QUEEN ELIZABETH I IN HER PARIAMENTARY ROBES, WIKIPEDIA
A 16th c. manuscript of an important speech by Queen Elizabeth I
And Selections referring to it from The Journals of All the Parliaments During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Both of the House of Lords and House of Commons.
Copyright 2021 YNF
The Journals of the House of Lords and House of Commons
These are the central record of business in both Houses of Parliament, in which decisions taken by either House were formally recorded. There are important differences between the journals of either House: the most noticeable is the fact that the Lords records at the beginning of each day’s proceedings those who attended on that day; the Commons Journal does not.
Published 1682, first edition. First edition of the "beau-deal of an antiquary" Simond D'Ewes' "great work on the parliamentary history of Elizabeth's reign" and still the most valuable source on her parliaments; with the marvelous frontispiece depicting Elizabeth in Parliament. Complete with the final integral advert leaf, often missing.
Format: Folio, Contemporary Brown leather with leather spine label, Dewes Journal 1558-1601. pp. 12+689+18.The book measures 14 3/4" by 9 1/2" by 2 1/2".
Dear Mr Lindall
Thanks for your enquiry. I have consulted a colleague who is an expert in this area and he has responded:
It is printed in D’Ewes, as indicated, and in T.E. Hartley’s Proceedings in the Parliaments of Elizabeth I, ii, 31-32. What’s shown is only about half the speech – presumably it continues on the verso of this but it isn’t very clear. In no sense can it be called an ‘official parliamentary copy’. There would be no official text in 1585 – I think the first speech of this nature that was actually published was that of 1601, and the text in D’Ewes is probably not ‘official’: Hartley suggests that it was copied from a copy belonging to the historian John Stow, rather than taken from the journal. Documents like this circulated in multiple copies, usually passed from collector to collector. This speech exists in at least five copies in the British Library, one in the Bodleian, one in Cambridge University Library and one in the Scottish Record Office. The endorsement is interesting in that it tells you who lent the endorser the copy. It seems to say Mr Cotes or Coles.
I hope this is helpful., David Prior Head of Public Services and Outreach Parliamentary Archives, Houses of Parliament, Westminster, London SW1A 0PW
In the speech Elizabeth I gives a trenchant warning to Parliament about religion, very likely on Catholicism: “One thing I may not overskip. Religion, the ground on which all other matters ought to take root, and, being corrupted, may mar all the tree. And that there be some fault-finders with the order of the clergy, which so may make a slander to myself, and to the church, whose over-ruler God hath made me, whose negligence cannot be excused, if any schisms or errors heretical were suffered. Thus much I must say, that some faults and negligences must grow and be, as in all other great charges it happeneth; and what vocation without? All which, if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, I mean to depose you. Look ye, therefore, well to your charges.”.
ELIZABETH I GIVES A TRENCHANT WARNING TO PARLIAMENT ABOUT RELIGION THE SAME YEAR AN ACT WAS PASSED THAT OUTLAWED ORDAINED CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN ENGLAND
Elizabeth I persecuted Catholics and approved measures that outlawed Catholicism during her long reign. The same year the present speech was given, “An act against Jesuits and seminary priests” was passed which made it treason for any Catholic priest ordained abroad after 1559 to come into or remain in England and a felony for anyone to shelter or assist such a priest, treason and felony were both punishable by death. This action consolidated English society and made it possible over the following centuries to create the greatest empire the world has ever seen.
The writing is in “secretarial hand,” most commonly used at court during the Elizabethan period. This writing style is the direct precursor to our modern handwriting.
On the next page is a 16 th C. original MANUSCRIPT OF AN IMPORTANT SPEECH THAT QUEEN ELIZABETH I GAVE BEFORE THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT ON MARCH 29, 1585 in the collection of the Yuko Nii Foundation.
Note on back of manuscript
Selections from The Journals of All the Parliaments
During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Both of the House of Lords and House of Commons. Published 1682, first edition.
The following a re pages 327-329 of the journal, which chronicles the foregoing speech by Queen Elizabeth I on March 29, 1585.
In 1586 Anthony Babington and John Ballard (a Jesuit priest) were involved in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and replace her with Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. The plot was discovered by Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s spymaster, and they were hung, drawn and quartered. Mary was beheaded in 1587.
This is a wax seal of Queen Elizabeth I in the Yuko Nii Foundation Collection, the size a plate, showing Elizabeth on a horse. It is remarkably well preserved!
The seal was designed by Nicolas Hilliard, 1547-1619
Bellow is part of a manuscript document in the Folger Shakespeare Library with remarkably similar handwriting in “secretarial hand.”
“The!documents!were!written!between!with!a!goose>quill!pen!and! an!iron!gall!or!carbon based!ink.!Iron!gall!ink!was!made!up!from! galls!(usually!oak>galls).
Above Testament of William Shakespeare in “secretarial hand.” , National Archives
Below letter from Elizabeth to Robert Dudley in “secretarial hand.”, National Archives
