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Rivalry Between Elizabeth And Mary

Decent Essays

One can best comprehend the relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, through examining the history of their rivalry, Elizabeth’s reluctance to act against Mary, and the events surrounding Mary’s execution. Throughout Elizabeth’s rule, Mary remained the Queen of England’s most complicated and persistent threat as their conflict became both personal and political. In a poem written early in their relationship, Mary describes her “weighty need of seeing [Elizabeth]” and her sadness at the misfortune of the positions they have been placed in as rivals (Dunn 315). However, Mary soon became ambitious, deciding to strengthen her claim to Elizabeth’s rule by showing interest in Henry, Lord Darnley, a powerful Englishman with legitimate blood ties to the English throne. By “unifying their claims” (Dawson 4), Mary’s …show more content…

While she very much wanted to see Mary out of the picture, she also firmly believed in “the ideological argument that subjects should not be aided in rebellion against their sovereign” (Dawson 16). Elizabeth’s fear of the precedent she would set by committing regicide if she executed Mary was greater than the fear of her competing queen. Moreover, when Elizabeth heard that her lords had disrespected Mary, Elizabeth responded quickly to threaten them: “The more she considers these rigorous and unlawful proceedings . . . the more she is moved to consider how to relieve the Queen her sister” (Tudor 312). Under no circumstance would she have released Mary, but she was appalled at how they had treated a sovereign queen, accusing them of attempting “to become superiors to her whom God and nature did create to be their head” (Tudor 312), which undermined her own position as queen. Furthermore, Elizabeth was able to use Mary’s power in her favor on more than one

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