Elizabeth had imbued humanist ideals of governance through the classical education she received under William Grindal, protégé of Roger Ascham (fellow and lecturer at St John’s College, Cambridge and, from 1546, public orator), between 1544 and his death in January 1548, and Ascham himself, from 1548 until 1550. She continued to study classical texts with Ascham when he served as both Mary’s and then Elizabeth’s own Latin Secretary. Little is known of Elizabeth’s time under Grindal, but it is likely that his methods and interests were similar to those of his mentor. Ascham had followed a conventional, though wide-ranging, curriculum at Cambridge in the 1530s, including works by Boethius, Cicero, Aristotle and Petrus Hispanus. However, we know from his correspondence and his posthumously printed treatise on education, The scholemaster (1570), that Elizabeth followed a programme of studies closer to that promoted by his mentor and friend, Sir John Cheke, and outlined in The scholemaster: the study of the best classical authors to instil virtue, and the Bible and selected works of the church fathers to instil Christian piety. She also learned French with Jean Belmain and Italian with Battista Castiglione.
Within this curriculum, we know specifically that, under Ascham, Elizabeth read selected orations of Demosthenes and Isocrates in Greek every morning; Cicero in Latin every afternoon (and in the evenings) as well as the Greek New Testament, Sophocles, selected church fathers like St Cyprian and more modern works like Melancthon’s Loci communes rerum theologicarum. Specific classical texts are difficult to identify but the likeliest orations she would have read by Isocrates were ‘To Demonicus’, ‘To Nicocles’ and ‘Nicocles, or the Cyprians’ from Ethics and ‘Pangyricus’, ‘Philip’, ‘Plataicus’, ‘Peace’, ‘Archidamus’ and ‘Aeropagiticus’ from Politics. These were all works in which Isocrates discussed the exercise of political power and the relationship between rulers and subjects. ‘To Nicocles’ was recommended in two of the most important European educational guides: Vives’s De tradendis disciplinis (1531) and Elyot’s The boke named the gouernour (1531). Elyot also recommended ‘To Demonicus’. Though it is unclear which of Demosthenes’s orations Elizabeth read in the 1540s, we know that she read the opposing orations of Aeschines and Demosthenes, Against Ctesiphon and On the crown in August and September 1555, and On the embassy and On the (false) embassy in the 1560s. She also learned a speech against Aeschines by Isocrates and translated a number of works including Seneca’s Epistles, Cicero’s letter to Curio, Euripides, two orations by Isocrates and a dialogue by Xenophon; she may have also written a commentary on Plato but this is no longer extant. Extant library inventories show she had copies of Aristotle’s and Plato’s Works, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Cicero, as well as works by Plutarch, Euclid, Livy, Quintilian, Sabellecus and Thucydides; in 1554, she requested her cofferer, Thomas Parry, to deliver her copy of Cicero to her at Woodstock. These were all works and authors recommended in the curricula defined by Cheke, Elyot, Vives and Ascham. As queen, she also received copies and translations of works by Plato, Aristotle and Euclid as gifts, though we do not know if she read them.
These texts taught both the rhetorical skills needed to examine and debate arguments as well as more substantive issues about what constituted good governance, revelant both to princes and ‘priuate persone[s]’. The opposing orations of Aeschines and Demosthenes, for instance, showed strengths and weaknesses in putting forward a coherent and cogent argument. (..) Isocrate’s self-consciously styled politic guides, ‘To Nicocles’ and ‘Nicocles, or the Cyprians’, outlined the duties of good governance: of rulers to their subjects and then of subjects to their ruler. A good prince should gather around him the wisest men as counsellors and to listen to them even when their advice was unpalatable or contradicted his own ideas. He should love his subjects and rule in their interests, honour the gods, ensure the laws were fair and just, husband his revenues but not fail to make a display of royal magnificence. He was to be war-like but never too belligerent. Conversely, subjects were exhorted to fulfil their appointed tasks diligently, be loyal and do all they could to preserve the order and security of the state.
