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Elizabeth I and Mary were very much both the products of their times. They were unique in the period that they stood alone as women womans in a time when such a thing was rare, but chose to persue their reigns in completely different ways. Elizabeth herself saw herself a monarch first, then a woman, and spurned all offers of marriage, finding them useful as diplomatic ploys to play Spain and France off one another, but preferring to maintain her independence. She had a long lived and fairly successful reign.

Mary on the other hand seemed to emphasize that she was a woman before she was a Queen. She definitely had the right regal airs about her, but had the shortfalling of being unable to inspire any sort of regal authority, her short reign in Scotland matched by poor political choices as well as a series of poor marriages. While Elizabeth reigned for life and had a fairly successful reign, Mary ended up deposed and forced to seek exile in England where she was ultimately executed.

Is there anyway the roles of these two opposing figures might be switched? I'm not saying directly switched word for word, but maybe Mary remembered as a great Queen and statesman while Elizabeth is failure whose reign is almost wholly overlooked. Your challenge is to make this happen. I'd say any POD past 1542 (Mary's birth) is fair game.

One interesting idea may be Elizabeth dying of smallpox in the 1560s, while Mary somehow gets her marbles together and isn't deposed, or at least Elizabeth's successor is more willing to aid in her restoration.
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