Potential Heirs to Elizabeth’s Throne

Abstract

When Elizabeth became queen, the great hope was that she would marry and have sons of her own. But until she did, there was great pressure on her to name an heir, which Elizabeth refused to do. There was a range of alternate heirs from the beginning of the queen’s reign until the end. These included some who were descended from the earlier dynasty, the Plantagenets. There were also the descendants of her father Henry VIII’s younger sister Mary, including her granddaughters by her elder daughter Frances, Lady Katherine Grey, and her children and grandchildren, and her younger sister Mary. Mary’s granddaughter Margaret Clifford, by her younger daughter Eleanor, was another potential heir and she had sons also. Henry VIII’s older sister Margaret’s granddaughter Mary Stuart by her first husband James IV of Scotland had, from the Catholic point of view, a very strong claim. Margaret’s daughter by her second husband was Margaret Douglas, who married Matthew Stuart. Their granddaughter Arbella Stuart was often spoken of as a potential heir. At the death of Elizabeth in 1603 the crown peacefully passed to Mary Stuart’s son, James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England.