ABSTRACT
Elizabeth's anger and sorrow (temporarily real though they were) and the royal funeral accorded to Mary could not disguise the facts to anyone. Scotland burst out in a fury, but James VI soon subordinated his moderate feelings as a son to his passionate interest in the English succession; the danger of war in" the north melted away rapidly. France, where the storm was even greater, proved harder to appease: the death of Mary cemented the alliance of the League with Spain. Yet all in all, the practical effects abroad were negligible, especially since Spain had been deternlined on attack long before the execution. In England a heavy burden seemed lifted. The traitors within the gate were frustrate, the queen-symbol of national survival-safe at last. When her anger abated, Elizabeth came to see that the councirs disobedience had cut a knot which there had been no way of untying. If she suspected that later ages, more distant from the problem and therefore better able to take the wrong view, might condemn her for the death of the unfortunate queen of Scots, one hopes she did not let it trouble her. Whatever the moralists and the romantics may say, it is difficult to see what else could have been done about a proven danger to the state, properly and lawfully convicted of a capital crime. From the moment that Mary took refuge in England she created a situation which could not be resolved in a way that was both sensible and moral. And yet-the martyrdom of the queen of Scots remains to stain the record of Elizabeth's reign.
