Cowgill.
QUEEN ELIZABETH AND QUEEN ANNE'S MOTTO.
(Vol. viii., pp. 174. 255. 440.)
I was not aware that the Query at page 174. was not fully answered by me in page 255., but the following may be more satisfactory.
Camden, in his Life of Queen Elizabeth (Annals of Queen Elizabeth, p. 32.), says her first and chiefest care was for the most constant defence of the Protestant religion as established by the authority of parliament. "Her second care to hold an even course in her whole life and in all her actions, whereupon she took for her motto (1559), Semper eadem (Always the same)."
In his Remains (p. 347. 4to. 1637), Camden says, "Queen Elizabeth upon occasions used so many heroical devices as would require a volume: but most commonly a sive without a motte for her words Video, Taceo, and Semper eadem, which she as truly and constantly performed."
Sandford is silent as to her motto.
Leake says this motto, Semper eadem, was only a personal motto; as queen, the old motto, Dieu et mon Droit, was used, and is so given in Segar's Honour, Military and Civil, dedicated to her majesty in 1602, and which is also on her tomb. In some churches where there are arms put up to her memory, it is probable the motto Semper eadem may sometimes have been seen as being a personal motto to distinguish it from her brothers. Queen Anne, before the union with Scotland, bore the same arms, crest, and supporters as her father King James II., but discontinued the use of the old motto, Dieu et mon Droit, and instead thereof used Semper eadem. The motto ascribed to Queen Elizabeth she took for the same reason to express her constancy; but this, which was personal as to Queen Elizabeth, was then made the motto of the royal achievement, and seems the first instance of discontinuing the old motto of Dieu et mon Droit, from the first assumption of it by King Edward III.; for as to the different ones attributed to Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and King James I., they were personal only.
The motto is indeed no part of the arms but personal, and therefore is frequently varied according to the fancy of the bearer; nevertheless, when particular mottoes have been taken to perpetuate the memory of great events, either in families or kingdoms, and have been established by long usage, such should be esteemed as family or national mottoes, and it is honourable to continue them.