Being a woman, how huge of a factor do you think it contributed to the stability of Queen Elizabeth I's reign?

Question

I think this was also a problem for other queen regents of the time as well, like Mary I of England. The two examples I can think of is the threat of Jane Grey to Mary I and Mary of Scots to Elizabeth. I mean sure religion was a HUGE part of it. But Henry VIII cut off England from the Pope when he created his own Church of England. He made enemies with the Pope, Spain, and probably every head of a Catholic nation. However, the situation for him was more personal (wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon) as opposed to reverting a country back to Catholism (in Mary I's case) or being seen as illegitimate, a heretic leading England to h**l and unfit to rule (Elizabeth I's case) which actually affected an entire nation. I don't think anyone bothered trying to overthrow Henry VIII. So if Mary I and Elizabeth were both men, do you think people would've plotted to overthrown them?

Answer 1

Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, established the legitimacy of the Tudor dynasty. Henry VIII weakened the dynasty by starting and fighting expensive wars against France, but was able to survive by relying first on Cardinal Woolsey and Sir Thomas More and eventually Thomas Cromwell, who resolved Henry's Great Matter by suggesting that Henry be made the head of the Church of England. When Henry died he left instuctions for his succession; first his male heir Edward, next Mary, Catherine's daughter and lastly Elizabeth.

By the time Elizabeth became Queen the Tudor's were very well established even though Edward was a complete failure and "Bloody" Mary had attempted to return England to Catholicism. As you point out Elizabeth's main rival was also a woman, who QE1 turned back to start her rein by being the first to London, the key holding of any monarch to be. Being a woman had less influence on her reign than being intelligent, cultured and Machiavellian.  The Lords of England were leery of her at first, as a woman, but soon came to appreciate her reign because her changes in the laws favored free trade and prosperity.

BTW  Elizabeth had many suitors as the "Virgin" queen. and they gave her much influence in the rest of Europe.

Answer 2

The famous Lady Jane Grey sometimes referred as "The Nine Days' Queen", was overthrown because Jane's accession, pursuant to the will of Edward VI, breached the laws of England. Under the Third Succession Act Mary Tudor was the legitimate and rightful heir to the Crown, followed by her half sister Elizabeth Tudor. The Third Succession Act of Henry VIII's reign was passed by the Parliament of England in mid-1543, and returned both Mary and Elizabeth to the line of the succession behind Prince Edward. This rule will still apply even if another distant male member took the throne.  

Although Queen Mary I of England's reign was short, she did enjoyed tremendous popular support and sympathy for her mistreatment during the earliest parts of her reign. Even though she lost almost all of it after marrying Philip, no one ever tried any sort of assassination attempts on her. Not even after the persecution of Protestants, which earned Mary the appellation "Bloody Mary" although many historians believe Mary does not deserve all the blame.

As for Queen Elizabeth I, many of her assassination attempts were authorized by the Pope. She was a Protestant, and in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, she was illegitimate and therefore, a b*****d Queen who was "unfit to rule." They saw Mary, Queen of Scot as the rightful heir, therefore, if Elizabeth was successfully assassinated, Mary, Queen of Scot would have ascended the throne of England.

This has nothing to do with gender discrimination, the Pope would have still tried to assassination Elizabeth, even if she was a man. The whole thing started with conflicts of religion, not conflicts of gender. There was no problem when Mary Tudor took the throne, and Mary Stuart had many supporters since in the eyes of many Catholics, Elizabeth was illegitimate, thus making Mary the true heir as Mary II of England.