1554. Seems like only yesterday.
Uplifting website, most likely, it’s a lot of fun to maintain and update it...
It was a close call as ‘Bloody’ Queen Mary was near fanatical about restoring England to Roman Catholicism (RC) and wiping out the disgrace of her mother, Catherine’s forced divorce from Henry VIII. Elizabeth, her half-sister, was the sole daughter of Mary’s mother’s replacement, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth was quite a bit less inclined to RC although her life depended upon keeping the appearance of being RC.
If Elizabeth had indeed been executed herself, the next in line (1558) then would have been the other Queen Mary [Stuart (age 15)], acknowledged reigning Queen of Scotland, except that she was already married for 6 months to the crown prince of France. As another devout RC, she would have given Protestant-trending England a real lengthy bout of practicing RC monarchs. An interesting alt-hist speculation there!
bkmk
... And now, the rest of the story https://www.newbelgium.com/blogs/new-belgium-brewing/2013/12/09/1554-has-a-history-that-you-might-not-believe/