Quotes About Authority

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

because the regent's power was limited by the terms of the treaty of Haddington.

meaning that Mary's dynastic claim had at all costs to be discounted.

so refused to accept the usual title of Dowager Queen.

Instead, she insisted on being called Queen Mother for the rest of her life.

using it as an excuse to delay a decision until she could see whether he was going to be able to handle this sort of power.

As Knox had proclaimed, Elizabeth ruled from the head and Mary from the heart

As he spoke—the warrant would have taken about ten minutes to read—Mary sat completely still.

By the end of April 1566, Mary was back in control.

The exchange turned the Hepburns into powerful border lords.

from which the western and central sectors of the border with England were controlled

This was not the way to speak to a queen. Mary, visibly coloring, ordered him to be silent.

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

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

But war was the "sport of kings." And

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

Elizabeth was almost speechless with rage.

Mary was an anointed queen, accountable to God alone.

he was expelled from the castle by Moray and the laird and forbidden to return.

greater in that he had been ensconced safely at a distance and was not leading his troops.

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.

Mary might return home as an independent queen.

and to bolster the legitimacy of her reign in her own country.