Елизавета I и Мария Стюарт

Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scotts

Mary I (nee Mary Stuart, December 8, 1542 - February 8, 1587) - Queen of Scots in infancy (actually from 1560) to the deposition in 1567, the Queen of France in 1559-1560 (as the wife of King Francis II) and the pretender to the English throne. Her tragic fate, full of very "literary" in dramatic turns and events that attracted writers of romantic and subsequent periods. 
Elizabeth I (September 7, 1533 - March 24, 1603), The best queen Beth, or Virgin Queen - Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558, the last of the Tudor dynasty. She inherited the throne after the death of her sister, Queen Mary I.

The reign of Elizabeth is sometimes called the "golden age of England", as in connection with the flowering of culture (Shakespeare, Marlowe, Bacon, etc.), and with the increasing importance of English in the world (the Defeat of Spanish Armada, Fr.Drake, Raleigh, East India Company) 
What bound these two women, two queens, quite different in character and outlook? And what was the reason for their implacable opposition throughout the life of both?

The first is, of course, claims of Mary of Scotland to the English throne. Elizabeth was included in the succeeding after the death of her father, Henry VIII, but when he was alive he did not like his daughter from his marriage with Anne Boleyn who was executed, and because of that the main contenders were the Prince Edward (Edward VI in the future), and eldest daughter, Mary (Bloody Mary because of her persecutions of protestants). After Edward's rule Mary became a queen, and during her reign Parliament strongly sought out ways to remove Elizabeth from the succession as illegitimate child. And many years later, the queen will have to fight the prejudices associated with her origin, to prove her right to the throne. Mary Stuart was the granddaughter of King Henry VII Tudor, and could inherit the throne by law (canon law of Catholic Church). And in 1558, when Elizabeth came to the throne, Francis II, the heir of France, and Mary who had only got married added to their arms the English crown too. This was seen as a deadly insult to Elizabeth, and from that moment all her life she would look at Mary as at enemy. Thus, even before the birth of the two queens were laid down preconditions for future conflicts. They were compounded by the fact that Mary in spite of common sense and political reasons for flowering herself and her country has never renounced her claims, and thereby forced Elizabeth to even sharper feel herself as illegitimate queen. Elizabeth herself also did not agree to make concessions and accept Mary her heiress. Stubbornness of the two women entailed adverse consequences for them both and their states.

The second reason - the religious ideology. Mary was Catholic, while Elizabeth was a stronghold of Protestantism - Anglican Church was headed by the monarch and it was independent of the Pope. It followed repeated calls by Rome to restore justice to the throne - of course, the Catholic queen on the throne of England for Roman Catholic Church seemed far more preferable than a Protestant, and even born outside of marriage forbidden by it. The Protestants of Scotland, in turn, raising the rebellion (for example,1559-60), have always sought support from Britain and were ready to provide support to Elizabeth in the struggle for power or simply approaching the two states. Later, Mary recognized Protestantism the official religion, but continued to communicate with the Pope and in contact with the Catholic Church, and Elizabeth, on the opposite side, converted to Catholicism, while continuing to support the Protestants.

There is no doubt that an important reason was their private life. Elizabeth went down in history with the nickname "Virgin Queen" because of her pathological reluctance to marriage, despite numerous offers from European Monarchs (among them - Philip II of Spain, the Archduke Frederick and Charles of Habsburg, Swedish Crown Prince Eric, and eventually the Duke of Anjou and even Царь Всея Руси Иоанн Васильевич Грозный). In addition, according to some researches, she could not have children. Mary certainly enjoyed success among men, and not only because of her royal status. After the death of Francis she could not find a suitable groom for a long time, and the necessary for it was obvious - Scotland needed an heir. And then, after more than four years of deliberation, Mary married Lord Darnley, the successor of Henry VII, too, as if confirming that once again her claim to the English throne, and also refused to accept the offer of Elizabeth’s candidate - Robert Dadley (about which it was actually known that he was for many years in Elizabeth’s lovers). This alliance caused outrage not only from the Queen of England - the whole court of Mary, for the most part - Protestants and supporters of the Anglo-Scottish rapprochement - was against it. They feared that the government of "a not intelligent youngster" will lead to the restoration of Catholicism and the Reformation in Scotland suppression. Elizabeth, in turn, for the first time even agreed to recognize the right of Mary to the English throne, if she would refuse to venture with the marriage. But Mary did not want to listen to any reasonable argument, nor the long-awaited confession - she was in love. Sometime later, she realized how wrong it was - Darnley struggled for power, and, by virtue of his not very impressive mental abilities, he could not carry out the management of the country in any case. In the royal couple's relationship became cool, and Mary again took control of all government. The lords were unhappy again - independent of their queen also didn’t suit them. Birth of a child of Mary soon had only worsened her relations with Queen Elizabeth - the usual women's jealousy at this time because of motherhood has played a significant role here.

