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alive, because everyone knew that she was probably an innocent pawn of conspiring men, but Mary's already fragile reign was being threatened by insurgents in Jane's name. Her beloved intended, Prince Phillip of Spain, said he wouldn't come to England under precarious circumstances (while Jane remained alive to threaten their throne).

MARY'S MARRIAGE, ILLNESS AND DEATH

So she sent Jane to the block, and Phillip came to do his duty to marry his cousin and attempt to be joint ruler. At this point Mary was thirty eight, and looked older. Phillip was not a happy camper about the whole thing. He was to have said that she dressed poorly, was nearly toothless, and had 'evil smells' about her.

He briefly did his duty by her but then sailed back to England. She believed that she was pregnant, as she had some of the symptoms: a swelling abdomen, and cessation of menses. So briefly, things were looking up for Mary for perhaps the first time in her life. She had always had it rough as the cast off and bastardized daughter of an unwanted wife of Henry's.

Then there was the question of what to do about her little sister. She had haunted her her entire life, as the daughter of the despised Anne Boleyn, who took both her father and her religion away from her and the people. There is some evidence that Mary wanted to have Elizabeth killed. Certainly that was the fate of many protestants in the land, including Anne Boleyn's chaplain, Thomas Cramner, who had recently been burned at the stake.

Elizabeth was brought at age twenty to be imprisoned in the tower, something that is likely terrifying for anyone. Very few English citizens to be imprisoned in the Tower ever ended up leaving alive, including her mother seventeen years before. After a brief conference between the half sisters, she was let go. She was allowed to return to Hatfield house for a more informal house arrest while Mary decided what was to be done. She was angry that Elizabeth would not promise to rule under the Catholic faith if she was left the crown. She said merely that she would "do as her conscience dictated." But for some reason Mary went no further.

Unfortunately something that also went no further was Mary's pregnancy. Her abdomen shrank and her bleeding began again. It seemed that perhaps the person that was in Elizabeth's corner was Mary's husband. The rather slimy Phillip suspected that perhap's Mary wouldn't live long, if she was pregnant or if she weren't. He was actually keeping Elizabeth in mind for another

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