Elizabeth (1998) - Quotes

A Declaration of Loyalty and Affection

Dudley: For God's sake, you are still my Elizabeth.

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Marriage and Survival in Elizabeth's Reign

Elizabeth: I narrowly escaped with my life, sir. I cannot now discuss marriage.

Cecil: Forgive me...the one cannot be separated from the other.

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Understanding Women's Secrets Through Metaphor

Anjou: The Queen is very intimate with Lord Robert, no? With me she plays the shrew. With him the lover? Her life depends on the feelings of my heart, yes?

Monsieur de Foix: She is a woman, Sire. They say one thing but mean another. No man can unlock their secrets.

Anjou: (In French) Unless they have a very big key! Yes! A VERY BIG KEY!

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A Night for Love and Proposals

Elizabeth: Such piercing eyes! And very indiscreet!

Dudley: My true love has my heart and I have hers. My heart in me keeps her and me in one. My heart in her, her thoughts and senses guide. She loves my heart for once it was her own. I cherish hers because in me it bides. My true love has my heart and I have hers. Marry me.

Elizabeth: On a night such as this, could any woman say "no"?

Dudley: On a night such as this could a Queen say "no"?

Elizabeth: Does not a Queen sit under the same stars as any other woman?

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A Tense Exchange of Affections and Faith

Anjou: [In French; English Translation] Yes, I am Anjou, yes! I am Anjou. My God! She loves it! And I can't wait... Je le rêve du moment quand nous sommes nus ensemble au lit où je peux caresser votre cuisse et peut-être même votre quinny? Aimeriez-vous cela? I dream of the moment when we are naked together in bed where I can stroke your thigh and perhaps even your quinny? Hm? Would you like that?

Elizabeth: Remove your hand. Perhaps, Your Grace, we shall think on it, but I am deeply religious.

Anjou: But I am very religious, too. Very religious, yes!

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Conflict of Authority and Independence

Walsingham: I regret to inform Your Majesty of our miserable defeat in Scotland. The Bishops still demand Your Majesty's removal. They find support in every quarter. Alas, Madam, we are come already to catastrophe.

Elizabeth: How dare you come into my presence! Why do you follow me here?

Walsingham: It is my business to protect Your Majesty, against all things.

Elizabeth: I do not need protection. I need to be left alone!

Walsingham: Majesty...

Elizabeth: They should never have been sent to Scotland. My father would not have made such a mistake. I have been proved unfit to rule. That is what you all think, is it not, Walsingham?

Walsingham: It is not for me to judge you.

Elizabeth: Why did they send children? Why did they not send proper reinforcements?

Walsingham: The Bishops would not let them. They spoke against it in the pulpits.

Elizabeth: Then...they are speaking against their Queen.

Walsingham: Madam, the Bishops are against you and have no fear of you. They do not expect you to survive.

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Concerns About the Queen's Well-Being

Cecil: Does Her Majesty sleep?

Kat Ashley: Not yet, Sir William. She is... overwrought.

Cecil: I will need you to show me Her Majesty's sheets every morning. I must know all her proper functions.

Kat Ashley: Proper functions, My Lord?

Cecil: Indeed. Her Majesty's body and person are no longer her own property. They belong to the State.

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Concerns Over England's Vulnerability and Readiness

Cecil: Your Majesty has inherited a most parlous and degenerate state. It's threatened from abroad by France and Spain and is weaker in men, monies and riches than I have ever known it.

Elizabeth: What are you saying?

Cecil: Madam, your treasury is empty. The Navy is run-down, there is no standing army, and no munitions. There is not a fortress that could withstand a single shot.

Elizabeth: I have no desire for war, sir.

Cecil: But that is not the end of it. Apart from abroad, here at home there are those who wish Your Majesty ill. Mary of Scots has already laid claim to your throne, and Norfolk...Norfolk covets it relentlessly. Madam, until you marry and produce an heir, you will find no security.

Elizabeth: I do not see why a woman need marry at all.

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A Future Queen's Heartfelt Confession

Dudley: When you are Queen...

Elizabeth: I am not... I am not Queen yet.

Dudley: You will be. Elizabeth, Queen of England. A court to worship you. A country to obey you. Poems written celebrating your beauty. Music composed in your honour, and they will be nothing to you. I will mean nothing to you.

Elizabeth: (Laughs) How could you ever be nothing to me? Robert, you know you are everything to me.

Dudley: All that I am it is you.

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Marriage Expectations in Elizabethan Politics

Elizabeth: He then said that this King would marry me but would not expect to share my bed more than two or three times a year.

Dudley: As much as that?

Elizabeth: Well, he...he is enraptured.

Dudley: Naturally.

Elizabeth: But... his affairs would otherwise keep him in Spain.

Dudley: Then the King is a fool. What could ever be important enough to keep him from your bed?

Elizabeth: Robert, you should not say such things.

Dudley: Then I shall only think them.

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A Conversation on Beauty and Worth

Isabel Knollys: No, my lord.

Dudley: Then you should be, or waste all that beauty.

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Tensions Rise Over Religious Conflict in England

Servant: Your Grace, Protestants are already returning from abroad.

