View source for Elizabeth I, Queen of England

==Queen Mary==
Queen Mary I, by Antonis Mor, 1554. Mary imprisoned Elizabeth in the Tower of London for suspected collaboration with the rebel Thomas Wyatt. 
The remaining wing of the Old Palace, Hatfield House. It was here that Elizabeth was told of her sister's death in November 1558.Edward VI died of tuberculosis on 6 July 1553, aged fifteen. His will swept aside the 1543 Act of Succession, excluded both Mary and Elizabeth from the succession, and instead declared as his heir Lady Jane Grey, granddaughter of Henry VIII's sister Mary, Duchess of Suffolk.[29] Lady Jane was proclaimed queen, but her support quickly crumbled, and she was deposed less than two weeks later. Mary rode triumphantly into London, with Elizabeth at her side.[30]

The show of solidarity between the sisters did not last long. Mary was determined to crush the Protestant faith in which Elizabeth had been educated, and she ordered that everyone attend Mass. This included Elizabeth, who had no choice but outwardly to conform.[31] Mary's initial popularity ebbed away when it became known that she planned to marry Prince Philip of Spain, the son of Emperor Charles V.[32] Discontent spread rapidly through the country, and many looked to Elizabeth as a focus for their opposition to Mary's religious policies. In January and February 1554, uprisings broke out (known as Wyatt's rebellion) in several parts of England and Wales, led by Thomas Wyatt.[33]

Once the rising had collapsed, Elizabeth was brought to court and interrogated. On 18 March, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where Lady Jane Grey had been executed on 12 February to deter the rebels.[34] The terrified Elizabeth fervently protested her innocence.[35] Though it is unlikely that she had plotted with the rebels, some of them were known to have approached her. Mary's closest confidant, Charles V's ambassador Simon Renard, argued that her throne would never be safe while Elizabeth lived; and the Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, worked to have Elizabeth put on trial.[36] However, Elizabeth's supporters in the government, among them Lord Paget, convinced Mary to spare her sister in the absence of hard evidence against her. On 22 May, therefore, Elizabeth was moved from the Tower to Woodstock, where she was to spend almost a year under house arrest in the charge of Sir Henry Bedingfield. Crowds cheered her all along the way.[37][38]

On 17 April 1555, Elizabeth was recalled to court to be closely attended during the final stages of Mary's apparent pregnancy. If Mary and her child died, Elizabeth would become queen. If, on the other hand, Mary gave birth to a healthy child, Elizabeth's chances of becoming queen would recede sharply.[37] When it became clear that Mary was not pregnant, no one believed any longer that she could have a child.[39] Elizabeth's succession seemed assured.[40] Even Philip, who became King of Spain in 1556, acknowledged the new political reality. From this time forward, he cultivated Elizabeth, preferring her to the likely alternative, Mary, Queen of Scots, who was betrothed to the Dauphin of France.[41] When his wife fell ill in 1558, Philip sent the Count of Feria to consult with Elizabeth.[42] By October, Elizabeth was making plans for her government. On 6 November, Mary recognised Elizabeth as her heir.[43][44] Eleven days later, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne when Mary died at St. James's Palace on 17 November.