Speech to the Troops at Tilbury

The way Elizabeth addresses her gender in this speech is one of its most important aspects. Although she is a rare woman in a position of power, she never argues that women are equal to men. Instead, her argument is that despite being a woman, she still has royal blood; she is her father’s daughter, and her bloodlines are what allow her to reign. She does this by contrasting her female body, admitting (as her contemporaries would agree) that it is “weak and feeble” (Paragraph 4), with her masculine and royal interior, which she says contains both the care and mettle to rule effectively.

Though the above remark is Elizabeth’s only explicit mention of her sex, gendered imagery pervades the following lines. Having drawn attention to her womanhood, Elizabeth’s remark about a “prince of Europe […] dar[ing] to invade the borders of [her] realm” hints at sexual assault (Paragraph 4). Her determination to avoid “dishonour” underscores the connotation, as Elizabeth’s society viewed the loss of virginity out of wedlock—even by rape—as a permanent stain on a woman’s character. By invoking her vulnerability to rape, Elizabeth balances her earlier claims to masculinity; she is masculine enough to rule (even in wartime) but not so masculine as to destabilize gender norms.