Not naming a successor - Elizabeth I's decision not to name a successor was strategic. With no clear successor, England could fall into civil war. This quote from Cecil shows the paranoia that the succession crisis caused: 'If God should take her Majestie, the succession being not established, I know not what shall become of my self, my wife, my children, landes, goodes, friendes, or cuntrie, for in truth noe man doth know what'.