so he who cannot reform the lives of citizens in any other way than by depriving them of the good things of life must admit that he does not know how to rule free men. Yea, the king had better amend his own indolence or arrogance, for these two vices generally cause his people to either despise him or to hate him. Let him live harmlessly on what is his own. Let him adjust his expenses to his revenues. Let him check mischief and crime, and, by training his subjects rightly, let him prevent rather than allow the spread of activities which he will have to punish afterwards. Let him not be hasty in enforcing laws fallen into disuse, especially those which, long given up have never been missed. Let him never take in compensation for violation anything that a private person would be forbidden in court to appropriate for the reason that such would be an act of crooked craftiness[104].

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 2076