Bloody Mary

( the queen that became an urban legend)

The woman behind the infamous Bloody Mary story and childhood game is more sad than she
is scary. The origin of the Bloody Mary story lies with Queen Mary I, the first queen regnant of
England.
The legendary monarch now known as Bloody Mary was born on February 18, 1516 in
Greenwich, England at the Palace of Placentia. The only child of King Henry VIII and Catherine of
Aragon, Mary’s lifetime of shame over her own femininity began at the young age of 17 when
her father annulled his marriage to her mother, frustrated by the lack of a male heir to the
throne. This left the young Mary totally separated from her mother and forbidden from ever
visiting her again. The king went on to marry his now ex-wife’s maid of honor, Anne Boleyn,
who disappointed him with yet another daughter, Elizabeth. Worried that Mary may interfere
with Elizabeth’s succession, Boleyn pressed Parliament to declare Mary illegitimate, and
succeeded. Of course, Boleyn was later beheaded by her husband for treason, but by this time
the damage to Mary’s name had been done, and she stood last in line for a seat on the throne..
Despite all the odds ( which also include the fac that she was known to be struck with deep and
frequent periods of melancholia, depressive spells which would stay with her throughout her
relatively short life) and afflictions stacked against her, Mary did eventually take the throne in
1553 at the age of 37 and promptly married Philip of Spain in the hopes of conceiving an heir.
It’s here where the origin of the Bloody Mary legend begins to take shape. Starved for love and
forever seeking the approval of her father, Mary would replay this codependent pattern with
her new husband, whom she was “ready to lavish all her frustrated emotions on.” Ten years her
junior and in no way as excited to reciprocate her amorous feelings, Philip fulfilled the
negotiated duties expected of a royal marriage, and two months later Mary’s greatest wish
came true: She was with child.
Despite displaying the usual symptoms of pregnancy, including a swelling of the breasts and an
ever-growing abdomen, the public remained suspicious of the queen’s recent good fortune,
and it didn’t take long for rumors of a false pregnancy to start spreading. In a time without
pregnancy tests and in which doctors could not examine a sitting monarch, only time would tell
if these rumors bore any truth. Until then, the people of England and Spain kept tabs on Mary
with a watchful eye. And so they waited. In customary fashion, Mary went into a private
chamber where she was confined for six weeks before her expected due date of May 9.
Although the big day arrived, the baby didn’t, and both she and the servants around her
proposed that perhaps a miscalculation of delivery dates was to blame, now settling on a new
one in June, a month later.
False reports almost immediately spread across the country, however, with some claiming their
Queen had delivered a boy, and others stating she had simply died in childbirth, or that her
swollen midsection were symptomatic of a tumor, rather than a pregnancy. Despite the world
of gossip growing around her, one thing could be confirmed: Around late May, Mary’s belly
began to shrink. Unable to explain or understand what was happening to her body, she
continued to wait as those around her slowly lost hope. June and July came and went as her
doctors extended the birth date even further. By August, Mary finally left the confines of her
chamber, childless and alone like never before.
She believed that God was punishing her for failing in a mission she set out to achieve just
months earlier. At the time of Mary’s pregnancy, the people of England were divided between
Protestants and Catholics. Mary, determined to unite her people under “the true religion” of
the land, took action by signing an act shortly before Christmas in 1554 that would result in the
Marian Persecutions, in which an estimated 240 men and 60 women were sentenced as
Protestants and burned at the stake, earning her the name “Bloody Mary” forevermore.
She died the next year at the age of 42, presumably of uterine or ovarian cancer. Her name can
still be heard today, chanted by children in dark bathroom mirrors the world over, all hoping for
a terrifying glimpse of the ghost with no understanding of the real story of Bloody Mary.