But she was grasping at straws, since in the coded letter to Babington she had appealed for foreign (i.e., Spanish) aid to assist her on the field of battle after her liberation. Her rationale was that she was an independent queen wrongfully held in captivity. From her point of view, even an act of war was legitimate if it allowed her to recover her freedom. If she was not an independent queen, she was guilty. If she was, and Elizabeth’s death was no more than a providential incident in her legitimate struggle to regain her rights, she was innocent. This was how she saw it, but the
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