When we think of a Bloody Mary, some of us may picture the spicy cocktail, the one containing
vodka and tomato juice.
Others may best know “Bloody Mary” from the ghostly folklore.
You know the one: step in front of a mirror and chant her name repeatedly.
Upon uttering her name three times - or thirteen times depending on which version of the ritual
you use - her apparition then appears to reveal your future.
Allegedly, bloody Mary will either show you an image of your future spouse or that of
a skull, indicating that you will die before having the chance to marry.
If you heard this tale as a child, your friends probably dared you to conjure her spirit in
group play.
If you’re like us though, you chickened out after reciting her name only twice.
Mary has long been perceived as a feared figure and there’s a reason history granted her
the title of “Bloody Mary.”
Thought to be among the topmost evil queens in history, she spent her short, five-year
reign developing a fearsome reputation for burning many protestants at the stake in her
attempt to reverse the English Reformation.
She’d arrange executions by fire while forcing many to watch their peers burn.
The unwilling spectators would then suffer the same fate afterwards.
To say she was harsh is an understatement.
She threw all of England into terror and chaos without showing any mercy.
When we say, “no mercy,” we’re not kidding.
She would even have pregnant women burned if she viewed them as heretics.
All in the name of her religious fanaticism.
Still, if you know of her background and origin story, you might start to question whether
Mary was indeed a villain or if she was actually a victim of unfortunate circumstances.
Before you think we’re crazy for even suggesting it, allow us to explain.
After learning about her story, you can decide for yourself what you think to be the case.
Before she was the crazed queen, she was just a little girl.
Born in 1516, Mary Tudor was the only surviving child of King Henry VIII and Queen Catherine
of Aragon.
Initially, life for her started out great.
She was a little princess beloved by her mother, her father and by the people of England.
There was just one problem: she was a girl.
Realizing there may be no other children, mainly no sons to inherit the throne, Mary’s
mother, Catherine, groomed her at an early age for a promising future as the queen of
England to be.
Catherine taught her Latin, thought at the time to be a man’s language, so that Mary
could someday fulfill the most masculine of roles, that of a sovereign.
Though Henry was proud of this daughter, her accomplishments wouldn’t be enough for him
later and he’d still want a son.
Being the daughter of the king of England and the Spanish princess, Mary was also considered
a hot commodity for marriage.
Her hand was often promised to sons of various rulers for sake of alliances and political
gain.
None of these betrothals fell through though.
When she turned 11, only a year under the minimum legal age for marriage, her future
betrothal was more seriously considered.
Before she could embark into a successful marriage, however, something happened that
would forever change her life.
That is, her father fell madly in love with the woman, Anne Boleyn, and wanted a divorce
with her mother.
This was probably the biggest, most defining event for Mary due to the numerous repercussions
that followed.
It was from this moment on that Mary would never again experience a day of happiness.
Now, before you jump to judgement and think, “well lots of children’s parents get divorced
but they don’t grow up to become murderers,” we’d advise you to consider that the prospect
of divorce was a way bigger deal then than it is today, especially for royalty.
And this was also no ordinary divorce but, rather, an event that would forever alter
the course of English history.
There was also a string of negative consequences that resulted from this momentous change that
caused a lot of trauma in Mary’s life.
And, on top of everything situational that was going on, Mary’s health wasn’t the
greatest.
Specifically, she experienced severe menstrual problems, thought today to be endometriosis.
She had something known as dysmenorrhea, which gave her agonizing pain and cramping, worse
than the typical monthly discomfort that many women endure.
It was chronic and recurring.
This was termed as her “usual troubles” or her “old disease” by royal physicians
at the time.
Her debilitating pain accompanied by irregular hormone fluctuations also frequently caused
her serious depression, which only served to exasperate her misery.
Today, we now understand that stress can worsen symptoms of endometriosis and Mary experienced
plenty of strain when Anne Boleyn entered the picture.
Mary’s intense anxiety provoked a particularly nasty flare up of agony in 1531, soon after
Henry forced her mother, Catherine, to leave court while treating Anne as the new queen
to be.
When her father, Henry, granted himself his divorce after being denied by the Pope, he
disregarded Mary as illegitimate, claiming that he was never truly, lawfully married
to her mother.
He’d gone from being a loving and doting father to Mary in her early years to now being
a vicious, neglectful parent.
If you watched our other episodes, “Why did The King of England Execute his Wives?”
and, “The Worst Breakup in History,” then you are probably already familiar with the
events that transpired.
Basically, in order to divorce Catherine and marry Anne, Henry had to make some very drastic
changes.
That is, he had to separate England from the Roman Catholic Church and start his own, new
Church of England.
Since Catherine had been a devoted catholic and Mary had always followed in her footsteps,
this was highly devastating for her.
The new Protestant Reformation was yet another factor – a major factor – that added to
Mary’s profound grief because her strong catholic beliefs held significant meaning
for her, and she refused to give it up.
