- Mary Displayed Her Swollen Belly to the Court - prenanta
Mary Tudor, once Princess of Wales, then bastard child, was crowned Queen of England on October 1, 1553. She was the eldest daughter of Henry VIII and the only living child of Katherine of Aragon.
She had been betrothed many times in her life, usually as part of some political game played by her father, but now that she was queen, she wanted to marry and produce an heir. Her motives were more than sentimental. Mary was determined to restore England to the Catholic faith she had been raised in. Establishing her own bloodline was the only way she could be sure England would not fall back into Protestant hands when she died.
Mary's Council recommended many potential husbands, but as always, when she was not sure what to do, Mary turned to her cousin, Charles V of Spain. Charles immediately proposed that Mary wed his son, Prince Philip.
A Foreign King on English Soil
Mary was delighted with this suggestion; her subjects were not. Mary was the first queen to ascend the throne in her own right. If she married a foreign prince, would that make him King of England? Would England become no more than a Spanish territory?
Mary impatiently pushed these questions aside and waited for her husband to arrive. In the summer of 1554, he did. Philip had been born in 1527, making him a good ten years younger than Mary. By all accounts he was handsome with fair hair, gray eyes, a broad forehead and a straight nose. Mary was smitten instantly. Philip, for his part, saw a small woman dressed all in black with deathly white skin and no eyebrows. He was less infatuated.
But he did his duty. Philip and Mary wed on July 25, 1554, with Philip's political status in England still unresolved.
Mary Tudor's First Pregnancy
In September of 1554, a court doctor told Mary what she'd waited all her life to hear: she was pregnant. At 38, there was much concern that she would not survive childbirth. Her Council ruled on Philip's status at last. Were Mary to die, he would become the regent for her child, but not the King of England.
Philip was bitterly disappointed. Mary sensed her husband's withdrawal and it broke her heart. She turned her attention to something she could control--the punishment of heretics. In February, 1555, she had two Protestant clergy burned at the stake. They would be the first of 300 Protestants to die so horribly during her reign.
Shortly after Easter in 1555, Mary went to Hampton Court for her confinement. On April 30, news broke out that she'd given birth to a healthy son, but as no word came from Hampton Court, the public realized the rumor was false.
By May 21, Mary was still childless. Several people reported seeing her sitting on the floor with her knees drawn up to her chin, a position no woman who was nine months pregnant could possibly assume.
By June, Mary's anxiety had made her irrational. She wept that the Protestant heretics had bewitched her and that her child could not be born safely until they were all burned.
In August, which would have been the eleventh month of her pregnancy, Mary came out of confinement. She said nothing about a child. Onlookers took note of her slim figure. Later that month, Philip left England. Some ambassadors whispered that he would divorce his wife.
Mary Tudor's Second Pregnancy
Philip didn't divorce Mary, but he stayed away from her for two years. When he returned in 1557, it was only because he needed Mary to back him in his war with France. He brought his mistress with him, and Mary housed her without protest. She also attempted to help Philip win his war, but failed.
In the fall, Mary wrote to Philip that she was pregnant. Philip didn't believe her. Not many people did. Again, there was no baby.
Mary died on November 17, 1558, probably as the result of influenza.
Was Mary Tudor Pregnant?
Did Mary believe she was pregnant, or was she perpetrating a hoax? All the evidence suggests Mary truly did believe there was a child, as did the court physicians and the men and women at court who saw her on a daily basis. One later wrote there was "neither deceit nor malice in the matter, but mere error."
What could account for the symptoms of pregnancy? Some authors have suggested a large ovarian or uterine tumor, but it is unlikely Mary would have survived as long as she did if she had had advanced cancer.
Another suggestion was ovarian dropsy, a condition that occurs when an ovary fills with fluids. It is very uncomfortable, but not generally fatal. Ovarian dropsy would account for Mary's distended belly, but there is no way to explain why it vanished, leaving her as slim as ever.
It is possible that Mary miscarried, or even gave birth to a full term stillborn child, but this, too, is unlikely. Even if she had tried to conceal the birth, she was watched too closely by physicians and midwives to hide such an event. Word would have gotten out.
Most likely, Mary suffered from pseudocyesis, or phantom pregnancy. This condition occurs when a woman wants a child so badly, she actually creates the symptoms of pregnancy with her mind. Mary probably stopped her menses because she was at the onset of menopause. Unable to face this explanation, she convinced herself that she was pregnant.
Some people have suggested that Mary's second pregnancy was nothing more than an elaborate ruse to win back her husband's wandering eye, but such a deception seems unlike Mary. The second pregnancy, like the first, was probably just wishful thinking.
For more information about Mary Tudor, check out Family Feud Among the Children of Henry VIII - Mary vs. Edward and Mary Tudor and Her Bloodless Rebellion Topple Jane Grey
Sources:
Erickson, Carolly (1978). Bloody Mary: The Remarkable Life of Mary Tudor. Doubleday and Co.,Inc.: New York.
Weir, Alison (1996). The Children of Henry VIII. Ballantine Books: New York
