Why did Elizabeth I hate Mary Queen of Scots?

Answer 1

The plots against Elizabeth

and

if she was meant to execute Mary Queen of Scots

The northern rebellion plot

Its objective was the deposition of Elizabeth and coronation of Mary, Queen of Scots, as Queen of England. English Catholics, still a significant portion of the population at this time, recognised Mary Stuart, not Elizabeth, as rightful ruler of England.

The rebellion was led by two members of the great Northern nobility: Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland and Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland. The rebel Earls occupied Durham and had Mass sung in the cathedral there by the old rites. They marched south to Bramham Moor, while Elizabeth struggled to raise forces sufficient to confront them. However, hearing of a large force being raised by the Earl of Essex, the rebels abandoned plans to besiege York, and captured Barnard Castle instead. They proceeded to Clifford Moor, but found little popular support. Essex marched out from York on December 13, 1569 with 7,000 men to their 4,600, soon followed by 12,000 under Lord Clinton. The rebel Earls retreated northward before him and finally dispersed their forces, fleeing into Scotland.

The Earl of Westmorland was attainted, but escaped to Flanders and died impoverished in Spain. The Earl of Northumberland fled into Scotland, was imprisoned there, and turned over to Elizabeth in 1572, being summarily beheaded in York.

Ridolfi plot The Ridolfi plot was meant to put Mary Stuart on the throne of England. The Ridolfi plot was a plot in 1570 to assassinate Queen Elizabeth 1. The plot was hatched and planned by Roberto di Ridolfi, an international banker who was able to travel between Brussels, Rome and Madrid to gather support without attracting too much suspicion.

Roberto Ridolfi, a Florentine banker and ardent Catholic, had been involved in the planning of the Northern rebellion, and had been plotting to overthrow Elizabeth as early as 1569. The plan was to have the Duke of Alba invade from the Netherlands with 10,000 men, foment a rebellion of the northern English nobility, murder Elizabeth, and marry Mary to Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk. Ridolfi optimistically estimated half of all English peers were Catholic, and could muster in excess of 39,000 men.

However, the Duke of Alba feared that if the plot should be successful, it would lead to Mary, Queen of Scots, a former Queen of France whose mother was a member of the prominent Guise family, occupying the throne of England. The consequence of this would be an England wedded to Mary's beloved France, an outcome which the Spanish feared.

In 1571, Elizabeth's intelligence network was sending her information about a plot against her life. By gaining the confidence of Spain's ambassador to England, John Hawkins learned the details of the conspiracy and notified the government so to arrest the plotters. The Duke of Norfolk was arrested on September 7, 1571 and sent to the Tower. Guerau de Spes, the Spanish ambassador, was expelled from the country in January, 1571. Ridolfi was still abroad at the time the plot was discovered, and never returned to England.

Throckmorton Plot The Throckmorton Plot was an attempt by English Roman Catholics in 1583 to murder Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots.

The precise aim of the plot was the assassination of Elizabeth I. The Roman Catholics wished to free Mary, Queen of Scots, who was under house arrest in England, and place her on the throne of England to restore their faith. This plan was designed to coincide with an invasion of England to be led by Henry I, Duke of Guise, financed by Spain and by the Pope, and a simultaneous revolt of English Roman Catholics, involving both the Jesuits and the English Cardinal Allen. Throckmorton acted as a Spanish agent.

The plot was unsuccessful. After discovering incriminating evidence in his house, Francis Walsingham ordered the arrest of Throckmorton as a go-between Mary, Queen of Scots, and Mendoza, the ambassador of King Philip II of Spain in London, and tortured Throckmorton into a confession.

Babington Plot The Babington Plot was the event which most directly led to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. This was a second major plot against Elizabeth I of England after the Ridolfi plot. It was named after the chief conspirator Anthony Babington (1561-1586), a young Catholic nobleman from Derbyshire.

Ever since Mary, Queen of Scots abdication from the throne of Scotland in 1567, she became the focus of numerous plots and intrigues to restore England to the Catholic fold.

