Abstract
No sooner had Mary Stewart been put on trial than James VI tried to persuade Elizabeth to pardon or reprieve his mother. His efforts were not half-hearted or insincere, because of his ambition to secure the English succession, as many historians have suggested. On the contrary, he pursued Mary’s case energetically and forcefully, for he believed that his own personal honour and that of the Scottish nation were at stake. Similarly, concern about the succession did not prevent James from protesting about Mary’s execution after February 1587. James refused to communicate with the queen directly, refused entry to her envoy, encouraged border incursions and appeared to be listening to the voices in Scotland calling for vengeance. Until the spring of 1588 there were justifiable fears in England that the Anglo-Scottish defensive league negotiated at Berwick in July 1586 would not survive the crisis. Mary’s execution, moreover, did not resolve the English succession question by leaving James as the only viable candidate for the throne on Elizabeth’s death. Uncertainty about the future existed on both sides of the border and was an important cause of Anglo-Scottish friction until the closing years of the reign.
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