Mary Queen of Scots was born in 1542 and her troubles began 6 days after her birth when her father King James V of Scotland died leaving her as Queen of the Scots as just an infant. Mary was immediately faced with many political issues including the long term hostility between England and Scotland, the delicacy of the Tudor succession to the English throne, and the religious clash between the Catholics and Protestants. Mary was the the great-granddaughter of King Henry VII of England meaning that after Henry VIII’s children, Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, Mary was next in line to the England crown. Most English Catholics accepted Elizabeth’s rule, however as the Catholic population formally rebutted the validity of the marriage between Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn. This meant the due to Catholic judgement, Elizabeth was therefore illegitimate and inadequate to rule. This meant that if Elizabeth was not suitability certified by descent to be monarch of England,…show more content… The controversy between Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots was therefore a major issue for both queens. The issue was not helped by Pope Gregory XIII’s 1580 excommunication announcement that the killing of Elizabeth would not be seen as a sin. This made Elizabeth and her advisors more and more nervous. In 1567 Mary was imprisoned in Scotland and forced to pass the crown on to her son James who was one at the time. When Mary escaped from prison a year later she fled to England where instead of the protection she had forseen, Queen Elizabeth imprisoned her and she then spent the next 19 years moving from castle to castle while Elizabeth decided what to do with her. Although Mary was seen as the biggest threat to the throne, Elizabeth