... Those who felt discontented about Elizabeth's moderate Protestant settlement now had a clear leader to focus their ambitions of a Catholic England. The Northern Rebellion is a prime example of this religious discontent of many of the laity being focused on releasing Mary to restore Catholicism to England (5600/6000 were individuals not tenants of the landowners who would have been forced into fighting). The reason why this is the paramount threat to Elizabeth is because of the number of people who had grievances against the religion and saw Mary Stuart as the way to gain their religion back. Tied into this is the political danger of those Nobles who also had Catholic sympathies but were also in a position to challenge Elizabeth i.e. the Duke of Norfolk who was under demands from Mary Stuart to gain her release from prison by force if needed. Mary was always going to be the ...

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