Queen Mary alters Act of Succession

Queen Mary I of England married Philip of Spain in 1554. Mary did not have any children.
Mary could not persuade Parliament to alter her father's Act of Succession, which meant that the Protestant Elizabeth would succeed her.
Suppose Queen Mary does persuade Parliament and Henry VIII's Act of Succession is altered.
Who does Mary I choose to be her heir?
 
Queen Mary I of England married Philip of Spain in 1554. Mary did not have any children.
Mary could not persuade Parliament to alter her father's Act of Succession, which meant that the Protestant Elizabeth would succeed her.
Suppose Queen Mary does persuade Parliament and Henry VIII's Act of Succession is altered.
Who does Mary I choose to be her heir?

Mary, Queen of Scots. If Mary passes Elizabeth for some reason (maybe Elizabeth is married off on the Continent or dies suddenly or is attainted for treason) and the surviving Grey daughters (based on the treason of their father). The Catholic, Tudor-descended Mary of Scots might be the choice.

I only see this happening if Mary has the political strength and her Catholic Restoration is stronger. For that to happen Mary has to live quite a while longer. I'd say at least another 10-15 years then she did in OTL.
 
No chance of that happening. Mary, Queen of Scots was married to the Dauphin of France and Mary I was as pro-Spanish as one could get. I can't see her basically handing her kingdom to the Valois. However, I can see Mary try to get her cousin Margaret Douglas to be her heiress. A bit difficult, but possible. Mary would have to cut out the Queen of Scots, but I suppose a clause forbidding a foreign monarch could be inserted. However, would such an act be necessary? From what I remember the Third succession act basically allowed Henry to name his own heir, failing him having a legitimate child.

Assuming that the act's power passed to Mary (something I think her lawyers could argue), then by letters patent she could make Margaret Douglas and her line the heirs to the throne. The real challenge would be cutting out Elizabeth, not Mary Queen of Scots. Good Lady Bess would have to do something REALLY bad to be cut out of the succession, like be drawn into one of the attempts to depose Mary I or perhaps make a secret marriage. Either way it would be difficult.
 
I think Mary's biggest problem is that she herself was exceptionally unwilling to raise the issue because it meant admitting she was not likely to produce an heir until the point where she realised it was too late and that left her little time to actually get a succession act through Parliament.
She isn't helped by the fact that Philip was at this point pro-Elizabeth - for the anti-French reasons mentioned above.
Elizabeth might have been regarded as a Protestant to English exiles and rebels but she played her cards close to her chest and was willing enough to allow Mary and her husband to think she was open to persuasion on religion even if neither and particularly Mary did not trust her.
Even Mary's catholic dominated council were not that unwilling to proclaim Elizabeth on Mary's death.
Mary would also struggle to claim her father's right to name an heir had passed to her as sovereign. Her brother's device for the succession had been based on the same assumption and had failed which means Mary is going to have to get any change approved by Parliament which despite it being loyal to her might have serious concerns about setting up a situation that would mean civil war (if not war with France and Scotland as well).

Mary certainly flirted with alternatives usually to demote and upset her sister - she remained close to both of her first cousins Frances Grey (despite her husband and daughter's treason) and Margaret Douglas in particular.

Mary's main problem in finding an alternative was the lack of an obvious Catholic heir that wasn't Mary Stuart whose claim could be supported by a majority and could be held up in law.
 
The other issue that while Mary could name plenty of other people as heir there is the question of making it stick after she's dead. Look at Edward VI and Lady Jane Grey. If Mary names someone other than Elizabeth and unless Elizabeth is either dead or in the tower when Mary dies then there will almost certainly be an uprising in her favour, probably supported by the majority of the gentry and aristocracy. For obvious reasons they were very keen on preserving the proper path of inheritance. That's how they had got their estates.
 
Say Liz shoves off sometime between her brother and sister's death, how would Mary reason in demarcating the succession? To the Margaretian line in Scotland-France? Or to the Marian line? Obviously, Felipe would prefer Lady Katherine Grey to the bonnie Queen of Scots, but then there's Margaret Douglas thrown into the mix too - who's legally English, but junior to the Scots' queen.
 
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