|
|
 |
The Spinster, the Hapsburg and the Scottish Widow
The House of Parliament called upon Elizabeth I to marry - they said it was her duty. Elizabeth did not want to choose a husband from her Court - her authority might be weakened and here would be fighting amongs the suitors. She also feared marriage with one of the great houses of Europe - this would mean entanglement in European policy.
A queen whose head did not rule her heart in this way was Mary Queen of Scots. She had grown up in France, was more French than Scottish and spoke no English. However many saw her as the rightful Queen of England and she was the centre of many Catholic plots to overthrow Elizabeth who finally ordered her execution in 1587.
Meanwhile the English and the Spanish had fallen out over the Netherlands - a Catholic-dominated state undergoing a Protestant revolution. English support of this revolution led to Elizabeth I's excommunication. The Spanish and English were also battling at sea. In 1568 Cecil ordered the seizure of Spanish treasure ships on their way to the Netherlands and relations with Philip of Spain were strained to the point of war.
Mary, Queen of Scotland |
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS (1542-1587)- Queen of Scotland 1542-1567
- Became Queen at six days old
- Sent to France while her mother Mary of Guise ruled Scotland
- Queen of France (1559-1560) until her husband Francis II's early death
- Returned to Scotland in 1561, the unhappy Catholic monarch of a country undergoing a Protestant revolution
- Married her cousin Henry Stewart Earl of Darnley in 1566
- Had a son James VI of Scotland and I of England
- On Darnley's murder, Mary married James Hepburn Earl of Bothwell
- Deposed from the Scottish throne in 1567
- Fled to England in 1568.
- Imprisoned in England after being tried and found guilty of Darnley's murder
- Two decades later and under much pressure, Elizabeth I ordered Mary's execution
- Died at Fotheringhay Castle, Northants, in 1587
Elizabeth I nearly died of smallpox in 1562.
 
|
|
/home/system/data/timb/kwikquiz.dat does not exist /home/system/data/timb/kwikquiz.html does not exist
| 1558 | England loses Calais to France
Mary I dies
Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England
|
| 1565 | Mary Queen of Scots marries Lord Darnley
|
| 1567 | Darnley is murdered and Mary marries Bothwell
Mary abdicates and James becomes VI of Scotland
(later I of England)
|
| 1568 | Mary flees to England and is imprisoned
|
| 1570 | The Pope excommunicates Elizabeth I
|
| 1587 | Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
|
| 1588 | The Spanish Armada is defeated
|
| 1603 | Elizabeth I dies
James I becomes King of England
|
| SUITORS OF ELIZABETH I | | • | Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester |
| • | Philip II of Spain |
| • | Archduke Charles of Austria |
| • | Henry Duke of Anjou |
| • | Francis of Valois, Duke of Alencon |
| • | Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex |
| • | HUSBANDS OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS |
| • | Francis II of France |
| • | Henry Stewart, Earl of Darnley |
| • | James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell |
|
