Queen Elizabeth I: Speech to the Troops at Tilbury

A Student’s Guide to Essential Primary Sources
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Queen Elizabeth I:Speech to the Troops at Tilbury
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Abstract

In 1587, Queen Elizabeth I of England was faced with a predicament. She had been confronted with irrefutable evidence that her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, had been plotting her assassination, and Mary had been found guilty and sentenced to death by a special thirty-six-commissioner court. After much hesitation, Elizabeth signed the order of execution, though fearful that King Philip II of Spain could use it as a pretext for war \against England. This indeed occurred. Spain was at this time the leading military power in Europe, and by May of 1588, Philip had assembled a massive invasion force of 122 warships, which was dubbed the Armada Invincible (or Spanish Armada).

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