Many of the people of England loyally supported Mary, were on her side and felt sympathy for
both she and her ostracized mother.
After all, she’d been shamefully brushed aside while being publicly humiliated and
disgraced by the harsh neglect and maltreatment of her father.
She’d been embarrassingly downgraded from the high rank of a princess to a servant for
her half-sister, Anne Boleyn and Henry’s new daughter, Elizabeth, who now possessed
a claim to the throne above her.
Mary was a shell of what she once had been and would now have to witness as little Elizabeth
enjoyed the charms of her old life.
It’s fair to say that Henry VIII was very cold to the daughter he’d once claimed to
adore and, naturally, Mary would have probably felt very jealous of Elizabeth, sad, neglected
and unloved.
This was also obviously degrading for Mary’s status, position and pride, as she’d now
lost the affections of her father.
To make matters worse, she was no longer permitted to see her mother either.
It was also around this time when Mary experienced another severely painful flare up from her
endometriosis condition.
Without a doubt, this was a very lonely and depressing time for Mary, a time that would
only serve to spark and fuel her resentment in later years to come, as she’d someday
want to retaliate for all the painful suffering she’d been forced to endure.
While all these changes were taking place, the popular but hushed belief was that the
king was making a mistake, that he was being bewitched by Anne Boleyn and that he was turning
his back on God by ridding the country of the catholic faith.
Many people asserted that Mary still had a rightful claim to the throne even though she
had been stripped of her title as princess.
The people had adored her mother, Catherine, as their queen, but they hated Anne for being,
in essence, a homewrecker.
For this reason, Anne was perceived as being the great “whore” and Mary was thought
to be a heroic symbol of rebellion among the English people.
Not surprisingly, Mary’s refusal to acknowledge the annulment of her mother’s marriage,
recognize Anne as queen and relinquish her own position as princess greatly angered her
father.
During this time, Mary was in a very precarious situation.
Her very existence was called into question with whispers of possible allegations of treason
to be tried against her.
The year of 1536 provided two major life events, turning points in her future direction.
First, Mary’s mother died, which struck her with further, painful grief.
She was depressed beyond consolation and no longer believed there was a life for her in
England.
She wanted desperately to leave for her mother’s home country of Spain.
But then, something else changed.
Anne Boleyn was ordered by Henry to be executed for allegations presumably staged against
her.
Mary was extremely pleased with Anne’s death.
She had absolutely despised her for destroying her life.
It also gave Mary a new sense of hope for her future.
Perhaps her father had changed his mind.
At once, Mary wrote to him, hoping to be welcomed back to court and back in his good graces.
But, in return, Henry wrote that he was still displeased by Mary’s stubbornness and still
wanted her to submit to his law.
Despite Anne Boleyn now being out of the picture, Henry continued to push that his daughter,
Mary, recognize herself as illegitimate and her mother’s marriage to him as having been
unlawful.
He forced her to sign a legal declaration of this.
Mary was fully aware that she could be put to death if she didn’t sign it.
After all, if Henry was capable of killing his wife, he could certainly kill his daughter.
For the Tudors, family drama could be deadly!
And it wasn’t just Mary’s life at stake but the lives of her most prominent supporters
as well.
Thus, Mary reluctantly signed the dreaded document against her conscience.
As a reward, she was welcomed back to court, earned back her father’s love, and was reinstated
back onto the line of succession.
This brought her a decade of peace.
You’d think it would have provided Mary with some form of a happy ending in this case,
but you’d be wrong.
The reality was that Mary would always live with a sense of guilt and regret for acting
against her beliefs, the beliefs of God, and the beliefs of her now deceased mother.
All to save her own skin and those of her friends and supporters.
Yet who can blame her?
In many ways though, she was her own harshest critic.
Despite being back in good standing with her father, however, Mary still didn’t marry
during this time.
This may be because, as we all famously know, Henry VIII was too busy collecting and discarding
his own wives.
Clearly marrying off his first daughter wasn’t much of a priority for him so Mary remained
single for a long time.
Mary had also gained a brother; the son and heir that her father had desperately wanted,
Edward VI.
Mary was about 31 when her father died, and the young, 9-year-old Edward took over as
first in line to the throne.
Mary was second in the line of succession followed by her younger sister Elizabeth,
as ordered by Henry prior to his passing.
But Edward, though very young, was a hardcore protestant, thanks to the influence that his
advisors had over him.
Thus, Mary once again fell into a threatening position due to her strong catholic beliefs.
This time it was at the hands of her little brother, not her tyrannical father.
Mary once again probably found herself in a familiar, dark place, thinking there was
no future and that her beloved catholic faith would not survive this doomed world.
Years of stress and the constant, monthly pain she endured from her endometriosis took
its toll on her and she became a very weakened-looking and bitter woman.
Thankfully for her, Edward’s reign didn’t last long because he became ill and died at
the young age of 15.
