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Very famously, Elizabeth I of England was known as the "Virgin Queen" and lived her whole life unmarried and without children. What this also meant, though, was that at the time of her death in 1600, the legitimate line of descent for the House of Tudor was extinct (ironic, considering all that Henry VIII went through to see it continue). There were illegitimate children and a number of cousins through Henry VIII's sisters, but there was another complication: the tangled web of relations with the House of Stuart to the north. At this time, the most senior descendant after Elizabeth I herself was interestingly enough Mary, Queen of Scots. And that presented a problem.

Mary was the only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, whose mother was Margaret Tudor, the older sister of King Henry VIII of England. This had been readily apparent for years by this point, to both Elizabeth I and Mary I, and had long been a tense spot in Anglo-Scots relations. Being as it was that Mary was Catholic, English Catholics who resented the Church of England and Elizabeth I for being a Protestant saw Mary I as the legitimate Queen of England. Mary I had initially claimed the throne of England, but was quiet on the issue from the 1570s onwards in order to try and soothe her relations with England and Elizabeth I. Unbeknownst to most of the governments of both nations, however, by 1585 Mary I had privately dropped her claim to the Throne of England in communications with Elizabeth I during the War of the Marches. It was during this that the two hatched their own kind of plan for succession to the Throne of England, in order to try and keep the thrones of England and Scotland separate.

Margaret Tudor had, after the death of King James IV, remarried with Archibald Douglas, the Earl of Angus. Though they divorced she had produced Margaret Douglas, who herself had married Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox. Their marriage in turn had produced Henry Stewart, the Lord Darnley, who was Mary I's half-first cousin through this complicated weave of royal marriages. Lord Darnley had himself been a potential candidate for Mary I's own hand in marriage and had regularly propositioned her, but she found him vain, arrogant, and unreliable, instead choosing to marry Claud Hamilton, the Lord Paisely, and had already produced several children (among them Francis Stewart, who would become Francis I, King of Scots). Part of why Mary I had refused to marry him was the threat that their marriage would represent to England, as he also had a claim to the throne through his grandmother being Henry VIII's older sister. It did also, however, present an opportunity for Scotland.

In the arrangements, Mary I offered to present Lord Darnley as heir to the throne of England, and the two agreed to push him towards marriage to Lady Katherine Grey, herself a potential successor to Elizabeth I and who was eager to try and regain her standing with her cousin. Darnley himself was an Anglophile who eagerly converted to the Anglican Church, taking clear note of what the two queens pushing them to marriage signified. No public disclosure of the intent was made clear, but after Elizabeth I died the arrangement (sometimes called the 'Ladies' Agreement') was enacted. Elizabeth I had written into her will that the Parliament of England was to offer the Crown to Mary, Queen of Scots, and that if she were to refuse then to offer it to Lord Darnley. Parliament did as requested and offered the crown to Mary if she would respect the Church of England's status. Mary I meanwhile then engaged in her own part of the agreement and declined the throne, instead making her own offer that they coronate Lord Darnley as if she were not privy to the contents of Elizabeth I's will.

The redundancy of having both queens indicate their suggestion for the English throne was intentional, to where both the Protestant Elizabeth and the Catholic Mary were suggesting that Lord Darnley be made King. As expected he jumped at the chance, and when offered the crown eagerly accepted. By this point England and Scotland had managed to establish a more cooperative peace with each other, and both her and Elizabeth were eager to see the two kingdoms remain separate. The arrangements had been kept secret for 15 years before they were enacted, and would only be publicly uncovered almost a century later when a hidden box of Elizabeth I's private correspondence with Mary I was discovered. Later historians have also suggested that it was a means for Mary I to rid herself of Lord Darnley, now King Henry IX, whose impetuous and arrogant nature made him a disastrous king whose mismanagement of England caused a lot of trouble for it down the line. Theories about Mary I's efforts to sabotage England remain, as of yet, only theories.

Thus the English Succession Crisis itself was over, even if a subsequent war would be fought with Spain to try and displace Henry IX in favor of Isabella Clara Eugenia. Through the arrangements and plans of the two queens, the succession to the throne of England was kept secured and the two kingdoms kept separate. Mary I herself would continue to reign for another 20 years, outlasting Henry IX owing to his assassination in the Gunpowder Plot in 1611. The House of Stewart would then rule in England for the next century until the mess of the English Civil War, overseeing a period of Puritan domination in politics and religion that stymied English democracy and development while Scotland flourished. Though Mary Queen of Scots was a well-loved and highly successful monarch who brought Scotland into a golden age of Renaissance culture and overseas expansion, modern historians sometimes consider her arrangement to put Lord Darnley on the English throne as "the most powerful blow Scotland ever struck against England".

