Elizabeth I (Queen of England and Ireland, 1533-1603) [Queen Elizabeth's Speech at the Closing of Parliament, March 29, 1585], contemporary manuscript copy, in Secretary hand, 2pp. with conjugate blank, tears along folds, browned, folio, 1585.

⁂ A trenchant warning to parliament about religion. "One thing I may not overskip. Religion, the ground on which all other matters ought to take root, and, being corrupted, may mar all the tree. And that there be some fault-finders with the order of the clergy, which so may make a slander to myself, and to the church, whose over-ruler God hath made me, whose negligence cannot be excused, if any schisms or errors heretical were suffered. Thus much I must say, that some faults and negligences must grow and be, as in all other great charges it happeneth; and what vocation without? All which, if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, I mean to depose you. Look ye, therefore, well to your charges." - Elizabeth I.