'''Mary I''' (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), was Queen of [[England]] and Queen of [[Ireland]] from 19 July 1553 until her death. She was the only living child of [[Henry VIII]] and his first wife, [[Catherine of Aragon]], and therefore a half-sister to both her predecessor, [[Edward VI]], and her successor, [[Elizabeth I]]. Her reign was short, tumultuous and marked by controversy, most particularly a [[Counter Reformation|return to Roman Catholicism]] following the official adoption of [[Protestant Reformation|Protestantism]] as the national religion during the reign of her brother Edward. She executed 300 Protestants in her reign, including the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]<ref>http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/marytudor.html</ref> leading to the epithet '''Bloody Mary'''. Her mother was also Spanish and Roman Catholic.
Initially a sympathetic and popular figure in public opinion, she lost much of all her popularity following her marriage to Phillip of Spain and her attempts to place the nascent [[Church of England]] back under the dominion of Rome. She was plagued by ill health and emotional anguish all her life, and died childless, probably of ovarian cancer, in the certain knowledge that her half sister [[Elizabeth I]], a Protestant, would succeed her.