How should Elizabeth have dealt with Mary, Queen of Scots?

1. How should Elizabeth have dealt with Mary, Queen of Scots? Group assessment – Year 8 By Zarrin, Georgia, Krishnavi, Elle, Danielle and Rose

2. The Characters Queen Mary (or Mary Queen of Scots) was the queen of Scotland once as her family of Stewart's ( she being the first to inherit the spelling of it being; S-T-U-A-R-T.) She is now known as one of the most tragic Monarchs in history and died being imprisoned in England and tried and executed for treason (betrayal) .Vs. Queen Elizabeth I (also known as The Virgin Queen) was the queen of England she had reigned after her older half-sister’s death (Mary or Bloody Mary). Elizabeth was a moderate Protestant unlike her previous sister who was a very strong Catholic and not a popular Queen. But she is often mistaken for Queen Mary of Scots who was their cousin, who belonged to the Stuart family and not the Tudors. Elizabeth also believed that it was wrong for a queen to kill a queen and so with this she was in a very tricky situation her cousin or her Scottish mobs may rebel against her so the Stuart Queen can reign England as well.

3. William Davison was sent on a spy mission by Elizabeth to Mary Queen of Scots and stayed in Scotland for ten years. Lord Darnley He was also known as the Duke of Albany or his real name being Henry Stuart who was the cousin and second husband of Mary Stuart. Lord Burley or William Cecil was the son and grandchild of two men that had worked for the Tudor Monarchs and he was Elizabeth’s chief advisor. James Hepburn was the third husband of Queen Mary and the fourth Earl of Bothwell. He was divorced by the Queen because of adultery with her servant, Bessie Crawford three months after the death of Lord Darnley and he was accused of Henry Stuart’s death as well. Francis Walsingham was Queen Elizabeth I’s “spymaster”.

4. The Choices • Elizabeth had 5 choices, they were: • 1) To let Mary go back to Scotland If Queen Elizabeth sent Mary back to Scotland then people who want her free would stop rebelling against Elizabeth. But she may build up an army and fight Elizabeth for the throne. 2) To keep Mary imprisoned in a far away English county Mary supporters would not know where she was and therefore forget about Mary, and Elizabeth would not have to kill a Queen. But they may threaten Elizabeth to tell them where Mary was being held prisoner.

5. 3) To keep Mary imprisoned in the Tower of London Mary would not be able to escape and people would not be able to rescue her as it had such tight security, but everyone would know where Mary was. And London was populated by 200,000 and some of them must have been Mary supporters. 4) Do nothing about Mary and refuse to believe she was involved inany plots Nobody would be angry as Mary would not be in prison. Mary could take advantage of this, and build an army to overthrow Elizabeth from the throne. • 5) Sentence Mary to death for treason There would be not threat from Mary to Elizabeth. But Elizabeth did not want to kill a Queen and a lot of people would be angry about it and would most likely rebel against Elizabeth.

6. The Problem In 1568, Mary Queen of Scots’ (Mary Stuart) supporters were all defeated in a battle so she fled to England seeking refuge from her cousin, Queen Elizabeth. Because Mary had a strong claim to the throne she posed a threat to Elizabeth who had her imprisoned. For about 19 years Mary became the focus of plots which was aimed to kill Elizabeth so that Mary would be put on the English throne as she was a catholic and Elizabeth was not. Anthony Babington devised a plot in 1586, to rescue Mary and to kill Elizabeth. So he sent a code letter to Mary to explain his plan and Mary wrote back to say that she agreed with it. But Walsingham’s spies intercepted both letters that was sent. But then Babington was arrested and charged with treason then executed. After Babington’s plot against Elizabeth, she was convinced that whilst she lived Mary would always be danger to her, so Mary was tried and condemned to death in October 1586.

7. 2.) Of course she could possibly be sent to the London dungeons, but if this was the case, protesters could easily get to Mary and plot Elizabeth's assassination right under her nose, because they knew where she was. This was one of Elizabeth’s biggest worries. The Decision 1.) Our decision is to send Mary, Queen of Scots to a far away county, is because if you send Mary away, Elizabeth would be safe to do what she wants, and even if Mary did escape like she has done in her past, she would be too far away to get to Elizabeth before She is found out and high security is put around the palace. 3.) The killing of Mary was out of the question though, seeing that she was not only a Queen, but a relative. Also, if she killed Mary, she would get unwanted popularity from Catholics and the Spanish. Seeing as Mary also has a son who is said to be the next heir to the throne after Elizabeth, he could cause havoc in England just to annoy Elizabeth or plan to assassinate her himself. This way to deal with Mary would be classed as a serious risk.

8. The Solution Our groups solution was to send Mary Queen Of Scots to a prison in a faraway English county. There are, of course advantages and disadvantages to this solution. This is the best decision because a faraway county would mean that Mary would still be alive, so her supporters would not try to rebel against Elizabeth, because she has chosen to not kill Mary. Mary’s links and alliances with other countries would also work to Elizabeth's advantage, because she also did not want to loose these allies and if she were to kill Mary, these allies may turn against her. It was in Elizabeth’s favour to keep Mary alive, but of course the disadvantage is that Elizabeth's supporters could find out about her imprisonment and start a rebellion to free Mary. We came to a conclusion that there were more advantages in keeping Mary Queen of Scots alive than killing her. This solution seems to work to Elizabeth’s advantage.

9. Consequences By sending Mary to a far away county, this could cause a few problems to Elizabeth. For a start, the “Mobs” (Mary’s supporters) will be really keen on finding out where Mary is being kept so they can get her out. This means that they may start to threaten Elizabeth and because there is a lot of them they can be really powerful so Elizabeth would need to spend more money on protection for herself. If they did find out where Mary had been taken then they could easily travel to her as the county is still in England. There would be no hassle about getting in to where she is staying because of the number of mobs, they could plan an entry route, they are very clever people so they could easily get in and then rescue Mary so that she would have freedom to do whatever she wanted until she was captured again even then she would be rescued again so it would go round in a vicious circle. Also, whilst being locked up Mary would have a lot of time to think up plans against Elizabeth. She would have weeks and weeks to come up with ideas and how to put them into practise, if she wasn’t behind bars then Elizabeth could distract her by calling her to meetings and so forth. Of course Mary is going to want to get revenge against Elizabeth, especially after being locked up, she can’t be kept in forever. But overall, this decision has far less consequences than any other option, that is why this is the one we choose.