Ethos In Queen Elizabeth's Speech

The English Queen Elizabeth’s reign was full of challenges. Not only did she have to unify a religiously divided kingdom, but she also had to protect herself from the assassination attempts encouraged by the Pope. The Spanish Armada undertook such an attempt in 1588. She recruited an army full of people against her because she was a woman, she was illegitimate, she was protestant and she was not married. However, she needed them to protect her and her protestant realm. With the expressed purpose of mobilizing her troops, Queen Elizabeth uses pathos, ethos and logos, attempting to build a personal connection with and to encourage her people, while subtly asserting her dominance and ultimately helping them to see the necessity of fighting against

She transitions by saying she will fight with them, justifying herself because she has “the heart and stomach of a king.” Here she explains their duty to her and that she is their “general, judge or reward” for what they do in battle. Now they must protect her not only because she trusts them but because they will be rewarded if they fight with her and judged if they fight against her. She loves them but she is also superior because, as she emphasized, she has “royal blood”. Therefore she deserves their honor and protection as any king

Elisabeth the first probably wrote this speech because she knew that some of her men had no faith in her and in their chances at winning against the Spanish armada. The queen tries to abridge a link between her and her troops, and tries to show them that she worth of their trust and will eventually reward them for defending her. thus it can be deducted that if it wasn’t for the Queen’s speech the battle might have turned out to be very different and the Spanish might have win. Therefore Elisabeth was able to use Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to make a well rouded and very convincing speech for her