Kings’ Stomachs and Concrete Elephants: Gendering Elizabeth I through the Tilbury Speech

Abstract

Elizabeth I’s speech to the troops at Tilbury is arguably her most famous. The well-known line—“I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king”—is routinely included in cinematic and televisual depictions of Elizabeth’s reign. The speech, however, is seldom depicted in adaptations as it survives. This article argues that the depiction of the Tilbury speech reflects the way that Elizabeth’s gender is conceived of in the relevant adaptation, contending that the speech shows how writers have grappled with Elizabeth’s incongruous position as a female king. In analysing the depiction of the Tilbury speech in the films Fire Over England (1937) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), and in the television series Blackadder II (1986) and Mapp and Lucia (2014), this article concludes that while writers seem to have little issue with Elizabeth declaring that she has “the body of a weak and feeble woman,” they seem to stumble on her follow-up declaration that she has “the heart and stomach of a king.”

Keywords

• elizabeth i
• gender
• adaptation
• history
• tilbury speech
• spanish armada