Editing Elizabeth I (section)

===Catholic cause===
[[File:Sir Francis Walsingham by John De Critz the Elder.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Francis Walsingham]], Elizabeth's [[spymaster]], uncovered several plots against her life.]]

Mary was soon the focus for rebellion. In 1569 there was a major Catholic [[Rising of the North|rising in the North]]; the goal was to free Mary, marry her to [[Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk|Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk]], and put her on the English throne.<ref name="Loades, 73">Loades, 73.</ref> After the rebels' defeat, over 750 of them were executed on Elizabeth's orders.<ref>Williams, ''Norfolk'', 174.</ref> In the belief that the revolt had been successful, [[Pope Pius V]] issued a [[papal bull|bull]] in 1570, titled ''[[Regnans in Excelsis]]'', which declared "Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime" to be excommunicated and a [[heretic]], releasing all her subjects from any allegiance to her.<ref name="McGrath, 69">McGrath, 69</ref><ref name="Collinson p. 67"/> Catholics who obeyed her orders were threatened with [[excommunication]].<ref name="McGrath, 69"/> The papal bull provoked legislative initiatives against Catholics by Parliament, which were, however, mitigated by Elizabeth's intervention.<ref>Collinson, 67–68.</ref> In 1581, to convert English subjects to Catholicism with "the intent" to withdraw them from their allegiance to Elizabeth was made a [[treason]]able offence, carrying the death penalty.<ref>Collinson, 68.</ref> From the 1570s [[missionary]] priests from continental [[seminaries]] went to England secretly in the cause of the "reconversion of England".<ref name="Collinson p. 67"/> Some were executed for treasonable conduct, engendering a cult of [[martyrdom]].<ref name="Collinson p. 67">Collinson, 67.</ref>

''Regnans in Excelsis'' gave English Catholics a strong incentive to look to Mary as the legitimate sovereign of England. Mary may not have been told of every Catholic plot to put her on the English throne, but from the [[Ridolfi Plot]] of 1571 (which caused Mary's suitor, the Duke of Norfolk, to lose his head) to the [[Babington Plot]] of 1586, Elizabeth's spymaster [[Francis Walsingham]] and the royal council keenly assembled a case against her.<ref name="Loades, 73"/> At first, Elizabeth resisted calls for Mary's death. By late 1586, she had been persuaded to sanction [[Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots|Mary's trial and execution]] on the evidence of letters written during the Babington Plot.<ref>Guy, 483–484.</ref> Elizabeth's proclamation of the sentence announced that "the said Mary, pretending title to the same Crown, had compassed and imagined within the same realm diverse things tending to the hurt, death and destruction of our royal person."<ref>Loades, 78–79.</ref> On 8 February 1587, Mary was beheaded at [[Fotheringhay Castle]], Northamptonshire.<ref>Guy, 1–11.</ref> After the execution, Elizabeth claimed that she had not intended for the signed execution warrant to be dispatched, and blamed her secretary, [[William Davison (diplomat)|William Davison]], for implementing it without her knowledge. The sincerity of Elizabeth's remorse and whether or not she wanted to delay the warrant have been called into question both by her contemporaries and later historians.<ref name=collinson/>