Quotes About Power

the most breathtaking and dramatic events of Mary's life were about to unfold.

The wars within the British Isles resumed under Henry VIII, who acceded to the English throne in 1509.

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

But war was the "sport of kings." And

When Elizabeth heard of Mary's forced abdication, she sent at once for Cecil.

In particular, he urged his sister to crush the Protestants, whom he regarded as political insurgents.

Elizabeth was almost speechless with rage.

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

less from Henry VIII's aggression than from James V's decision to launch a counterattack

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.

She had done everything possible to prevent Mary's execution until she felt it could no longer be avoided

The Guise family's ascendancy was over.

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

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

But she was still a crowned queen in her own right.

Mary rose and declared in the full glare of publicity that there was "no other queen of England but herself.

his goal, unlike Elizabeth's, was to keep her off the throne.

She had great success in raising a royal army.

Within a fortnight of her arrival, Mary knew that her whole future lay in Cecil's hands.

She turned next to Moray's base in Fife, cutting his supply lines.

violent gale blew up.

Mary might return home as an independent queen.

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

Arran and Lennox were rival claimants to the succession. Their families were old enemies;