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Royal Cousins,
Rival Queens:
Elizabeth I and
Mary, Queen of
Scots

Sarah Roller
Faceboo
Tw
11 Oct 2021

@SarahRoller8

L: A coronation portrait of Elizabeth I. R: A portrait

of Mary, Queen of Scots by Francois Clouet.

Image Credit: Public Domain

A story of queenship, power, intrigue and

betrayal, the relationship between Elizabeth
I, Queen of England, and her cousin, Mary,
Queen of Scots, has enthralled and
fascinated for centuries. The two queens
never met in person: their relationship was
conducted entirely through letters and
intermediaries, many of which have lasted
to this day.

Here is the story of two of the greatest

figures of the 16th century: rivals, cousins,
women but most of all, queens.

The Tudor dynasty

Henry VII had 4 children: Arthur, Henry,

Margaret and Mary. Elizabeth I was the
daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife,
Anne Boleyn, whilst Mary was the
granddaughter of Margaret and her
husband, King James IV of Scotland.

Mary was born to rule: the only legitimate

child of King James V, she inherited the
crown at just 6 days old after her father
died on the battlefield in 1542.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, had a much

more convoluted path to queenship. She
was struck from the line of succession in
1533 when her mother was executed, and
only restored to it in 1543, behind both her
half-siblings, the future Edward VI and Mary
I.

After navigating years of political intrigue

and religious division at court, narrowly
escaping imprisonment several times,
Elizabeth eventually became queen in
1558, aged 25.

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Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes to the British

Library in London to meet curator Andrea Clarke
and visit a stunning exhibition on the rival
Queens, which uses original documents and
extraordinary objects to show how paranoia
turned sisterly affection to suspicion.

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Queenship

Mary was the first queen of Scotland, and

Elizabeth only the second queen of
England. The notion of a queen regnant
was still relatively new in 16th-century
Europe, and both women had to adapt to
the challenges faced by a male-dominated
society.

Much of Mary’s early reign was a regency:

powerful nobles, including her mother, Mary
of Guise, ruling in her stead until she came
of age. During this time, the teenage Mary
was married to Francois, the dauphin of
France. This political alliance aimed to unite
the Catholic crowns of Scotland and France
against their common enemy, England.

Francis died after a little over a year as king

of France, and Mary returned to Scotland to
take up the duty of ruling in earnest. She
was ill-prepared, however, for the complex
and often dangerous political situation in
Scotland, which was a nation divided on
religious terms.

Mary, Queen of Scots as a child in France.

François Clouet, c.1549

Image Credit: Yale University Art Gallery, courtesy of the

British Library.

In contrast, Elizabeth was used to warring

factions and a court and country divided
along religious lines. Having watched the
country swing from Protestantism to
Catholicism sharply, she played her hand
carefully in order to not repeat the mistakes
of her half-siblings, but reverted England to
Protestantism.

Unlike Mary, Elizabeth refused to marry,

instead courting assorted suitors from
across Europe, stringing them along to
keep them interested and act in her
interests, but never committing or
accepting a proposal. Her choice of
husband, whether foreign or English, would
have huge ramifications: after watching her
father’s marriages and knowing that any
husband would almost certainly try to
wrestle power from her, she instead
became the ‘Virgin Queen‘.

The two women conversed by letter for

much of their lives, often with great
affection, calling eachother ‘sister queen’:
Elizabeth wrote to Mary of the rumours that
swirled following the death of her second
husband Henry, Lord Darnley, under
suspicious circumstances, and Mary wrote
to Elizabeth after Darnley burst into her
chamber and murdered her courtier, David
Rizzio, in front of her.

On 9 March 1566, David Rizzio - close friend and

private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots - was
stabbed around 80 times in front of the pregnant
Queen at the instigation of her husband, Lord
Darnley in an apparent bid to destroy both her
and her unborn heir so that Darnley himself could
rule Scotland. He had also made a bargain with
his allies in return for restoring their lands and
titles.

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Rivals

As time went on, it became clear that

Elizabeth would not marry or have children:
Mary, on the other hand, married three
times and produced a male heir, the future
James VI of Scotland. Elizabeth’s closest
blood relative, therefore, was Mary, which
also made Mary Elizabeth’s heir. This irked
Elizabeth: Mary was Catholic, not
Protestant, which risked upsetting the
delicate religious settlement in England.

In 1568, Mary fled to England, having been

imprisoned and forced to abdicate after her
nobles turned against her the previous
year. It seems Mary thought Elizabeth
would help her regain her throne in
Scotland, expecting her sister queen to
stand with her against rebellion and
usurpation. Unfortunately for Mary,
Elizabeth was more cautious. Anglo-
Scottish diplomacy was a delicate matter,
and Elizabeth was keen not to upset the
Protestant lords of Scotland.

Mary was tried in England for Darnley’s

murder using a set of documents called the
‘casket letters’, which historians now
believe were largely fabricated. Mary was
not found guilty, but nor was she acquitted.
She remained in ‘custody’ (under house
arrest) in England at Elizabeth’s pleasure:
Elizabeth viewed Mary as something of a
threat to her own throne, not least because
she would be able to rally Catholic support,
and she was known to be extremely
charming.

Professor Kate Williams talks about Mary's tragic

life and the plots that resulted in her execution.

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Intrigue

Mary was deeply unhappy at being kept in

Elizabeth’s custody: she was confined to
the properties of the Earl of Shrewsbury in
the Midlands, far from the Catholic North
and Scottish border, but also far from
London.

Despite Elizabeth’s best attempts, Mary

managed to correspond with leading
Catholic nobles and give encouragement to
conspirators: the Ridolfi and Throckmorton
Plots both had Mary at the heart of them,
aiming to put her on the throne of England
and depose Elizabeth.

The Armada Portrait, painted to commemorate

the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Image Credit: Public Domain

Mary was kept under the watchful eye of

Elizabeth’s spymaster, Sir Francis
Walsingham, who eventually gathered
evidence of Mary being directly involved in
the 1586 Babington Plot. Mary was put on
trial for treason and found guilty.

After months of deliberation, Elizabeth

eventually signed Mary’s death warrant on 1
February 1587. Despite Mary being a thorn
in her side for much of her reign, Elizabeth
was extremely hesitant to commit regicide.
Mary was, after all, her cousin and a fellow
queen.

Unbeknownst to Elizabeth, shortly

afterwards the warrant was taken to be
signed by 10 members of the Privy Council
so that the execution could be carried out
without delay. Mary was executed on 8
February 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle. She
wore red, the liturgical colour of martyrdom.

Legacy

News of Mary’s execution sent shockwaves

across Europe. Elizabeth was said to have
been furious when she heard what had
happened. Those involved in the intrigue
were imprisoned or banished for several
months and felt the full force of Elizabeth’s
displeasure.

With Mary dead, Elizabeth’s next of kin was

Mary’s son, King James VI of Scotland. The
two wrote to each other frequently, with
Elizabeth offering James both guidance
and criticism. She never formally named
him as her heir, seemingly unable to admit
to her own mortality. Nevertheless, on her
death in 1603, James became King James I
of England too, ushering a new dawn of a
united England and Scotland. This heralded
the beginning of a new dynasty: the Stuarts.

Elizabeth and Mary: Royal Cousins, Rival

Queens is on at the British Library until
February 2022.

Tags: Elizabeth I Mary Queen of Scots

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