From this moment on, the smart money backed Lord Darnley as a likely husband for Mary. He was probably the last person Elizabeth had in mind. If Mary married him, her claim to the succession would be greatly strengthened, because unlike Mary, he was male and born in England, which countered the two overriding objections to her claim in the Parliament of 1563: that she was a woman and a foreigner. Darnley was not a Protestant, but neither was he an orthodox Catholic. He did not take his religion very seriously, and was able to attend a Catholic Mass in the morning and a Protestant sermon in the
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