Saoirse looking scrumptious. Margot went out of her way to look horrific
They were doomed to butt heads. Elizabeth refused to marry because she didn't want a man ruling for her + her mom was executed and branded a traitor, so at any point anyone of the conniving English nobles could've flipped on her for her cousin Mary. On some you ain't the real Queen your mom was a traitor anyway type shyt. And then Mary wasn't brought up in Scotland, she was married to the Prince of France at one point, and had claim to England, so the nobles in Scotland didn't consider her a real native to Scotland. Plus, she was a girl. They were trying to murk her off too like the nobles in England was trying to murk off Elizabeth. So Mary rushed to get married, have a kid/heir and protect herself from the cats up there who wanted her gone. And in the process of her doing that to protect her own neck, the nobles who supported Mary started to realize they could easily get alot more support from everyone to make her Queen of England and Scotland since Mary had the cleaner background/claim, a kid already and a husband with ties to England too. Hearing them rumors made Elizabeth more
towards her cousin because she knew firsthand from her moms that shyt could get very real out there. The coolest thing about both of them is neither really wanted to hurt the other, they had to make moves to protect themselves and both of them being around meant they'd always be used as pawns for anyone that wanted the other one gone.