What did Queen Elizabeth I actually do when the Mary, Queen of Scots rebellion happened?

Question

I need to know what Queen Elizabeth actually did when Mary Queen of Scots rebelled saying she is the rightful heir of the English throne in 1559. I know she beheaded Mary but I need to know what happened before that.

Answer 1

She did not rebel. She fled Scotland, thinking she would be given asylum by her cousin, Elizabeth, but she was wrong. Elizabeth held her captive for about 19 years - in various castles and strongholds across the country. The reason which led to her eventual execution was that allegedly letters (the Casket Letters) were discovered that indicated that she might have been conspiring to start a rebellion. These letters disappeared in about 1580 and their veracity has long been doubted. Elizabeth didn't really want to execute Mary.

Answer 2

Mary Queen of Scots simply COULD NOT rebel against Elizabeth, because Scotland was a separate sovereign country from England. Mary was its Queen Regnant, and not a subject of Elizabeth, and she could say anything she wanted.

It was the Pope who had called Elizabeth a bastard and heretic, with no right to the the throne, and as a good loyal Roman Catholic, Mary would just have agreed with him.

After Mary's other blunders had got her deposed from the Scottish throne and exiled, she was actually quite good about being a loyal prisoner of Elizabeth and not sounding off about her right to the English throne. But with so many European Catholics wanting Elizabeth dead and Mary on the throne, there were too many Englishmen - both Protestants and Catholics - who wanted Mary dead before that, so it really didn't matter what she said or did, or avoided saying or doing, her death would have been engineered sooner or later. Personally, Elizabeth would rather not have had to execute her, but politically, she ended up with no choice about it.

Answer 3

Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned.