The war about The War of the Roses

[a_svirn]

> Carol:
> I have no personal stake in the matter (it's no fault of Elizabeth's
> that she was Henry VII's granddaughter <smile>), so I'll be happy to
> listen to your defense of her. I'm not sure, for example, how much
> influence a monarch of the time had over laws passed by Parliament.
> Could all those people have been killed for political reasons, or 
did
> their high treason in many cases (1585-1604) consist solely of being
> (or harboring) a Roman Catholic priest in Elizabethan England?

a_svirn:
The real problem was the rival Catholic claimant to Elisabeth's 
throne, Mary Stuart. There was any number of catholic pro-Mary 
conspiracies, which explains Elisabeth's administration implacable 
attitude towards Catholicism. Also, the international situation 
should be taken into account. The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 
France (1572) didn't help English Catholics either, especially since 
Sir Francis Walsingham, the head of Elizabeth's intelligence was in 
Paris at the time (as an ambassador) and was very nearly killed as 
well. The experience made him even less inclined to tolerate 
Catholics in England. 	

 
> Carol, who would be equally happy to hear a defense of "Bloody" 
Mary,
> whose executions of Anglican "heretics" are seldom defended

Well, she forbore to have Elisabeth executed after the Wyatt 
rebellion. I suppose it is a point in her favor. 
a_svirn