Stephanie King

“I will have but one mistress and no master”
― queen Elizabeth I

“To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.”
― Queen Elizabeth I

“Semper eadem", always the same...”
― Queen Elizabeth I

“[F]rom my years of understanding ... I happily chose this kind of life in which I yet live [i.e., unmarried], which I assure you for my own part hath hitherto best contented myself and I trust hath been most acceptable to God. From the which if either ambition of high estate offered to me in marriage by the pleasure and appointment of my prince ... or if the eschewing of the danger of my enemies or the avoiding of the peril of death ... could have drawn or dissuaded me from this kind of life, I had not now remained in this estate wherein you see me. But so constant have I always continued in this determination ... yet is it most true that at this day I stand free from any other meaning that either I have had in times past or have at this present.”
― Elizabeth I, Collected Works