Because of increasing concern surrounding Queen Elizabeth's safety, in 1584 Elizabeth's Privy Council had signed a "Bond of Association", which stated that any one within the line of succession to the throne on whose behalf anyone plotted against the queen, even if the claimant is ignorant of the plot, would be excluded from the line and executed. Whilst Mary had escaped formal reprimand as she had not actively participated in a plot, now she could be executed if a plot was initiated that would lead to her acceding to the throne of England.

Although Elizabeth was reluctant to act against Mary, some within the English government feared her status as a figurehead for English Catholics. Elizabeth's chief advisor, realised that if she could be implicated in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth, then Mary could be executed and the Catholic threat diminished.

The plot grew out of two originally separate plans. The first involved a Spanish invasion of England the second was a plot by English Catholics to assassinate Elizabeth. King Philip II of Spain was always prepared to assist English Catholics who plotted to overthrow the English queen.

In 1585 Morgan met with Gilbert Gifford and enlisted the latter to re-establish a line of correspondence with Mary, which was severed by Walsingham in the wake of the discovery of the Throckmorton plot in 1584.

While Walsingham was able to cut off all communication between Mary and her supporters because of the Throckmorton plot, he recognized that she could hardly be guilty in plots of which she was unaware and therefore had not approved. Thus Walsingham, with the help of Gifford, decided to establish a new line of communication, one which he could carefully scrutinize without incurring any suspicion from Mary or her supporters.

Paget began to consolidate the two plots. At the behest of Mary's French supporters, John Ballard, a Jesuit priest and Catholic agent, went to England on various occasions in 1585 to secure promises of aid from the northern Catholic gentry he persuaded a member of the Catholic gentry, Anthony Babington to lead and organize the English Catholics against Elizabeth.

Babington was hesitant as he thought that no foreign invasion would succeed for as long as Elizabeth remained. Unfortunately for the conspirators, Walsingham was certainly aware of all the aspects of the plot, based on reports by his spies who kept tabs on all the major participants.

Despite his assent in his participation in the plot, Babington's conscience was troubled at the prospect of assassinating the English queen. On June 28, encouraged by a letter received from Thomas Morgan, Mary wrote a letter to Babington that assured him of his status as a trusted friend. In reply on July, Babington wrote to Mary about all the details of the plot. He informed Mary about the foreign plans for invasion as well as the planned insurrection by English Catholics.

The letter was received by Mary on July 14, after being intercepted and deciphered, and on July 17 she replied to Babington in a long letter in which she commended and praised all the aspects of the plot.

Arrests, trials and executions

John Ballard was arrested on 4 August 1586, and presumably under torture he confessed and implicated Babington. Mary's two secretaries, Claude de la Boisseliere Nau and Gilbert Curle, were likewise taken into custody and interrogated. The conspirators were sentenced to death for treason and conspiracy against the crown, and were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. This first group included Babington, Ballard, Chidiock Tichborne, Thomas Salisbury, Robert Barnewell, John Savage and Henry Donn. Queen Mary herself went to trial at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire and denied her part in the plot, but her correspondence was the evidence; therefore, Mary was sentenced to death. Elizabeth signed her cousin's death warrant, and on 8 February 1587, in front of 300 witnesses, Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed by beheading.

Answer 2

Mary Queen of Scots was not hated by her English cousin. Elizabeth I was simply cautious should Mary try to usurp her throne as she was favored as heir by the Catholic people. The English parliament pressured Elizabeth into taken further and further precautions and until she eventually signed her death warrant.

Answer 3

• Mary had a claim to the English throne, a claim, in Catholics eyes, to be more legitimate. Thus, she had support from the powerful Catholic Spanish Monarch Philip to plan her ascendancy to the throne of England. (Ridolfi Plot)
• She had to take refuge in England and this was very precarious, it made gathering Catholic support much easier.
• She corresponded plots against Elizabeth in a secret code.