Had she not been a good linguist, she would have been compelled to refer an extensive branch of statecraft  — diplomatic relations — to her Council, for no foreign ambassador spoke English. It was not the language of diplomacy. Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, German; the manuals of the age included these as languages that the perfect ambassador should know; and one Italian writer included Turkish: none thought of English. Elizabeth could carry on conversations with perfect ease in Latin, French, and Italian. It pleased her vanity to do so. She was a good talker, and could beat the subtlest diplomat at his game of deception — perhaps because she was a woman. She had real genius for this work, and no sovereign of her day maintained so close a monopoly of it.