For England it was also an age of great and constant peril.
Elizabeth's entire reign was undermined with plots against her life
and against the life of the Protestant faith. No sooner was one
conspiracy detected and suppressed than a new one sprang up. Perhaps
the most formidable of these was the effort which Mary Stuart, Queen
of Scots, made to supplant her English rival. Shortly after
Elizabeth's accession, Mary's husband, the King of France, died. She
returned to Scotland (1561) and there assumed the Scottish crown, at
the same time asserting her right to the English throne.[3]
[3] See Genealogical Table (p. 207). Mary's claim was based on the
fact that the Pope had never recognized Henry VIII's marriage to Anne
Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, as lawful, while she, herself, as the
direct descendant of Henry's sister, Margaret, stood next in
succession.