There were three main threats to the throne of Elizabeth I; The Spanish Armada in 1588, The Northern Rebellion in 1569 and Mary Queen of Scots. These threats can be seen as both very serious and not so serious. Whilst Elizabeth was Queen, she faced many threats as a result of all the religious tension at the time. All three of these threats involved the removal of Mary’s throne and so can be seen as serious. The most serious of which was the threat from Mary Queen of Scots due to her legitimate claim to the throne and strong support.
On the one hand, the threat from Mary Queen of Scots was the biggest threat to Elizabeth I. This is because Mary had a legitimate claim to the throne as she was Henry VIII’s sister’s great granddaughter; therefore she was second in line to the throne. Mary Queen of Scots also had a lot of Catholic support, a lot of the European Union wanted England to be Catholic, and so they would have wanted Mary to be on the English throne and not Elizabeth. All of the Catholics in England would want Mary to be Queen, so she was a large threat to Elizabeth because people in England and in the European Union would want Mary Queen of Scots to be Queen and not Elizabeth I. The Spanish Armada was also a large threat to Elizabeth during her reign. This threat was posed by The King of Spain, King Philip II. Philip and the Spanish were attacking England, because they wanted Mary on the throne. The Spanish Armada was a large threat to Elizabeth in 1588, because the Spanish could easily have attacked England; they had a lot more men and boats than the English. The Spanish Armada also posed as a large threat, because it was a new type of threat that no King or Queen had experienced before; the threat was also posed from another country, this makes it a lot more serious than it would have been if it had have been posed from an Englishman. There was also a third threat, The Northern rebellion in 1569. The