TheCodeBreakers
that, in their turn, were
equally well founded. Mary was the heir apparent to the throne of
England. She was also nominally queen of Scotland, though she had
been ejected in a tangled series of - events and had been prevented from
returning by the opposition of the strong Protestant party there to her
indiscretions. She was a remarkable woman: beautiful, possessed of
great personal charm, commanding the loyalty of her subordinates,
courageous, unshakably devoted to her religion, but also unwise,
stubborn, and capricious. Various Catholic factions had schemed more
than once to seat her on the throne of England and so restore the realm
to the Church. The chief result had been to confine Mary to various
castles in England and to alert Walsingham to seek an opportunity to
extirpate once and for all this cancer that threatened to destroy his own
queen, Elizabeth.
The opportunity arose in 1586. A former page of Mary's, Anthony
annaabi.ee 
