Elizabeth R 4 [1/8]

[theproplady]

Mary's jailer sounds like one of the first Republicans. 

[ThePanzerfist44]

Richard Topcliffe - rack master , that introduction would have me singing like a canary - before I was racked.

[Albukhshi]

@ThePanzerfist44

rack master sounds like a sports exercise machine..

[RICKANDDIANNE]

@Albukhshi that was funny, thanks.  happy holidays.

[kendahke]

what is not covered here or in Weir's books is the strong diplomatic connection at this time between Elizabeth and Catherine de Medici. Both of them had Phillip of Spain as a thorn in their sides, as well as MQS being a problem child. Catherine had warned Elizabeth of the Ridolfi plot, at which Mary was the center. Read "Catheine de Medici Renaissance Queen of France" by Leonie Frieda.

[ThePanzerfist44]

@kendahke - Elizabeth was also heavily diplomatically involved with Tsar Ivan IV - Ivan the terrible , he was fixated n marrying an english noblewoman - but the english ambassador had warned the court of Ivan mass murders and religious perversions - so Elizabeth strung him along to keep trade open for years and years , she was the greatest political player of the age when you consider how illustrious and infamous her contempories were .

[kendahke]

@ThePanzerfist44 what does that have to do with Catherine de Medicis? That's what I was talking about.

[dustca100]

if you were in Topcliffe's hands, you were in a world of shit!

[StrangeShipper]

I wonder why she kept Mary alive for so long.

[Jamestopboy]

@StrangeShipper Because if she executed Mary, then the whole of Spain and Portugal, both under control of Philip II of Spain, would come to attack her. In this case, the Spanish Armada.

[pup5]

@StrangeShipper - also, Elizabeth made a reference to Walsingham = Mary was a Queen and it was a considered a crime to execute the sovereign of a nation, even though she was deposed, but more maybe as Elizabeth was a prisoner in the Tower and barely escaped execution herself ...

and there's more as well, probably; there's a great bio by Alison Weir, "The Life of Elizabeth I" that gives a great amount of insight into her character and why she did what she did

[kpadmirer]

Is the singer at the beginning a countertenor?

[TachieBillano]

Queen Elizabeth: "..it lies deep within you, Sir Francis, a melancholy humour. I advise purgatives."

ROTFL!!!

[misscatalina711]

I have always belived that Mary (Queen of Scotland) was a dumb bimbo. When I hear about the stupid things she was involved in, I feel like I could throttle her.

[happybkwrm]

Mary should have gone to France rather than England. What the heck did she think would happen when she went to a Protestant country with a Protestant queen whose throne she had already tried to claim?

[Jelperman]

@happybkwrm

She didn't choose to go to England, the Scottish nobility handed her over when they forced her to abdicate.

[happybkwrm]

@Jelperman No, they didn't. She was imprisoned. She escaped, her followers lost a battle with Moray, and she went to England instead of getting on a boat to France. It was her decision. She was NOT handed over to the English. They didn't want her.

[TachieBillano]

@happybkwrm: Yeah. That was a rather dumb political move on the part of Mary Queen of Scots.

[kendahke]

@Jelperman she did choose England. Mary couldn't return to France. Catherine de Medici and Charles IX had turned their backs on her after the death of Darnley, as did the pope. When Francis II died and Charles ascended the throne, Catherine made it clear that Mary was no longer welcomed in France.

[kendahke]

@Jelperman That is why Mary gambled on throwing in with Elizabeth--Elizabeth made the most noise about the "monstrousness" of "feet guiding the head": subjects deposing their prince. Read "Catherine de Medici" by Leonie Freida.