Ghost Witch— The Story of Mary Black ( True Story Behind The Bloody Mary Mirror Legend )
There are numerous folklore incarnations of the Bloody Mary tradition, which dates back many centuries. She takes her name from Queen Mary I, a notorious monarch who was known for burning heretics, in the West. Bloody Mary, however, appears in bathroom mirrors to summer campers and sleepover guests as a wailing woman covered in blood rather than a bloodthirsty queen. She is rumored to occasionally be holding a blue, dead infant. Sometimes the conjurer may tease her while she has her arms spread, saying, "I stole your baby," or "I killed your baby." Any variant of the rite is both grotesque and silly. However, despite the fact that most kids outgrow the game even before they outgrow camp, there is a peculiar, sad, and incredibly real story entangled in this myth.
Queen Mary I was an unwelcome birth. She was the sole surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, his first wife. She was adored by her parents and, by all accounts, extremely clever, but because she was a woman, she was publicly and unrelentingly despised by everyone in England, not just her royal family. Henry's historic string of marriages was (mainly) sparked by his lack of a male heir, leaving Mary in his terrible wake.
At age 14, she was permanently cut off from her mother and was not allowed to even go to see Catherine as she lay dying. Mary was either ordered to come make appearances as a princess once more or was either banned from court as a bastard depending on whose wife was the reigning monarch. She was born into a Catholic nation to Catholic parents. Her ardent faith was heresy when Henry betrayed Rome to wed Anne Boleyn. She experienced "very deep melancholy" spells from puberty onward, along with bouts of excruciating menstrual pain and irregular cycles that may have been brought on by the pressure of being her father's daughter. Despite being the firstborn, Mary was dethroned in status by Edward, their half-brother, and subsequently Elizabeth, her younger half-sister. Mary saw the entirety of her father's tyranny while her younger siblings experienced pain of their own. She would live, but not without suffering.
Against all odds, Mary ascended to the throne in 1553 and became England's first queen regnant (a queen who rules independently rather than as the king's wife or the mother of a child king who is too young to rule). She rose to power on the back of a new surge of popularity and hope among the English people, six turbulent years after Henry's death. At 37, she understood their desires better than anybody else and realized that time was of the essence. She required an heir, just like her father.
Two days after meeting Philip of Spain, Mary got married to him. Mary had fallen in love with Philip throughout the protracted negotiation process, which all royal weddings undergo, despite the fact that he was 10 years her junior and probably certainly did not feel the same way about her.
"Starved of affection from childhood, deprived of the fulfillment of sexual love and children during her adult years, she was ready to lavish all her frustrated emotions on the husband she had acquired so late in life," historian Alison Weir writes in The Children of Henry VIII. She was actually happy for the first time since she was 10 years old and her father first noticed Anne Boleyn. After two months of marriage, her biggest wish was granted. She was expecting.
One of royal history's oddest and most contentious chapters got underway at this point. Of course, there were no real pregnancy tests available at the time, and doctors (such as there were) were not allowed to examine a monarch in-depth. While her position as queen prohibited physical examination, it also made her reproductive system a topic of discussion in society. As a result, history provides a reasonably comprehensive list of Mary's pregnancy symptoms: Her breasts were enlarged, her period had stopped, and she had morning sickness. She had always been a strikingly slim woman, but now she had put on weight. Her pregnancy started off with all the expected symptoms and continued in the same manner. Every month, her abdomen became rounder and bigger. She soon felt the infant move.
Some people appeared to be suspicious even then. When Mary made an appearance in public at three months along, many cheered for her because of her newly expanded midsection, but suspicions soon grew that she wasn't actually pregnant and was instead planning to steal another woman's kid.
Mary had never enjoyed the kind of adoration that her beautiful younger sister, Elizabeth, did. Being a protestant and the daughter of Anne Boleyn made Elizabeth the target of additional hostility. In contrast to Mary, who was inflexible and out of touch (and maybe "hysterical"), she was bright and compelling. Both sisters were very smart, but Elizabeth's intellect stood out because she was flirty yet steadfastly virginal and had incomparable poise and regality. At least, that's how history is portrayed in broad, fantastical strokes: Mary, the hapless, hagish zealot she would have to depose, and Elizabeth, the fiery princess who would bring in The Golden Age.
Mary's reputation by the time of her pregnancy was largely undeserved. Her advanced age, fervent Catholicism, infamous menstrual issues, and sporadic sadness all contributed to a demeaning portrayal of her. This may have been made more obvious by frequent comparisons to the young Elizabeth, which is how she came to be associated with the type of lady who might stage a pregnancy and kidnap a child. But as she started her second trimester, Mary did something that would forever mark her as a gory character.
Mary was determined to unite England under "the true religion" by whatever means necessary even though it was split at the time between Catholics and Protestants. She ratified a law shortly before Christmas in 1554, setting off the Marian Persecutions, a fabled wave of deaths. An estimated 240 men and 60 women were judged as Protestant heretics and executed by being burned at the stake starting in February 1555.
