Did Queen Elizabeth I Use Swear Words?

How England’s Virgin Queen Used Blasphemy, Brilliance, and Bad Language to Rule Her Realm

With a ruff sharp enough to cut and eyes as cool as Judgment Day, this iconic portrait of Queen Elizabeth I clearly conveys “Don’t-mess-with-me-Robert-Dudley” without uttering a single swear word.

There is nothing more Elizabethan than secrets about Queen Elizabeth I herself. If the Elizabethan Age was characterized by theatrical façade that hid fierce human emotion, scandals and violence, no one epitomized it like good Queen Bess.

You may picture Elizabeth as Gloriana, unflappable in yards of pearls and scratchy lace, a model of self-control and measured grace. But here’s an Elizabethan Secret her courtiers repeated only in whispers and foreign ambassadors did not dare write verbatim to their sovereigns: the Queen of England had a fiery temper and when she lost it, she swore—spectacularly.

Not to mention she rained blows down upon her ladies-in-waiting and broke their fingers, but we’ll cover that and more in a later post.

Her favorite oath?  Not the gentlewomanly “fie,” not the earnest “forsooth,” but the very words that made Puritans faint and Anglican bishops clutch their sleeves. When Elizabeth swore, it was a thunderous “God’s death!”

🔥 Good Queen Bess’ Most Famous Verbal Outbursts...

🦁 “God’s death, my Lords!” — The Polish Ambassador, July, 1597

Here’s what went down, according to that outward paragon of priggery and propriety, Robert Cecil, in a July 1597 letter to Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex.

Polish Ambassador Dzialynski, stylishly dressed in a long black velvet robe “well jeweled and buttoned”, had been received by the Queen at court at Greenwich Palace. After delivering a speech proposing extending more privileges to Hanseatic merchants, he lectured Elizabeth on how England should make peace with Spain, and opined that she had intolerably asserted her superiority over rulers of other countries.

What Dzialynski received in return for publicly instructing and insulting her Majesty was her blistering invective in flawless Latin that singed every button and crushed his reputation.  She remanded him sharply to henceforth “clamour” only with her Council, not with her, and for his lack of manners when addressing royalty, she demoted him to the rank of herald, instead of ambassador, in her court.

Greenwich Palace, also called Placentia (“the pleasant place”), where courtiers plotted, ambassadors trembled and the Virgin Queen occasionally deployed Tudor-era curse words that could singe the tapestries. Nothing pleasant about that.

The historian John Speed reported in his History of Great Britain (1611) that lion-like, Elizabeth then turned to face her courtiers and blasted:

“God’s death, my Lords! I have been enforced this day to scour up my old Latin that hath lain long rusting.”

In other words, she enjoyed the opportunity to knock the rust off her verbal sword.

Also noteworthy is that Robert Cecil ironically closed his letter to Essex with “[The Queen] and I do talk every night like angels of you”. Four years later, Cecil turned vengeful angel. He caught Essex in a political trap that he’d been setting up for years. It cost Essex his head.

♟️ Leicester, Checked but Defiantly Not Mated

Cocktail napkins and wall plaques blaze a retort reportedly delivered by Elizabeth to her “sweet Robin” – Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester – presumably in August of 1565 in front of the court:

“God’s death, my Lord! I have wished you well, but my favor is not so locked up for you that other shall not participate thereof. And if you think to rule here, I will take a course to see your forthcoming. I will have here but one mistress and no master.”                               — Sir Robert Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia (1641)

 But look at the date of the source – seventy-six years after the fact and in a colorful collection of posthumous anecdotes. In fact, although widely quoted, the famous rebuke does not survive in any contemporary Elizabethan document.

Can we bear to dismiss such a great “Elizabethism” as probably historically inaccurate? Must we make due instead with William Cecil, Lord Burghley’s humorously dry August 8, 1565 notation in the court record: “The Queen’s Majesty seemed to be much offended with the Earl of Leicester”?

Don’t despair! The Queen’s Majesty was often much offended with Leicester.

👑 A Queen Scorned

In an age obsessed with piety and appearance, the Virgin Queen’s tongue wasn’t always holy. As Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Elizabeth I’s swearing, especially her blasphemous “God’s death, my Lords!”, could shatter nerves – or a rose window.

On March 6, 1586, Leicester was laying low, waiting for the royal tempest to subside over his having secretly married Elizabeth’s double cousin and doppelganger, Lettice Knollys. Leicester’s loyal side kick and brother, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick – who had bolstered Leicester’s efforts to wed Elizabeth at a couple of blowout summer parties [👉 See: Let's Party Like It's 1572: Elizabeth I's Summer Progress and the Fireworks That Set Off the Dudley vs. De Vere Rivalry]  – wrote him this good advice:

“My dear brother . . . our mistress’s extreme rage doth increase rather than any way diminish, and giveth out great threatening words against you. Therefore, make the best assurance you can for yourself. If she will needs revoke you . . . if I were as you . . . I would go to the furthest part of Christendom rather than ever come into England again.”

Wow. That’s a royal jealousy unleashed of Shakespearean proportions!

⚡Early Modern Swear Words: Why Elizabeth I’s Blasphemous Oaths Shocked a God-Fearing Nation

“God’s death!” wasn’t a dainty court phrase. It was a thunderbolt. It was reported to be “her oath ever in anger.”

To a Tudor Christian, “God’s death” meant invoking the Crucifixion itself. It wasn’t slang. It wasn’t just Tudor profanity. It was blasphemy. The Book of Homilies, read in every parish, preached against “vain and unreverent swearing.”

So imagine hearing such words from the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, God’s representative on earth. For Catholics, Anglicans and Puritans alike, it was the verbal equivalent of lightning striking St Paul’s. Again.

Her oaths scandalized preachers, startled ambassadors, and thrilled everyone else. They showed that England’s queen could out-curse any man on the field or at court.

 ⚔️ Why Good Queen Bess Swore: Tudor Feminism and Swearing as Statecraft

Elizabeth’s swearing wasn’t random or thoughtless. These were political oaths and exercises in rhetorical power. “God’s death!” was the Tudor version of slamming the table: a flash of divine authority, a lion’s roar from a woman who ruled alone in a man’s world. 👉 See: John Knox's Trumpet Blast Against the "Regimens" of Mary Queen of Scots, Mary I and Elizabeth I 

Each blasphemous syllable reminded her listeners that she was both king and queen, fierce enough to terrify Parliament, outwit Spain, and keep her crown for forty-five years.

✒️ Sources

• Calendar of State Paper, Domestic, Elizabeth, (1595-1597)

• John Speed, History of Great Britaine (1611)

• Hatfield House MS Calendar of Cecil Papers (1565)

• Sir Robert Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia (1641)

• Book of Homilies, “Against Swearing and Perjury” (1562)

• Historical Manuscripts Commission, De L’Isle and Dudley Papers Vol. I (1586)

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