ekjohnston:leroichevalier:→ Requested by anonStood in Edinburgh Castle today, in the room where sh
ekjohnston:leroichevalier:→ Requested by anonStood in Edinburgh Castle today, in the room where she gave birth to James, and wished for a YA where she and Elizabeth are uneasy allies, despite their quarrels over borders and faith.(the bad guys are Old White Dudes, obviously. neither Mary nor Elizabeth has to target the other in order to consolidate power.)What makes it so sad is that there was a brief time when this was the case and it could have stayed that way if a few things had gone differently. Elizabeth wrote to Mary to try to help her as she saw Mary slipping into the same trap she had narrowly avoided herself (Mary married her husband’s probable murderer Lord Bothwell while Elizabeth wanted to marry Robert Dudley but didn’t in part because he was suspected of murdering his wife so he could be with her). Elizabeth felt a real kinship with and sympathy for Mary as everything went to hell after she got with Bothwell, and when Mary fled for her life, she fled right to Elizabeth because of that fragile kind of trust that was building between them. But, of course, the old white men eventually interfered and ruined everything and any sisterhood Elizabeth and Mary might have established died away as they began plotting against each other again. But I do suspect the reason that Elizabeth never met Mary in person is because she and/or her counselors knew there was a big chance she wouldn’t be able to be as calculating about Mary’s fate as she’d have to be if she did meet her and that sympathy was able to take root. -- source link