Why were other claimants to the throne of England passed over in favor of James VI?

Question

From what I gathered, there were a few possible claimants alive at the time of Queen Elizabeth I's death. There was King James VI of Scotland, Arbella Stuart and Anne Stanley. Lady Catherine Grey did have a son, but her marriage was deemed invalid so he and his line were considered illegitimate and barred from sucession. What I'm confused about is, there was the Third Act of Sucession passed by Henry VIII years ago which excluded Margaret Tudor's line, which King James and Arbella Stuart descended from. Wouldn't that make Lady Anne Stanley the true heiress to the throne? Was there a new law that overrided the Third Sucession Act?

Answer 1

Elizabeth 1 never named a successor to her throne, instead she used it as bait to keep other possible claimants in line.  James of Scotland had the preeminent right due to his bloodline.  Catherine Grey's line while in the succession was tainted due to her father's raising of her sister Jane to the throne.  Also, the country was firmly protestant by that time and a catholic ruler would not have been welcomed..

Answer 2

King James VI was the closest in line to the throne, being the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.  Elizabeth indicated on her deathbed that James should be King.  The choice of the succession was in her hands, but she was a realist and knew that James was the most obvious and most suitable candidate for the throne.

Answer 3

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. The Act superseded the First Succession Act and the Second Succession Act, which had left Prince Edward the only heir to the throne. It returned both of Henry's daughters Mary and Elizabeth to the line of succession, behind Edward, any potential children of his, and any potential children of Henry by his current wife Catherine Parr. Edward VI attempted to ignore the Act in his will by naming Lady Jane Grey as his successor in place of Mary. (The marriage of Lady Catherine Grey having been annulled, and her children declared illegitimate, by Elizabeth I). However this failed and Mary took her rightful place on the throne as ordained by the Act.

As described in fuller detail elsewhere, Henry VIII was authorized by Parliament to set the succession to the English Crown in his will. Henry did so, specifying that after his own descendants died out, the Crown was to go the descendants of his younger sister Mary, and leaving out the descendants of his older sister Margaret. Because of a poorly documented marriage of one of Mary's granddaughters, when the last descendant of Henry VIII died Mary's heir appears to have been the 22-year-old Lady Anne Stanley, oldest daughter of the 5th Earl of Derby, and great-great-granddaughter of Mary. Had Henry VIII's will been followed, this Lady Anne should have succeeded to the English Throne as Queen Anne I. Instead, Henry's will was ignored, and Margaret's descendant James VI, King of Scotland, succeeded to the Throne of England as James I. He is the ancestor of all English Monarchs since then. Lady Anne's right to the English Throne, under the terms of the will of Henry VIII and accepting the illegitimacy of Lord Beauchamp, has long been recognized. See, for example, the note in the second edition of The Complete Peerage, vol. IV, p. 213, note (f), continued onto p. 214.

This list usually given excludes females from the crown. The precedent for female inheritance of the Crown would not have been set had George, Duke of Clarence inherited the crown. The principle that a woman could reign was only laid down by Henry VIII when he named Mary I as heir to the throne in 1525, and approved by Parliament by the First Succession Act which appointed Elizabeth I as heir. This line does, however, maintain the precedent of the right of a male to inherit via female line set by the succession of Henry II after he reclaimed the usurped crown from his cousin Stephen.

There are no descendants of Lady Anne Stanley recorded living after 1826, although this does not necessarily mean that her line ever went extinct. However, if her line did fail, then her right of succession to the throne of England would have passed to the heirs of her sister Lady Frances Stanley (b. 1583)., but that excepting that normally the line of ascession is through any available male {even if having to 'backtrack up' the lineage.