Not wanting his catholic sister, Mary, to take over the throne, Edward had requested
upon his dying breath that his protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, succeed him.
She would rule as queen for only 9 days before Mary’s supporters rose up to help her take
her rightful place on the throne.
At the age of 37, Mary’s reign as queen finally began.
Mary entered London in a triumphant procession in 1553.
The people of England wept tears of joy, elated that the beloved daughter of King Henry VIII
and Catherine of Aragon was finally taking her place on the throne.
Little did the people know what was in store for them.
They didn’t seem to realize the extent of Mary’s anger and contempt.
She was a queen fueled by resentment and passionate religious obsession.
She was determined to restore the catholic faith and take revenge against those who had
made her last 25 years so miserable, namely protestants.
She quickly became an unpopular queen with the initiation of her mass executions and
burnings.
To tie England with Catholicism even further, she finally got married to Philip II of Spain
from her mother’s native, catholic country.
This, however, did not provide her with the happy life she so long desired.
Though she adored her husband and was smitten with him, there is no record about how he
felt about her in return.
But we can speculate with a certain level of ease that he didn’t feel the same way.
One indicator of this has to do with rumors that were circling about Phillip having affairs
with other women.
Another clue has to do with what Phillip’s closest confidant said to him when he praised
him on his ability to deal with a woman with whom he could expect “neither physical pleasure
nor satisfaction.”
The now 38-year-old Mary was not exactly perceived as attractive.
Far from it actually, as the charms of her face had faded from years of intense mental
pain and suffering.
One Spaniard reportedly remarked, “the Queen is not pretty, not at all, is low, fragile
structure instead of fat, with very white hair and blond, has no eyebrows, is holy,
she dresses very badly.”
She was also getting older and her child-bearing years were quickly slipping away.
Though it is a harsh sentiment, Phillip very likely only married Mary for political gain,
not for love.
This is made all the more sad when you consider that she had also gone through a period of
feeling unloved by her father.
It seemed she could not catch a break.
Life had not been good to her and her misfortunes would only continue.
Soon after her marriage, it seemed as though her luck had changed when she’d stopped
menstruating, felt nauseated in the mornings and gained weight.
Her royal physicians suspected she could be pregnant.
People rejoiced, bells rang and there were celebrations held on the streets.
Though she grew a belly, however, there was no baby.
It is possible that she had a tumor though many assert she was experiencing a phantom
pregnancy, a conditional phenomenon thought to occur when a woman wants a child badly
enough and winds up deluding herself into believing she’s pregnant while then displaying
the classic bodily symptoms of pregnancy.
At the time, there was no way to distinguish a false pregnancy from a real one, so the
only way to find out for sure was to simply wait until a baby was born.
A birth chamber had been prepared for her and a nursery contained a beautifully carved
cradle.
Many women were hired on standby to help care for the baby once it arrived.
Letters announcing the birth had also been written and were ready to be sent.
Time passed but still there was no baby.
In denial, Mary continued to insist that she could feel the child move in her womb.
Rumors and speculations were quickly spreading as more time passed.
Maybe Mary had lied about being pregnant to give the people hope for an heir.
Maybe, instead of a baby, Mary was carrying a monkey!
Eventually, even she had to come to terms with the fact that she was not really pregnant.
After going through two false pregnancies, Mary faced the cold, hard reality that she
would not have an heir.
Her child-bearing years were over.
She was enraged with the idea that Elizabeth would succeed the throne after her.
She hated Elizabeth as the daughter of Anne Boleyn, the woman who’d started all the
misery in Mary’s life.
She was also incredibly jealous of Elizabeth because she possessed the two main qualities
that Mary did not.
That is, Elizabeth was both young and beautiful.
After a short, disastrous reign, Mary died in 1558, most likely from ovarian cancer derived
from her untreated endometriosis.
Her vision for a catholic England crumbled and Elizabeth took the throne.
Mary’s husband, Phillip, whom she’d loved so whole-heartedly, wrote that he felt only
“a moderate grief for her.”
Mary was beguiled even after death because she was not buried next to her mother as per
her request.
Instead, she ended up being buried next to Elizabeth.
To make matters worse, the grave site of Mary and her hated sister is a monument to Elizabeth,
which completely overshadows her.
Mary is commemorated only by a slab of black marble with the infamous name, “Bloody Mary”
on it.
In this way, it seems that Mary has pretty much gone down as one of history’s biggest
losers.
She’d had a tremendously difficult life fraught with grief, pain and misery.
On top of everything, she never got her way in the end.
Even in death, she pales in comparison to her sister and her jealousy may very well
extend into the afterlife.
Now, after hearing the full story, we turn to you for your opinion.
Was Mary a monster or a victim?
Would she have still burned so many people at the stake if she’d been shown more love?
Tell us your theories in the comments!
Now for more crazy stories about royals go watch “Why Did The King Of England Execute
His Wives?”
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!