He Who Placed Me In This Seat

It Is Good To Jest, But Not To Make A Trade Of Jesting.

Though God Hath Raised Me High, Yet This I Count The Glory Of My Crown: That I Have Reigned With Your Loves.

As For My Own Part I Care Not For Death, For All Men Are Mortal; And Though I Be A Woman Yet I Have As Good A Courage Answerable To My Place As Ever My Father Had. I Am Your Anointed Queen. I Will Never Be By Violence Constrained To Do Anything. I Thank God I Am Indeed Endowed With Such Qualities That If I Were Turned Out Of The Realm In My Petticoat I Were Able To Live In Any Place In Christendom.

Of Myself I Must Say This, I Never Was Any Greedy, Scraping Grasper, Nor A Strait Fast-holding Prince, Nor Yet A Master; My Heart Was Never Set On Worldly Goods, But Only For My Subjects' Good.

[i]n The End This Shall Be For Me Sufficient, That A Marble Stone Shall Declare That A Queen, Having Reigned Such A Time, Lived And Died A Virgin.