How did Queen Elizabeth the First accept and use power wisely?
She knew that, after Mary, she was the rightful Queen (even though some others, like Catholics who regarded her as illegitimate, did not), and accepted her accession to the throne with, “This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in our eyes”. She had had to dissemble and steer her way through dangerous times after her father died, and she learnt well from this. She was very well educated and was extremely intelligent, which was a good start. She also knew that she could never marry; there were probably several reasons for this, but regarding your question, her prospective husband would be a problem. If he was a foreign king/prince, England would likely become a satellite country to his, or it would be brought into foreign wars and political problems that it had no concern with. If she married an English nobleman, that might start in-faction fighting among other noble families. There had been just such fighting in the previous century, and England needed peace. So Elizabeth countere
