12 Things People Don't Know About The Real Bloody Mary

The ghost of "Bloody Mary" - which pops up in mirrors, covered in blood, shrieking, and holding a dead baby - has some important ties to her namesake monarch. Mary I desired to conceive a child, but struggled with fertility issues. She even suffered from a "false pregnancy." She became severely depressed after these episodes, and wanted nothing more than to give her country and husband an heir.

Henry VIII inherited a united country from his father, Henry VII, who kicked off the Tudor dynasty after the very bloody, decades-long Wars of the Roses. Eager to have a son to prevent future dynastic conflict, Henry married his brother's widow, Catherine of Aragon (daughter of the first monarchs of a united Spain), but they had some problems. Catherine became pregnant a number of times, but only gave birth to one surviving child, the future Queen Mary. Once, she did have a living son, dubbed Prince Henry for his father, and the entire kingdom celebrated, but the infant tragically died at only a few months of age. Thus, the fate and stability of an entire dynasty rested on the shoulders of a young princess.

Mary was very bright for her age group. She could dance and play the virginals (a proto-keyboard/harp thing) by age seven, showing off for her cousin/betrothed's ambassador. By nine, she could write an entire letter in Latin. When she was eleven or twelve, she translated a prayer, "Concede mihi," written by Thomas Aquinas, from Latin to English.

As was customary for medieval and Renaissance royals, Mary was engaged to a lot of different princes while she was a child in a series of broken and re-forged alliances. In her youth, her dad made a big show of allying himself with the king of England's ancient enemy, France. Mary was betrothed to King Francis' eldest son, the Dauphin. The Queen of France kept in touch, sending Mary money and gifts, even though the princess was only four at the time. The next year, the Anglo-French alliance was broken, and Mary was re-engaged to her first cousin, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (also king of Spain and her mother's nephew). At the time, she was five and he was twenty-five! They sent creepy love letters back and forth, but Charles broke the alliance by marrying another cousin, someone more age appropriate. Henry eventually re-established a bond with the French, promising Mary's hand to either King Francis (her one-time future father-in-law) or his second son.

When Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon (in part) for failing to give him a male heir, he quickly wed Anne Boleyn. Because Mary's very existence represented a threat to the inheritance of any children Anne might bear Henry, the new queen resented her new step daughter. She even went so far as to declare Mary a bastard since King Henry had annulled his marriage to Catherine. The feeling of hatred was mutual, as Mary hated Anne as well. Anne displaced and degraded her mother, Catherine, and deprived Mary of her royal prerogative. As a result, Mary refused to acknowledge Anne as her father's wife, her own demotion, or the illegitimacy of her parents' marriage.

Undoubtedly frustrated that she, too, could not provide a son for Henry, Queen Anne Boleyn took out her rage on Mary, whom she already despised. Anne rubbed in the slight of making Mary a bastard by calling her "the Lady Mary." She even made the ex-princess an attendant to baby Elizabeth. If Mary refused to acknowledge Elizabeth and insisted on calling herself "princess," Elizabeth's governess was to slap her and box her ears like "the cursed bastard" she was.

After her younger half-brother, Edward VI, died, Mary was the next in line genetically (although Henry's will named the heirs of his sister, also named Mary, to inherit if Edward died childless). However, Mary still had supporters as she was Henry's eldest biological child and many had fond memories of her mother. She rallied men around her and marched on London to challenge her cousin, Jane Grey (a descendant of Henry's sister), who was declared queen by Edward on his deathbed. Jane Grey only enjoyed nine days as the proclaimed Queen, and never saw a coronation because Mary came rushing in and assumed the throne in August, 1553. Historians don't acknowledge Jane Grey as an actual monarch, as there had never been a coronation. Thus, Mary became England's first queen regnant in October of 1553 when she was crowned.

Fervent religiosity ran in Mary's family. Her maternal grandmother was Isabella the Catholic of Castile, while her mother, Catherine, was famously devout. Mary was no different, having been raised to be very religious (even after her father split from the Pope to create the Anglican Church). Ironically, Henry was once super Catholic, writing a rebuttal to Martin Luther's theses and defending the pope. Once she became queen, Mary began to persecute those she deemed "heretics" - mainly Protestants. In 1555, she brought back England's anti-heresy laws against those who refused to adhere to Catholic doctrine. She burned nearly 300 at the stake throughout her reign (including the Archbishop of Canterbury), sentencing dozens to die in prison and causing even more to flee England.

Mary ascended the throne at 37, long past the normal age childbearing or marriage for her time period. But she was determined to provide a Catholic heir for her country, in part, so that her rebellious little half sister, Elizabeth, wouldn't become queen after her. So, Mary quickly took a husband. Her groom of choice? Her first cousin once removed, the future King Philip II of Spain, a staunchly Catholic prince who was eleven years her junior (and son of her one-time fiancé, Charles V). This was unpopular with many Englishmen, who didn't fancy making a foreign, Catholic royal their king. Philip reportedly didn't speak any English and was already engaged to someone else (he'd also been married before), but he gave it up to wed a queen regnant, although he wasn't happy to do so. They wed in July, 1554.

A few months after she married Philip, Mary became convinced she was with child. Understandably, many were excited at the idea of a Catholic heir while others were worried. The pregnancy "progressed" as Mary said she felt the fetus move in her womb. She even had an extravagant nursery made up for the royal heir. Eventually, rumors of her safe delivery of a prince spread, and Mary started getting notices of congratulations. However, no baby ever appeared. Apparently, she suffered a "phantom pregnancy," also known as pseudocyesis. Mary believed herself to be with child from various signs, as her menstruation had even stopped, but she sadly wasn't. When the baby didn't appear, she claimed that God wouldn't allow her son to be born until the Protestants were quelled, so she ordered more executions. Eventually, Mary had to emerge from confinement, embarrassed. She also believed she was pregnant a few years later, but to no avail. What happened? Mary might have had ovarian cysts or tumors, or perhaps she was actually suffering from menopause and mistook the symptoms for those of pregnancy.

Since William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England in 1066, the kings of England had held lands in France. Under Henry II, the so-called "Angevin Empire" reached its height, but England's control over its French domains declined in the reign of Henry's son, John, and in the centuries thereafter. England got a good portion of France back before suffering defeat in the Hundred Years' War. By the time Mary came to the throne, England's only remaining possession in France was the important port city of Calais. During Henry VIII's reign, Calais' castle and garrison fell into disrepair, and during Mary's reign, the city was lost entirely. In 1558, Mary's husband, Philip, battled the French over Calais and was defeated. Mary was aghast, reportedly saying, "When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart."

Mary died on November 17, 1558, perhaps from uterine cancer. Despite her best attempts to produce a biological heir for England and to make her country Catholic again, she left her throne to her younger, Protestant half-sister, Elizabeth. And her widower, Philip II, decided he would offer his hand in marriage to Elizabeth on a few conditions: he wanted her to convert to Catholicism and let him move away from England. Needless to say, Elizabeth didn't go for that.