Marriage and Succession

Marriage
The marriage of any Tudor monarch was problematic, as marriages created alliances. If a monarch married someone from abroad, they risked war with other countries. For example, Henry VIII's first marriage to Catherine of Aragon resulted in an English-Spanish alliance against France. Marrying someone from England also had problems, as this fuelled faction.

Marriage was more of a problem for female monarchs, such as Mary and Elizabeth. This was because at the time, men were seen as more capable of ruling a country than women, and so the power would have been in the hands of the Queen's husband, rather than the Queen herself. This was a problem if the husband was foreign, such as when Mary I married Philip II of Spain in 1554. There was the risk that England would lose independence, and become another part of the Spanish Empire. Any children of Mary and Philip would have been heirs to both the Spanish and English thrones, and this increased the risk that England would lose its independence.

Succession
Succession to the throne was also a cause of political instability in mid-Tudor England. In 1553, Edward VI changed the succession to include Lady Jane Grey instead of Mary. This led to political crisis as Mary had to take the throne by force.