Queen Mary’s Hysterical Pregnancy
By June there was still no news of a royal baby and before they knew it it was July and still, no child had arrived. Mary had convinced everyone that her timing was off and that a child was near. The Queen issued a statement that God would not allow her child to be born until all the Protestant dissenters were punished, beginning another round of executions. During many false pregnancy rumors there including some that she was never pregnant at all and that the fetus had been a pet monkey or a lap dog. There were also rumors of a plot to pass along another’s baby as the queen’s own – they said that Lord North was the agent to try to procure a suitable child.
On August 13, 1555, Philip Nigri to Jehan Carette, President of the Emperor’s Court of Accounts “We still have hopes that a child will be born to England by the end of this month. We shall see what God sends us. . . .” In August, the 11th month of her false pregnancy, Mary emerged from her confinement chamber at last. It was reported that she was impossibly thin, utterly silent and completely humiliated. No word of her pregnancy was mentioned at court again, at least officially. A tragic end for the hopeful queen. In the end, it is believed that Mary suffered from pseudocyesis, which is sometimes called “phantom pregnancy”. It is still something today that is not completely understood and appears that between one and six out of every 22,000 pregnancies turn out to be phantom, or false.