Potential Heir Under Mary and Elizabeth
During the first phase of Queen Mary's reign, Catherine was a potential successor to the throne as Mary was yet unmarried and her younger sister Elizabeth was regarded as illegitimate. Demoted when Elizabeth was declared heir, Catherine's claim came to the fore again when Elizabeth came to the throne in November 1558. At one point the Queen seemed to be warming to Catherine as a potential Protestant heir, with rumours speaking of a possible adoption, but any such opportunities were cut short by Catherine's second marriage.
Read more about this topic: Lady Catherine Grey
Famous quotes containing the words potential and/or heir:
“Most days I feel like an acrobat high above a crowd out of which my own parents, my in-laws, potential employers, phantoms of “other women who do it” and a thousand faceless eyes stare up.”
—Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)
“‘Tis the curse of service,
Preferment goes by letter and affection,
And not by old gradation, where each second
Stood heir to th’ first.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)