Abstract
The religious upheaval of the sixteenth century resulted in widespread civil war and conflict throughout Western Europe. Although England escaped much of the turmoil, France was plagued by the French Wars of Religion. Queen Regent Catherine de Medici struggled to maintain political and religious control in France while Elizabeth I, Queen of England, successfully ruled a religiously diverse nation. The respective constitutional strength of their political situations combined with their religious policy decisions played a powerful role in the fates of the nations they ruled.
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