Most of them, according to Weir, were well-liked preachers, artisans, farmworkers, or poor, illiterate people who couldn't say the Lord's Prayer or didn't understand what the sacraments were. (The affluent protestants long ago left.) "Some of the women were pregnant or blind; another, Perotine Massey of Guernsey, was crippled. As she was being burned, her baby was born, and the executioner threw it back into the fire.
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For weeks, she would lie in her bed without speaking, like one dead. Then, she would sit for whole days on the floor, huddled up, with her knees against her face.
ALISON WEIR, "THE CHILDREN OF HENRY VIII"
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True, Mary was supported by advisors and did not act alone. However, as Weir notes, the majority of them were frightened of this widespread persecution and "urged her to proceed with caution." She has unquestionably stained her hands with blood. She was already a profoundly devoted woman, and as her pregnancy progressed, the fervor of her faith appeared to grow even stronger. She felt that bringing a Catholic prince into a Catholic kingdom was her divinely mandated task and that, "If she failed in that duty, she would surely incur the wrath and displeasure of the Almighty."
She also believed that these deaths would scare any remaining Protestants into returning to the old faith, which was a terrible error in judgment. Weir explains, "The burnings had the effect of hardening their resolve and igniting their resentment toward the queen."
According to tradition, Mary entered "confinement" around May 9, six weeks before her expected due date (although other members of her family thought she had calculated the date of conception incorrectly and the baby was due a month later). She went into a private room filled with baby clothes and delivery supplies, surrounded by female companions and staff, to wait for her labor pains. Now, anxiety was at an all-time high in her court and in her nation. Everything in this realm rests on the Queen's safe delivery, as her advisor Simon Renard stated in a letter to Emperor Charles V.Things will change for the better if God is pleased to grant her a safe birth. If not, I predict chaos and a downturn on such a massive scale that the pen will hardly be able to put it down.
May 9 has passed. No kids were visible. Yes, she must have mixed up her dates and the baby would arrive in June, Mary now agreed with her ladies. In the meantime, misleading reports circulated around Europe thanks to the rumor mill. Some said Mary had given birth, that it was a boy, and that she had died giving birth. As the days went by and there was no indication of labor, the claims grew bizarre. The French court was informed by an embassy that Mary had "been delivered of a mole, or lump of flesh." Although this claim, like all the others, was purely based on rumors, molar pregnancy is a true (very rare) illness.
But it was unavoidably true that by the end of May Mary's abdomen had seemed to shrink. Mary's doctors claimed that this was a symptom of impending labor since they were probably afraid to break terrible news. Even Nevertheless, as the weeks went by, everyone but the queen started to realize the reality more and more.
She ordered that the burnings be increased because she "began to think that God was punishing her for not rooting out heresy with sufficient rigor," according to Weir. Masses and vigils were scheduled for her safe delivery as Mary's physical pregnancy symptoms vanished.
She remained silent in bed for weeks at a time, appearing to be dead. Then, she would spend days curled up on the floor, pressing her knees up against her face (a position that would be next to impossible for a woman who was about to give birth). An ambassador relayed this depressing incident after learning it from a professional spy who had learned it from a midwife in the queen's chamber. Perhaps only the fact that it was so widely reported could make such destruction worse. Just as everyone had rejoiced at Mary's pregnancy news, they now laughed at every aspect of her failure to bear an heir.
It was June and July. The doctors proceeded to push back the estimated due date while the birth's equipment was gradually and covertly put away. Nearly a year after she originally revealed she was expecting, in August, Mary eventually let go of her nursery attendants and left her chamber childless.
The most well-known and well-documented instances of pseudocyesis, or "false pregnancy," occurred during this occurrence. The short explanation is that a person might be so convinced of their desire for a kid that the mind deceives the body into "thinking" it is pregnant and responding accordingly. It is a complex and puzzling situation. Menstruation stops, hormones change, and the belly expands. Although ultrasounds have made it possible to detect fake pregnancies earlier than ever before, the problem still remains and affects 1 to 6 out of every 22,000 live births.
Throughout her life, Mary never mentioned the pregnancy—or lack thereof. Indeed, she thought she was pregnant again two years later. There was no fanfare this time. Even her spouse made little effort to appear persuaded. Mary left her first confinement in the exact same month that Philip left England, and they didn't speak much after that. It's possible that Mary was right when she declared to everyone that she had "very sure signs" of pregnancy. This time, though, the reason was clearer: She had reached menopause and that was why her periods had ceased. Mary passed away at the age of 42 the next year from cancer, most likely ovarian or uterine.
The rest is history as we all know it. Elizabeth ascended to the throne, beginning arguably England's most admired reign. Mary fell into a heritage of violence and degrading treatment, and not without cause. Elizabeth would send hundreds of people to be executed, just like her sister, and she too would not have kids. But only Mary was made to feel guilty for these transgressions. She became the myth, the witch in the mirror, with her arms always outstretched and empty, while her sister became the gilded legend.
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