Norfolk: Yes. And have made plans to massacre every Catholic in England. There would be butchery indeed if such a plan were even conceivable.

Norfolk's Man: They say Walsingham will return from France.

Norfolk: Walsingham is nothing! (to servant) Be sure he does not.

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Conflicted Loyalties and Familial Tensions

Mary: When I look at you I see nothing of the King. Only that whore, your mother. My father never did anything so well as to cut off her head.

Elizabeth: Your Majesty forgets he was also my father.

Mary: Why will you not confess your crimes against me?

Elizabeth: Because, Your Majesty, I have committed none.

Mary: You speak with such sincerity! I see you are still a consummate actress. My husband is gone. They have poisoned my child. They say it is a tumour.

Elizabeth: Madam, you are not well.

Mary: They say this cancer will make you Queen, but they are wrong! Look there! It is your death warrant. All I need do is sign it.

Elizabeth: Mary, if you sign that paper, you will be murdering your own sister.

Mary: You will promise me something? When I am gone, you will do everything in your power to uphold the Catholic faith. Do not take away from the people the consolations of the Blessed Virgin.

Elizabeth: When I am Queen...I promise...to act as my conscience dictates.

Mary: Well, do not think to be Queen at all, then. You may return to your own house at Hatfield, but you will remain there under arrest until I am recovered.

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A Moment of Unlikely Kindness

Arundel: Madam, you are cold.

Elizabeth: I do not need your pity.

Arundel: Accept it, then, for my sake.

Elizabeth: Thank you. I shall not forget this kindness.

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Belief and Heresy in Elizabethan Politics

Elizabeth: We all believe in God, my Lords.

Lord Howard: No, Madam, there is only one true belief; the other, heresy.

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Reflections on Beauty and Innocence

Walsingham: There is so little beauty in this world, and so much suffering. Do you suppose that is what God had in mind? That is to say if there is a god at all. Perhaps there is nothing in this universe but ourselves. And our thoughts.

Walsingham: Think before you do this. If you must do it, do it now and without regret. But first think, and be certain why it needs to be done.

Walsingham: Come here. Look out there. There is a whole world waiting for you. Innocence is the most precious thing you possess. Lose that and you lose your soul.

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Tensions Over Loyalty and Leadership in Elizabethan England

Sir Robert Dudley: [to Elizabeth] Remember who you are. Do not be afraid of them.

Norfolk: [about Elizabeth] She is just a child and yet still you piss yourselves!

Norfolk: [to Mary, on her deathbed, as she refuses to sign a warrant for Elizabeth's execution] Will you leave your kingdom to a heretic?

Arundel: War is a sin, but sometimes, a necessary one.

De la Quadra: [to Dudley] My lord, what will a man not do for love?

Duc d'Anjou: [in French] Elizabeth is a witch...a witch...and her servant is the devil!

Mary of Guise: [in French, to herself; turns to her officer] Go back to England, and take this to your Queen. Hm? English blood on French colors. Send him back to his Queen, and make sure he remains alive. Tell that bastard Queen not to send children to fight Mary of Guise!

Sir William Cecil: He is a traitor, and his father before him. Lord Robert's head will end up on a spike, not on the pillow of a Queen.

The Dead Hold No Titles

Sir Francis Walsingham: [[To Norfolk] ] The dead have no titles.

Questioning the Nature of God

Sir Francis Walsingham: [to a priest he is having tortured] Tell me, what is God to you? Has he abandoned you? Is he such a worldly god that he must play at politics in the filth of conspiracy? Is he not divine? Tell me the truth, as if you were face to face with him now. I'm a patient man, Father.

Ruthlessness in Leadership and Statecraft

Sir Francis Walsingham: [to Elizabeth] Madam, if I may. A prince should never flinch from being blamed for acts of ruthlessness which are necessary for safeguarding the state and their own person. You must take these things so much to heart that you do not fear to strike. Even the very nearest that you have if they be implicated.

Caution in Leadership and Decision-Making

Sir Francis Walsingham: I say a prince should rather be slow to take action and should watch that he does not come to be afraid of his own shadow.

Marriage to England: A Royal Commitment

Elizabeth: Observe, Lord Burghley, I am married...to England.

A Transformation of Identity and Purity

Elizabeth: Kat...I have become a virgin.

Confession Under Duress

Elizabeth: A man will confess to anything...under torture.

End of Marriage Discussions

Elizabeth: There will be no more talk of marriage.

Divine Providence and Its Marvelous Impact

Elizabeth: This is the Lord's doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes.

The Weight of Responsibility on Conscience

Elizabeth: Each of you must vote according to your conscience. But remember this. In your hands, upon this moment, lies the future happiness of my people, and the peace of this realm. Let that be upon your conscience also.

Addressing Hypocrisy in Personal Relationships

Elizabeth: [on marriage; Opposing ministers laugh uproariously] I do not think you should lecture me on that my lord, since you yourself have been twice divorced. And are now upon your third wife!.

Choosing a Husband: Elizabeth's Dilemma

Elizabeth: Aye, but marry who, your grace? Would you give me some suggestion? For some say France and others Spain, and some cannot abide foreigners at all. So I am not sure how best to please you unless I married one of each.