Elizabeth's Valiant Speech

In 1588 English troops were lined up at Tilbury awaiting an expected invasion from the Spanish Armada. To ensure successes, the popular monarch, Queen Elizabeth, gave a speech to her forces. The queen motivated her troops to win in battle by describing her people, describing herself, and describing the enemy.

Elizabeth uses positive words to describe her people so that they feel better about going into battle. At first, she says that they are "faithful" and "good willed." She is trying to remind her troops that they are doing the right thing in listening to their queen so that they have no doubts about killing the enemy. In a sense, this is like the propaganda technique transfer, because Elizabeth is convincing the people to support the battle because she supports it. This is convincing to them because the troops want to please the queen; by showing appreciation for their fighting, Elizabeth can put the troops in good spirits before battle. Later, the queen compliments her troops on their "valour." Here she is praising the troops to improve their confidence and to rally them on her side. The troops are more willing to obey a person they like, and by flattering the troops, Elizabeth is getting on their good side. Simply put, Elizabeth uses subtle persuasion skills to boost the performance and effort of her troops.

The queen also refers to herself in various ways throughout her speech to inspire the English troops. Although at the beginning the queen refers to herself as "our" and "we" by something called the royal we so that she seems important, soon after she changes this and resorts to a strategic propaganda tool known now as plain folks appeal. She switches to speaking with words like "I" and "my" to close the gap between her class and that of the troops, a gap that would have been wide if she spoke using only the royal we. The troops are more willing to fight for something that they can relate to, which is exactly what the queen accomplishes with the plain folks appeal tactic. Elizabeth calls herself a "rewarder" to identify one of the roles that she will be playing in the battle. The troops are more willing to fight if they can get something in return so Elizabeth guarantees that she will be watching out for people who battle greatly so that they can be rewarded. Overall, the queen speaks of herself in a way that justifies the means for the troops to fight.

Lastly, Elizabeth describes her enemy in the battle to motivate her troops. First, she claims that they will defeat the "enemies of [her] God." Here she defines a clear purpose for her troops - even if they are not fighting for her; they are at least fighting for their god. It might have even invoked anger in the troops that their god has an enemy; anger to be channeled into fighting performance. She also states that the Spanish Armada is the enemy "of [her] people." This unites all the troops under a common opponent, showing that they are all in the battle for the same reason. Defending something that is worth the effort largely contributes to why the English troops are so willing to fight. Because the troops feel that their god and the people are worth fighting for, Elizabeth was able to use this to her advantage while giving her speech.

In total, the British troops are motivated by their queen's description of her people, herself, and the enemy. The speech was a success, for in the end, the Spanish Armada fell to the British troops. It was what Elizabeth said to inspire her troops that gave them the extra advantage over their enemies. Elizabeth's moving speech is proof of what kind of power persuasion techniques can have.