And if thirty-nine-year-old Mary were not, after all, to bear a child, then Elizabeth took on a vital new importance for the queen’s husband. Philip wanted a Catholic England; but, even more than that, he wanted England kept out of the arms of France, with whom his father’s Habsburg Empire was at war. The next Catholic heir to his wife’s throne was the young Mary, Queen of Scots, currently living at the French court as the intended bride of the dauphin. If support for the bastard heretic Elizabeth as England’s next queen was what it took to prevent the kingdom being subsumed into a new French empire, then that was a price Philip was willing to pay.
Mary Queen of Scots, Fransız kralıyla evli. İspanyol Philip’in eşi Mary yaşlandı ve veliaht doğuramayacak. Varisi ise Protestan Elizabeth. İskoç Mary Katolik olmasına rağmen Fransa ile ilişkisi var diye İspanyol Philip Fransa’nın güçlenmesini önlemek için Elizabeth’in başa geçmesine razı oldu. Devlet yönetimi artık din işlerinden daha önemli.