Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558) was Queen regnant of England and Queen regnant of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and only surviving child of Catherine of Aragon. As the fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, she is remembered for restoring England to Roman Catholicism after succeeding her short-lived half brother, Edward VI, to the English throne. In the process, she had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions, earning her the sobriquet of "Bloody Mary". Her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed by her successor and half-sister, Elizabeth I.
Mary, thinking she was pregnant, had thanksgiving services at the diocese of London in November 1554. This turned out to be the first of two phantom pregnancies. Various theories have been put forward to explain her condition, including cysts or a psychological problem. Philip persuaded his wife to permit Elizabeth's release from house arrest, probably so that he would be viewed favourably by her in case Mary died in childbirth. Soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy, Philip headed off to Flanders to command his armies against France. Mary was heartbroken and gradually fell into deep depression.
Religion
As Queen, Mary was very concerned about heresy and the English church. She had always rejected the break with Rome instituted by her father and the establishment of Protestantism by Edward VI. She had England reconcile with Rome. Cardinal Pole, the son of her governess, Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury (who was beheaded for treason by Mary's father Henry VIII) and once considered a suitor, arrived as papal legate on 20 November 1554. After Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was deprived and later burned at the stake, Mary had Pole, who, though a cardinal since 22 December 1536, was not yet a priest, appointed as his successor in 1557. Mary came to rely greatly on Pole for advice.
Edward's religious laws were abolished by Mary's first Parliament in the Statute of Repeal Act (1553). Church doctrine was restored to the form it had taken in the 1539 Six Articles.
Mary also persuaded Parliament to repeal the Protestant religious laws passed by Henry VIII. Getting their agreement took several years, and she had to make a major concession: tens of thousands of acres of monastery lands confiscated under Henry were not to be returned because the new 
landowners created by this distribution were very influential. This was approved by the Papacy in 1554. The Revival of the Heresy Acts were also passed in 1554.
During her reign, Mary suffered two phantom pregnancies. It has been speculated[by whom?] that these could simply be a result of the pressure to produce an heir, though the physical symptoms (including lactation and the later loss of her eyesight) reported by Mary's attendants may be indicative of a hormonal disorder such as a pituitary tumour.
Mary decreed in her will that her husband be the regent during the minority of her child. However, no child was born, and Mary died at age 42 at St. James's Palace on 17 November 1558. She was succeeded by her half-sister, who became Elizabeth I. Although her will stated that she wished to be buried next to her mother, Mary was interred in Westminster Abbey on 14 December in a tomb she eventually shared with Elizabeth. The Latin inscription on a marble plaque on their tomb (affixed there by James VI of Scotland when he succeeded Elizabeth to the throne of England as James I) translates to "Consorts in realm and in tomb, here we sleep, Elizabeth and Mary, sisters, in hope of resurrection".
Blathnaid McKeown as Young Mary
