Editing Mary I of England (section)

===False pregnancy===
[[File:Felipe of Spain and MariaTudor.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Interior scene of the royal couple with Mary seated beneath a coat of arms and Philip stood beside her|Mary and Philip, [[Hans Eworth]]]]
In September 1554, Mary stopped menstruating. She gained weight, and felt nauseated in the mornings. Almost the entirety of her court, including her physicians, believed she was pregnant.<ref>Porter, p. 333; Waller, pp. 92–93.</ref> Parliament passed the [[Treason Act of 1554]] making Philip regent in the event of Mary's death in childbirth.<ref>Loades, pp. 234–235.</ref> For the joint [[Chapel Royal]] and [[Capilla flamenca (Spain)|Capilla Flamenca]] choirs singing together in December 1554, Mary commissioned [[Thomas Tallis#Music under Edward VI and Mary I|''Missa Puer natus est nobis'']] from [[Thomas Tallis]]. The festive [[Mass (music)|mass setting]] is based on the plainchant [[Puer natus est nobis|'A Child is born for us']], which alludes to the birth of a baby boy for England.<ref>{{Citation |title=Tallis: Missa Puer natus est nobis & other sacred music |url=https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68026 |access-date=2025-04-16 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Tallis: The Tallis Christmas Mass |url=https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDGIM034&utm_board=gimell&utm_linkurl=tallisscholars.lnk.to/thomas-tallis-missa-puer-natus-est-nobis |access-date=2025-04-16 |language=en}}</ref> Elizabeth was released from house arrest in the last week of April 1555, and was called to court as a witness to the birth, which was expected imminently.<ref>Porter, p. 338; Waller, p. 95; Whitelock, p. 255.</ref> According to Giovanni Michieli, the Venetian ambassador, Philip may have planned to marry Elizabeth if Mary died,<ref>Waller, p. 96.</ref> but in a letter to his brother-in-law [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian of Austria]], Philip expressed uncertainty as to whether Mary was pregnant.<ref>"The queen's pregnancy turns out not to have been as certain as we thought": Letter of 25 April 1554, quoted in Porter, p. 337 and Whitelock, p. 257.</ref> Mary's pregnancy had its pros and cons for Elizabeth: if Mary died during childbirth, Elizabeth would become the new queen, but if Mary gave birth to a healthy baby, Elizabeth's chances of becoming queen would recede sharply.<ref>Loades, p. 32.</ref>

Thanksgiving services in the [[diocese of London]] were held at the end of April after false rumours that Mary had given birth to a son spread across Europe.<ref>Waller, p. 95; Whitelock, p. 256.</ref> Through May and June, the apparent delay in delivery fed gossip that Mary was not pregnant.<ref>Whitelock, pp. 257–259.</ref> Susan Clarencieux revealed her doubts to the French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles.<ref>Whitelock, p. 258.</ref> Mary continued to exhibit signs of pregnancy until July 1555, when her abdomen receded. Michieli dismissively ridiculed the pregnancy as more likely to "end in wind rather than anything else".<ref>Waller, p. 97; Whitelock, p. 259.</ref> It was most likely a [[false pregnancy]], perhaps induced by Mary's overwhelming desire to have a child.<ref>Porter, pp. 337–338; Waller, pp. 97–98.</ref> In August, soon after the disgrace of the false pregnancy, Philip left England to command his armies against France in [[Flanders]].<ref>Porter, p. 342.</ref> Mary was heartbroken and fell into a deep depression. Michieli was touched by the Queen's grief; he wrote she was "extraordinarily in love" with her husband and disconsolate at his departure.<ref>Waller, pp. 98–99; Whitelock, p. 268.</ref>

Elizabeth remained at court until October, apparently restored to favour.<ref>Antoine de Noailles quoted in Whitelock, p. 269.</ref> In the absence of any children, Philip was concerned that one of the next claimants to the English throne after his sister-in-law was [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], who was betrothed to [[Francis II of France|Francis, Dauphin of France]]. Philip persuaded his wife that Elizabeth should marry his cousin [[Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy]], to secure the Catholic succession and preserve the Habsburg interest in England, but Elizabeth refused to agree and parliamentary consent was unlikely.<ref>Whitelock, p. 284.</ref>