Elizabeth R1971

Robert Dudley:
When you were 8 years old, you told me you would never marry. I did not believe you.

Queen Elizabeth I:
You have forgotten what happened when I was 8 years old.

Robert Dudley:
Catherine Howard?

Queen Elizabeth I:
She was always kind to me. More like a sister than a stepmother. She tried to reach my father to beg for her life... but they wouldn't let her speak to him. He was her husband, but they wouldn't let her speak to him. They dragged her away, and then they cut off her head. I learned then how dangerous life was.

Robert Dudley:
You and I both know what it is to have an axe fall very close to our own heads... and yet to LIVE!

Queen Elizabeth I:
But never to live SAFELY again.

Robert Dudley:
Yielding can bring a kind of safety. You would learn that on our wedding night.

Queen Elizabeth I:
As my mother did?

Robert Dudley:
Elizabeth!

Queen Elizabeth I:
As I am now, I owe my life to no man's goodwill. Except the goodwill of the people... and I have always known how to keep that.