Description
Very famously, Elizabeth I of England was known as the "Virgin Queen" and lived her whole life unmarried and without children. What this also meant, though, was that at the time of her death in 1600, the legitimate line of descent for the House of Tudor was extinct (ironic, considering all that Henry VIII went through to see it continue). There were illegitimate children and a number of cousins through Henry VIII's sisters, but there was another complication: the tangled web of relations with the House of Stuart to the north. At this time, the most senior descendant after Elizabeth I herself was interestingly enough Mary, Queen of Scots. And that presented a problem.

Mary was the only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scotland, whose mother was Margaret Tudor, the older sister of King Henry VIII of England. This had been readily apparent for years by this point, to both Elizabeth I and Mary I, and had long been a tense spot in Anglo-Scots relations. Being as it was that Mary was Catholic, English Catholics who resented the Church of England and Elizabeth I for being a Protestant saw Mary I as the legitimate Queen of England. Mary I had initially claimed the throne of England, but was quiet on the issue from the 1570s onwards in order to try and soothe her relations with England and Elizabeth I. Unbeknownst to most of the governments of both nations, however, by 1585 Mary I had privately dropped her claim to the Throne of England in communications with Elizabeth I during the War of the Marches. It was during this that the two hatched their own kind of plan for succession to the Throne of England, in order to try and keep the thrones of England and Scotland separate.

Margaret Tudor had, after the death of King James IV, remarried with Archibald Douglas, the Earl of Angus. Though they divorced she had produced Margaret Douglas, who herself had married Matthew Stewart, Earl of Lennox. Their marriage in turn had produced Henry Stewart, the Lord Darnley, who was Mary I's half-first cousin through this complicated weave of royal marriages. Lord Darnley had himself been a potential candidate for Mary I's own hand in marriage and had regularly propositioned her, but she found him vain, arrogant, and unreliable, instead choosing to marry Claud Hamilton, the Lord Paisely, and had already produced several children (among them Francis Stewart, who would become Francis I, King of Scots). Part of why Mary I had refused to marry him was the threat that their marriage would represent to England, as he also had a claim to the throne through his grandmother being Henry VIII's older sister. It did also, however, present an opportunity for Scotland.

In the arrangements, Mary I offered to present Lord Darnley as heir to the throne of England, and the two agreed to push him towards marriage to Lady Katherine Grey, herself a potential successor to Elizabeth I and who was eager to try and regain her standing with her cousin. Darnley himself was an Anglophile who eagerly converted to the Anglican Church, taking clear note of what the two queens pushing them to marriage signified. No public disclosure of the intent was made clear, but after Elizabeth I died the arrangement (sometimes called the 'Ladies' Agreement') was enacted. Elizabeth I had written into her will that the Parliament of England was to offer the Crown to Mary, Queen of Scots, and that if she were to refuse then to offer it to Lord Darnley. Parliament did as requested and offered the crown to Mary if she would respect the Church of England's status. Mary I meanwhile then engaged in her own part of the agreement and declined the throne, instead making her own offer that they coronate Lord Darnley as if she were not privy to the contents of Elizabeth I's will.

The redundancy of having both queens indicate their suggestion for the English throne was intentional, to where both the Protestant Elizabeth and the Catholic Mary were suggesting that Lord Darnley be made King. As expected he jumped at the chance, and when offered the crown eagerly accepted. By this point England and Scotland had managed to establish a more cooperative peace with each other, and both her and Elizabeth were eager to see the two kingdoms remain separate. The arrangements had been kept secret for 15 years before they were enacted, and would only be publicly uncovered almost a century later when a hidden box of Elizabeth I's private correspondence with Mary I was discovered. Later historians have also suggested that it was a means for Mary I to rid herself of Lord Darnley, now King Henry IX, whose impetuous and arrogant nature made him a disastrous king whose mismanagement of England caused a lot of trouble for it down the line. Theories about Mary I's efforts to sabotage England remain, as of yet, only theories.

Thus the English Succession Crisis itself was over, even if a subsequent war would be fought with Spain to try and displace Henry IX in favor of Isabella Clara Eugenia. Through the arrangements and plans of the two queens, the succession to the throne of England was kept secured and the two kingdoms kept separate. Mary I herself would continue to reign for another 20 years, outlasting Henry IX owing to his assassination in the Gunpowder Plot in 1611. The House of Stewart would then rule in England for the next century until the mess of the English Civil War, overseeing a period of Puritan domination in politics and religion that stymied English democracy and development while Scotland flourished. Though Mary Queen of Scots was a well-loved and highly successful monarch who brought Scotland into a golden age of Renaissance culture and overseas expansion, modern historians sometimes consider her arrangement to put Lord Darnley on the English throne as "the most powerful blow Scotland ever struck against England".