Quotes About Politics

she kept religion and politics apart, putting the ideal of monarchy and of hereditary descent ahead of religion.

Mary was a Catholic, and Cecil's overriding ambition was to remold the whole of the British Isles

Elizabeth and her chief adviser were repeatedly at loggerheads.

Cecil believed that Parliament had the right to settle the succession to the throne on religious grounds

England, Scotland and France, it was actually between England, the Lords of the Congregation and the Guises

France recognized Elizabeth to be the rightful queen of England.

was a slap in the face for Mary by her own side.

In England, Maitland continued to Mary, there were "three factions": the Catholics, the Protestants, and the queen.

Guises swiftly proclaimed their niece to be "queen of England, Scotland and Ireland," challenging Elizabeth's right to succeed her elder sister on the grounds of bastardy and Protestantism.

The Guises were one of the most powerful noble families in France.

hence the palace revolution that had accompanied Francis II's accession only seventeen months before was reversed.

Cecil watched and waited. Unlike Mary, he was entirely prepared for what was about to happen in her country.

The politics of Scotland were tribal: blood ties and kin culture were predominant

He had led the lords who deposed Mary's mother eight years before

Philip II and the papacy, and therefore posed a greater threat to Elizabeth's "safety

Elizabeth had a firm grasp of the issues. She knew that Mary's death would alter the way that monarchy was regarded in the British Isles. A regicide would give a massive boost to Parliament, diminishing forever the "divinity that hedges a king.

Already several of the lords were defecting from Moray and joining her camp.

Philip II had entertained Maitland's overtures in the first place solely to counter a possible marriage to Charles IX

Within three months, the first of the Wars of Religion would have begun in France

She allied with the pro-French Beaton and Lennox, whose joint forces mustered at Linlithgow on July 24.

She most of all needed Elizabeth's friendship to arm herself against the volatility of her lords

as it would soon give Mary a great deal more to think about than reasserting her claim to the throne of England.

this was to be only the first of a kaleidoscopic sequence of murderous events in her country.

If this were not enough, a volte-face had taken place in France itself.