The Intersection of Gender, Religion, and Nationalism in Queen Elizabeth's Speech at Tilbury Yi Fei (Fiona) Chen 12th Grade

I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm: to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

Through Queen Elizabeth I’s belligerent anti-narcissistic rhetoric addressed to the troops at Tilbury in 1588 as they prepared to repel the Spanish Armada, the Queen effectively establishes the idea that the political mind and natural body were separate entities in exploring the speech’s thematic concerns of gender, religion and nationalism. By drawing upon the speech’s context of the Elizabethan period, it is evident that the orthodoxical role of female arising from gender inequalities exemplify the inferior role women serve and women’s struggle for recognition across time and place.

Queen Elizabeth effectively address the existence of the mind and body dualism by virtue of dismissing of the body in her masculine gender performance, although inevitably, her female form continues to challenge her credibility....