3. Why was it always possible that Elizabeth would be assassinated?

Answer 1

The Pope had announced that, under Catholic marriage rules, she was not a legitimate heir to the English throne (and neither had been her half-brother, Edward VI). Therefore, he said, it was the duty of Catholics to try to remove her, and anyone who assassinated her would not be held guilty of a mortal sin for doing it. There were still Roman Catholics in England, but this pronouncement from the Pope made them greatly mistrusted because their loyalty was being tested in two opposite directions.

It was a stupid thing for the Pope to have said, as he had no power to choose or install any legitimate Catholic successor to her. An assassination would have been pointless unless a foreign military force had ready to enforce the choice of a new monarch, probably Mary Queen of Scots. After she had been executed, there was no remotely plausible Catholic claimant to the throne (answerer Lady D was wrong, Mary's son James VI of Scotland was a Protestant), so the danger of assassination became pretty remote.

Answer 2

At the time of Elizabeth's reign there was a lot of religious strife in England. Her father had separated England from the Catholic church to create one which allowed him to get the divorce he wanted in order to marry Elizabeth's mother. After his death the succession went at fairly rapid intervals, with each new ruler having a definite stand on religion, including Elizabeth's older half-sister, Mary who is referred to as Bloody Mary because of the violent persecution of non-catholics during her reign.

Elizabeth however, didn't make a stand. While she was basically a protestant (the people who put her on the throne as a reactionary move to Mary's catholic reign of terror) she also did not allow the persecution of catholics to the extreme levels of any of her predecessors. She was even once quoted as telling one minister, when he pressured her about religious issues, that she felt that each person should be "allowed to go to the devil" in their own way. Some have speculated that she was a secret catholic, while others speculated that she was an atheist.

Another reason was that there were still heirs available. Another Mary, Mary Queen of Scotts and her son James were also in the line of ascension. They were catholic, and in many minds were the true and rightful heirs in the first place.

You see, Henry was married to Bloody Mary's mother, but he wanted Anne Bolynn. He broke from the Catholic church when his request for a divorce was denied. He created his own church and set himself up as head of it, and granted himself an annulment. Then he married Anne. Elizabeth arrived shortly afterwards. (less than 9 months)

Now the annulment meant that Mary was a bastard, and should not be able to inherit. When she was placed on the throne, this legally stated that Mary was the legitimate child of Henry. This took any appearance of legitimacy from Elizabeth. People would later claim she was legitimate and put her on the throne. But there WAS another complication. When Henry had tired of Anne Bolynn he had her executed. Before her execution she was given a paper to sign. An annulment, which stated that she was never married to Henry. This annulment took Elizabeth's claim for legitimacy away completely, but it should also have saved Anne from the block. She can't, after all, be executed for cheating on a man she was never married to. She was executed though, another factor used to discard that annulment and instate Elizabeth.

One of the strongest reasons that Elizabeth faced assassination was her single statues. Is she had married she would be Queen, but her new husband would be King, and therefore (at the time) dominant. Of all the offers for marriage she had, not one was safe as they all offered risks to at least one powerful group of men. A Catholic could not accept a protestant King, a protestant cannot accept a Catholic one. A foreign king was distasteful to many, however choosing which man within the English court should be given the power of king was an impossible choice.

Finally there was the concept of succession. Elizabeth could not marry because any choice put her, and often England itself, at risk. Any choice she made would cause revolution. With no husband, there was naturally, no heir. For those that wanted Mary of Scottland or her son James, Elizabeth had to be eliminated BEFORE she could produce that heir. For those that didn't, she had to be wedded off to some harmless fop and bedded until the heir was produced, at which time she would need to be eliminated as she was far too dominant a woman for such a patriarchal society to be comfortable with.

Answer 3

Because (as I wrote in my answer to your other question), for Catholics, she was not legitimate: she was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife. As Henry VIII had divorced Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn, and as Catholics did not (and do not) recognize divorce, she was not considered a legitimate child (and so, not a legimate ruler). That is why there were plots against her life, mainly by Catholics were supported the Catholic queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart.

Answer 4

Because she was Protestant and most of England was Catholic. They considered her a heretic and didn't want her for their Queen.

Rent the movie "Elizabeth". It will explain a lot to you.

Answer 5

~Given all her marriages and the poor manner in which they ended, it was a constant threat to Ms. Taylor that one of her estranged husbands would come gunning for her.