The Historic "Frozen" and its lessons for today's partisan politics

 There’s a story from British Royal history, an analogy to “Frozen”, that holds lessons for D’s and R’s today.

Henry VIII fought with the pope over annulment of his marriage to Katharine, and bought support from the nobles by seizing church lands (1/4 the kingdom) then distributing it. They had a daughter, Mary, who quite Catholic like her mother, was put on house arrest. Minions of the king tormented the teenage girl telling her that any minute Henry would have her executed.  Parliament declared her a bastard.  But Henry died leaving only a 10 year old boy, Edward, as heir and he died 6 years later. Some  Protestant nobles conspired to enthrone Lady Jane Grey, a distant cousin, the new queen since she was Protestant.  She didn’t even want to be queen and ruled only 10 days when Mary declared herself queen, gathered Catholic allies, and marched on London. Princess Mary, after 22 years of patience in her humiliation surely would make a gentle queen, it was thought by Catholic England which comprised 90% of the population in 1553.

But Mary, who wanted to be a unifier, was frail, poor health, looked old beyond her years and didn’t have the political skill to handle the partisanship.  (Like Biden?) She relied on advisors who wanted REVENGE. She started with the idea of tolerance, that the Catholics would persuade the Protestants back into the Papal church.  No luck.  Every noble family now owned church lands they have to give up.  Worse, she arranged herself to be married to the Spanish king Phillip.  The Protestant nobles knew that if the Spanish came in, they would be hunted down like pirates.  The English people as a whole were terrified that Spain would make Britain a colony like they were trying to do with Netherlands—England’s woolens trading partner.  She flubbed one initiative after another until the people began to taunt her in public.  She outlawed Protestantism.  Executed  hapless Lady Jane. And at that point, several Protestant dukes, preferring to die in battle rather than on the block revolted.  Mary’s troops won the short civil war, but then she began to retire to make babies with Phillip and leaving enforcement in the hands of her Catholic advisors.  Thus began the infamous 4 year holocaust.  Elizabeth, her half sister and 15 years younger was implicated with the conspirators, but Mary wavered.  Had her sister done anything wrong?  Mary failed to get pregnant and her health was declining amid ailments that could not be treated in those days.  She went to the Tower, met a sister who like her, was bastardized by Parliament and persecuted and innocent of charges.  They both had developed a deep personal faith in captivity, though Elizabeth didn’t show hers in public. Mary, now reconciled, let her out of prison.  In 1558,as she lay dying, she sent Elizabeth the crown jewels and her blessing to succeed. This, rather than the rightful heir, Mary Stuart of Scotland, also a Catholic. Mary, desperate to have someone’s love, finally found her soul mate in a half sister.

Because of the 4 years of terror, Mary inadvertently earned the nickname “Bloody Mary”.  But she had been out of her league in the highly partisan politics of the day.  Not so Elizabeth.  She was sharp-tongued but fluent in 5 languages, sensed politics like no other monarch before or since. In this red-haired 18 year old girl lived the heart of an emperor.  After a quick harsh put-down of rebellious Catholics, she turned tolerant.  She was conservative and didn’t tax the nobles which they loved.  Athletic like her father, she tirelessly rode her horse and led a retinue from shire to shire drawing enormous crowds at every stop. (Sound like Trump?)  The people had gotten a taste of Catholic excess and started turning Protestant.  By her death 45 years later, the country was 2/3 Protestant, 1/3 Catholic.  Using her language skills she flirted courtship with just about every eligible continental monarch, thus keeping larger countries at bay, thinking they might marry into her kingdom. And England stayed out of war.  But to the English, she constantly reminded them of their prosperity and that she had chosen to marry her country.  Her speeches were compelling, riveting, and it united the entire nation against the Spanish Armada. 

At this writing, we don’t know if Biden or Trump will win.  But if Biden and the Democrats take over, if Biden leaves government to the Leftist advisors, and the country gets a whiff of socialism, it will cause angst and rebellion politically that will haunt the Dems for years.  If Trump wins and gets more mellow in a second term while still doing inspiring stuff, he has a good chance of being like Elizabeth, even if his economy goes south.  We will just have to see how this plays out.