Also, one has to keep in mind that Elayne just removed some of the High Houses that serve as a counterweight to the monarch's power. I'm not sure if the new Cairhienin rulers now gain that authority, or if she has completely removed those votes from the pool, but either way the monarchy has just granted itself the rights to remove the lands of High Houses who oppose them, and with them their power to raise the new Queen in a succession war, or to serve as a check for her power.

As for the Two Rivers, it's worth noting that she also threatened to execute Perrin, thus achieving what Ishamael has spent most of the series trying to accomplish. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, since her brother Gawyn had that whole vow to kill Rand, but at least Gawyn had the personal trauma to explain his irrational decision, whereas Elayne's is a calculated political point. She was willing to doom the world to preserve her political image.

Incidentally, am I the only one who finds it strange that in a novel written by an American, during this threat or revolution against a distant, irresponsible monarch we are expected to side with the monarch?