Mary Queen of Scots
It can be argued that a member of individuals contributed to death of Mary Queen Scots; Elizabeth, her advisers, foreign powers and Mary herself. To what extent was Mary responsible for her own death?In 1567 Scotland rebelled against their Catholic Queen, Mary. She was imprisoned at Loch Leven castle where she remained until her escape in May 1568 when she fled to England. This was the action which triggered a series of events leading to her eventual execution on February 8th 1587.Before her arrival in England, Mary's reputation had already been tarnished by allegations of her involvement in the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley. This, coupled with the fact that she was Elizabeth's cousin and heir to the throne made her arrival potentially problematic. Her religion also posed a threat to Elizabeth. Catholics regarded Mary as the rightful Queen ('[we] accept her for the true and right Heir apparent of this Realm of England') and were ready to serve her. After taking these points into careful consideration the Privy Council advised Elizabeth to keep her as a prisoner until she could explain why sh
However, it was obvious that imprisonment could not be a long term solution and so Elizabeth and her government evaluated their alternatives carefully. However the collapse of this arrangement may also be blamed on Elizabeth's advisors who should have discussed the plan with her to begin with. The Florentine, Ridolfi plotted to bring Mary to the throne with the Duke of Norfolk as her consort. Shortly after this several northern nobles including the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland attempted a rebellion. Foreign powers and influences limited Elizabeth's options; Mary could not be allowed to return to France because of the danger that she might raise support for her earlier claim to be Queen. Perhaps if Elizabeth had taken some decisive action at this point, the more serious rebellion which was to follow could have been avoided. She may have resented her lack of control and dismissed the idea before realising that it could have been a perfect way to settle the circumstances. However, Elizabeth's army quickly defeated the rebels. Although this did not give the government a good enough reason to take such drastic measures the uprising did show that Mary was serving as a catalyst for Elizabeth's disaffected subjects. This effectively forced Elizabeth to allow Mary to remain in England either under imprisonment or as at citizen. In 1569 rumours of an ideal opportunity to make Mary's stay in England more acceptable to the government spread; a plan to marry her to the Duke of Norfolk. Mary then proceeded to disconnect herself from the incident as much as possible, saying that she disapproved of it on the grounds that she hated violence and regarded Elizabeth as the rightful queen. These were probably the right actions for Mary to take as any evidence of her involvement could have led to her execution. Their aims were to depose Elizabeth, replacing her with Mary and to restore Catholicism to England. Elizabeth agreed and Mary was kept at various places such as Carlisle, Bolton and Sheffield.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
