Elizabeth ex machina

I've come across three Victorian historical novels in which the plot wraps up somewhat like this:

1.  Some Protestants are about to be torched.  (They may be waiting in prison, or they may actually be tied up at the stake.)
2.  At the very very very last minute, a messenger arrives with an Important Note.  Whatever could it be?
3.  Elizabeth is now Queen!
4.  Stop the presses--er, burnings!

Considered from the perspective of effective plot development, the Elizabeth ex machina lacks a certain subtlety.  Nevertheless, the theological point is not in dispute: Elizabeth's accession to the throne is a providential act that displaces a reign marked by brutalized bodies with a reign marked by authentic (i.e., Protestant) spirituality.  Under the Elizabethan settlement, godliness can now flourish, free from persecution.  (Obviously, Elizabeth's reign was also marked by brutalized bodies, but this plot mechanism skips over that salient detail.)  Moreover, depending on the novel, Elizabeth's grand entrance also implies a transition from an  ambivalently English Mary I--infatuated with her Spanish husband, herself the agent of an "unEnglish" Catholicism--to an entirely and enthusiastically English monarch.  Elizabeth caused numerous frissons of unease amongst Victorians of a wide range of theological opinions, though; some writers went on to suggest that the "unfeminine" Elizabeth was herself transcended by the entirely and enthusiastically domestic Victoria.  (Victorian PR tended to skip over Victoria's lack of enthusiasm for babies, understandably enough.)