Effective Communication Used by Benevolent Leader, Queen Elizabeth I :: European History

Effective Communication Used by Benevolent Leader, Queen Elizabeth I Persuasion is a difficult skill to master. One has to take into account the ideologies held by the audience and how those relate to one’s own intentions of changing minds. In order to encourage her troops to fight courageously in defense of England, Queen Elizabeth I utilizes Aristotle’s principles of effective communication that include logos, pathos and ethos in her Speech to the English Troops at Tilbury, Facing the Spanish Armada. The first principle that Queen Elizabeth I introduces into her speech is logos, as she uses reason and inference to assure her soldiers of her faith in their resolve to fight for the good of England. She warns her soldiers that she has been told to â€Å"take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery.† This warning is from a source that is concerned with not only her safety, but also the safety of her subjects and, despite that concern, she claims that it is the tyrants who should be fearful. Since she has â€Å"placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects,† she has no reason to worry because she is not a tyrant like her enemies. As a result of investing and drawing her strength from the people of her kingdom, Queen Elizabeth I has little to fear unlike the tyrants who cannot trust their own armies. The trust that she has placed in her armies to protect the kingdom leads to the use of the second of Aristotle’s principles of effective communication. Queen Elizabeth I uses pathos to appeal to soldiers through their emotions by reminding them that she is on the field with them to die for her subjects (them), just as she is asking them to die for her. She is not on the battlefield with them for her own amusement; the Queen is determined to â€Å"live or die amongst you all, to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom† and this appeals to the soldiers’ sense of duty.