The year 1553 saw the death of King Edward VI, aged just fifteen-year-old. In his will, Edward ignored the insurance policy instated by his father ten years prior, ensuring that following his death one of his half-sisters would inherit the throne from him. Edward instead declared his niece, Lady Jane Grey, to be his successor; as she was a renowned humanitarian, had a reputation of being one of the smartest women of her day, and was married to the son of one of Edward's chief ministers, the Duke of Northumberland. Her reign would only last nine days before she was renounced and executed for treason due to the public backlash; leading to Edward's older sister, Mary of Modena, the intended and desired heir, to rightfully claim the throne instead. Though Mary and her sister, Elizabeth the First, rode into London to do just that side-by-side together and in solidarity, accompanied by a triumphant display of 2,000 horse-riding soldiers as escorts — the allegiance between the two wouldn’t last long; as fundamental religious differences would tear them apart, as well as eventually lead to the general public turning on Mary, and her popularity nose-diving relatively quickly. Only a year and a half into Mary's reign, she’d accuse her half-sister Elizabeth of being an accomplice to Wyatt’s Rebellion; a coalition that tried overthrowing her power. Though Elizabeth vehemently proclaimed her innocence and it’s far more likely this had much more to do with childhood resentment stimming from their individual mothers and the relationship they each had with their father, Elizabeth was locked away in the Tower of London for almost two years, as Mary, who was fearful of the threat Elizabeth posed to her power, struggled to justify it for as long as she could. With growing questions and contentment and confrontations regarding the lack of reasoning and evidence she had against Elizabeth, Mary would finally release her sister from prison, though only directly into house arrest — where Elizabeth would spend almost another entire year. That was until April of 1555 , when Mary would seemingly have a chance of heart and attempt to reconcile with her now estranged sister; via an official royal order of summons to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, so Elizabeth could be present for, and bear witness to, the final stages of Queen Mary's pregnancy. Elizabeth was the rightful heir to The Queen's throne, after all... unless, and until, Mary gave birth to a child, that is. Now seemingly approaching that outcome, Mary felt that Elizabeth needed to be there to witness the event for herself, as the inevitable line of succession for the monarchy would be determined regardless, either with the birth of her expected child, though this would remain true even in the event of a stillborn or some other horrific outcome — which was a very real possibility: not only were both stillborn babies fairly common, but childbirth was notoriously dangerous overall for both mother and child in this era, and Mary herself had already suffered the cruel fate of stillbirths and miscarriages five times prior, not including the deaths of her four other children at young ages. Now approaching fifty-years-old, an extraordinarily long life for a women in this era of history, (remember her predecessor died at just fifteen) Mary considered herself blessed to have been given the divine intervention, assistance, and opportunity to finally fulfil her lifelong dream of rearing a healthy child, and thus, a legitimate successor to her legacy and empire; as she was clearly unlikely to just willingly pass the Crown over to her sister. So, the stage was set, and the tension was high; with this one last unexpected chance; everything was on the line. If Mary and her child both lived through the process of birth, Elizabeth’s likelihood of ever becoming Queen would greatly diminish, if not disappear entirely, and she would probably spend the rest of her days in exile. If Mary, the child, or both died in the process, however, Elizabeth’s accession to throne would basically become solidified, and the preparations for such would need to get underway as soon as possible in order to ensure a smooth transition of power. It was the ladder that ended up happening, and much faster than anyone could have ever expected. Not as a result of Mary’s child dying during pregnancy or birth, but instead and even more cruel twist of fate: the revelation that her supposed ‘pregnancy’ was instead more than likely an aggressive case of either ovarian cysts or uterine cancer; already well into its advanced stages, explaining the supposed ‘pregnancy symptoms.’ Once this was realized, so too was the fact that regardless of whatever illness had bestowed The Queen; it well on the way to taking her life — which it would, just seven months after she was planned on giving birth, and only one month after a devastated and dying Queen Mary of England reluctantly recognized and proclaimed her sister Elizabeth the First as her inevitable heir and successor... Thus, on January 15th, 1558, at just twenty-five years old, Elizabeth Tudor the First ascended the throne, and one month later would be coronated in a lavish ceremony, officially becoming the Queen of both England and Ireland.