After the mysterious murder of Darnley (in it were accused Mary, either her lover, Lord Boswell, either the Scottish Lords) Elizabeth tried to reason with her perennial rival, but it only caused a disturbance in Mary and, of course, she did not hear the warnings of reasonable arguments. 
Soon after the marriage of Mary and Boswell, concluded secretly and caused convictions of the European monarchs, the Scottish lords rose a rebellion, the first forcing queen to renounce her husband's killer, and then signing her into totally isolated castle Loh Liven. Europe was divided into two camps, and, surprisingly, Elizabeth, her main opponent, was on the side of Mary. She appealed to the Lords, demanding release of their queen. But here it is worth considering important point: Elizabeth defended not Mary, but her royal person, the royal rights. However, she certainly could to force Lords obedience, but for some reason she did not. Naturally, the Queen did not crave to remove a deadly weapon against her opponent by herself. After the renunciation of the throne in favor of her son, Mary was forced to flee to England - to her enemies. Elizabeth was in a corner: on the one hand, she has achieved the desired and the queen, who tried to deprive her of her throne, lost the crown, on the other hand - after all the assurances of her own favor, it would be not politic to deny to help Mary. Elizabeth did not take her rival in London, but did not give leave England and forced to accept a judicial investigation of Scottish events. This was a beginning of the end of Mary. By decision of the court Mary’s guilty was not proved, but her guilt “Lords can not quite justify." As a result, Stuart during the long 19 years contained in the various castles-prisons. At the same time Elizabeth maintained her reputation as a humanitarian Queen, allocating captive board and providing her a certain comfort level, "corresponding her status". But Mary did not resign to this situation. She is constantly asked to let her out of the country, identify the "hideaway" and still refused to renounce the throne. She struck up a correspondence with her son, James VI, who grew up during this time and in fact has already become an adult. But Elizabeth cut off that path of salvation - she secretly entered into an agreement with James VI, according to which, inter alia, Mary was deprived of all rights and title of Queen of Scotland. 
All this occurred against a background of escalating religious conflict. Pope excommunicated Elizabeth, from the church in 1570, and in 1580 formally gave the nod to her murder. The Protestants, in turn, were planning the murder of Mary.

To get rid of her, Elizabeth’s court came up with a artful intrigue: under their close supervision Mary, without even knowing about it, turned out at the center of a political revolt against the Queen. All of her correspondence, including a secret, was re-read and copied by provocateurs, they also shoved the disgraced queen plan the overthrow and murder of Elizabeth. Written approval of the plan made by Mary was the key piece of evidence against her. Sentence made by almost all the judges, said: Mary was guilty. But the last word - whether to execute God's anointed - remained for Elizabeth. Mary felt even stronger dependence on the will of others. And whom! The woman whom she despised all her life and tried to sting. Finally, the decision was made - Stuart should be executed. 
Death of Mary left a few legends. For example, the blood soaked into the fabric of her underwear of a special bright red dress, and that cause the impression that there was no blood at all. Under the dress of the Queen was her lap dog, due to the perturbation of which the first moments it seemed as if decapitated Mary was still breathing. 
Elizabeth tried to present the matter as though the execution of Mary was not her initiative, but her excuses were perceived as deliberately false. Queen virgin forever would be in the memory as a murderer of her helpless opponent.