Who Was Bloody Mary? The Sad True Story of Queen Mary
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- Hey, how's it going? Happy Monday. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery and makeup Monday. If you are new here, hi, how's it going? My name is Bailey and on Mondays, I sit down and I talk about true crime story that's been heavy on my

Okay, so today's story is about Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary, do you know Bloody Mary? Well, let me tell you. The ritual of blood. I'm gonna tell you what the ritual of blood is. So, I'm gonna tell you what the ritual of blood is.

Bloody Mary is different depending on who you ask. But for the most part, sometimes at slumber parties, Halloween parties, or just a boring Wednesday night, adolescents or children would play a spooky game called Bloody Mary. What you do is you go to the bathroom,

or a dark room where there was like a mirror, some players would be holding a candle or just have a candle lit while looking in the mirror, they say the name Bloody Mary three to 13 times. The number varies depending on who you ask. So players of this game would look in the mirror and be like, "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary."

You know? And allegedly, according to some players, a ghost would appear in the mirror and looking back at you would be a woman covered in blood and she's pissed.

Some of those who have played the game Bloody Mary have said that Bloody Mary appeared and started screaming at them, cursing them, strangling them, or even scratching some of their eyes out. Some have also said that the woman who appears in the mirror is also holding a baby that appears to be dead, and that their own facial features appear to melt in the mirror.

So the roots of this mere game known as Bloody Mary stretched back to a folk tradition practiced by young people in the 19th century. It was also said that if you walked backwards up a staircase in a darkened house at night, please don't do this, you might fall, hurt yourself, you know? But this was like a thing that they used to do in the olden days. They would walk up a staircase in the house backwards in a dark room

and then they would look over, passing a mirror as they went up, you would see a reflection in the mirror of one of two things. The face of a person you were destined to marry, or a skull. If a skull appeared, that meant that you were destined to die before you got the chance to marry. This was another game, kind of similar to Bloody Mary. So, a lot of people ask, like, well, who is Bloody Mary then? Now, it really depends, again, on who you're talking to. To some people, it's

a woman by the name of Mary Worth, who may have been either a Puritan woman who was tried and executed for witchcraft. And then some others believe that Bloody Mary may be a woman who was killed in a car crash. And then others believe that she's Mary, the Queen of England, and became known as Bloody Mary for the execution she carried out against the Protestants in an effort to restore Catholicism.

Catholicism to England. Which one do you believe? We're gonna go with that last one. Mary, Queen of England, because it has an interesting story to it. Mary was born on February 18th in 1516 in Greenwich, England.

She was the only child of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. And when Mary was 17 years old, her father decided to end the marriage to her mother. And he said that the reason behind that was because he was frustrated that Catherine was not giving him a baby boy, a boy to one day, you know, take the throne. King Henry VIII claimed that Catherine's inability

to provide a baby boy was a sign of God's displeasure. So naturally this left Mary feeling not good enough. She felt really bad about herself because she wasn't a dude and her dad let it be known that he was disappointed he didn't have a son. So she's like, thanks. - Have a question or need how to advice? Just ask Meta AI.

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Makeup.

King Henry and his wife, Catherine, separated. Mary was then forbidden from ever visiting her again. She was not allowed to see her mother. Henry, Henry, Henry, Henry, he was really interested in another woman named Anne, but she was not interested in being his mistress. Nay nay. So it's believed that's probably why King Henry separated from Catherine and was just blaming the baby instead. He's like, "God told me, sorry."

But what I'm getting at is Anne and King Henry, they would end up going on to be married. Now Anne, she was actually friends to Catherine. Her name's Anne Boleyn. I'm sure you've heard of her. She was pretty famous. And there's so many layers to this story, so I'm trying to keep it simple, okay? Yeah, so this whole thing is scandalous. Scandalous. But not really because it's the 1500s and people were like marrying cousins and stuff. So it was kind of like...

I'm sure it really wasn't. So he marries Anne and she becomes pregnant. Yay. King Henry is like, please give me a baby boy. Please give me a baby boy, you know. But sadly for the King, it did not work out like he had hoped. And once again, he was just super disappointed because he had another daughter. They would go on to name their daughter Elizabeth. Now the King was worried that his first daughter, Mary would interfere

with Elizabeth inheriting the title of queen one day. And King Henry could not have that because Mary, you know, was the daughter to somebody he was no longer married to. So it just like, didn't look good. So he didn't want that. And he wanted to make sure that Elizabeth would get the crown. So King Henry wanted to make sure that Elizabeth would indeed secure the crown.

the title as queen one day. And in order to do this, he pressed parliament to declare Mary as illegitimate and succeeded. Sorry, Mare, but you're out. Bye Mare. In 1553, Catherine of Aragon, Mary's mother, she ends up passing away. Now at the time it was like a very mysterious death and there were rumors swirling around that King Henry and Anne were both

thrilled, like they just loved the idea that she was dead because she could potentially interfere with just being king. They wanted her out. So once Katherine had passed away, that's when Anne decided, you know, I'm gonna try and like,

make things right with Mary, make some peace, make her like me. So she attempted to do so, but Mary just wasn't having it, okay? And I'll tell you why. Let me tell you, let me tell you. Because there were rumors going around that Catherine, her mother, may have been poisoned. Awkward.

Yeah, because her death was very mysterious. Nobody knew how or why she died. It was just weird. So again, there's just rumors going around that it may have been the two of them who had poisoned her. So Mary is believing this to be more true. She's like, dang, you guys don't even want me. Then you kill my mom. Now what? Well, that's what I'm imagining. Sorry.

Sorry, I don't know, I wasn't there. So it was later determined that Catherine most likely died from cancer of the heart, which was an extremely rare condition and not understood by many. The doctors at the time had no idea what caused her death, which is what led to speculations. But at the time, again, Mary had no answers as to why her mother died. So she was believing that her mother was indeed poisoned.

Because of this, it led to Merry wanting nothing to do with the king and his new wife, Anne. So later down the road, Anne would be accused of adultery, incest, and high treason, and was beheaded

by her husband, King Henry VIII. So there's a lot more to this side of the story, but today we're not talking about King Henry VIII and Anne, we're talking about Mary. So, "By this time, the damage to Mary's name had been done, and she stood last in line for seat on the throne." Chances of her becoming in charge is like slim to none. So since Mary's teen years, she had been plagued with terrible menstrual pains.

which had caused a lot of psychological and physical stress in her life, which is super random, but like everyone in town knew Mary's business and that she struggled with her period. It just came with a lot of judgment from people. She has cramps, she has pain, she has mood swings. Like everybody knew, could you imagine? Anyways, but Mary seemed to struggle with depression and anxiety because of all this, everybody having their own input on

So despite the odds being stacked against her, Mary did eventually take the throne in 1553 at the age of 37. Six years prior to this, Henry, her father had died.

Mary knew that there was no time to waste and she felt this pressure to have a baby and give the people like another king. Mary was set to meet Philip II of Spain, who was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples and Sicily. So he was like super busy, he was a very busy guy.

Two days after meeting Philip, Mary and Philip would go on to get married. Now Philip was much older than Mary. It was said that he was really not that into her. It's not funny, it's sad, but like it was just, yeah, he didn't seem to be that into her, okay? But the marriage,

had been preceded by a long negotiation process. Like they didn't, the royals don't get married because of love. They get married because it's like a business. It's like chess. Are you watching The Crown? I know, I binged it like the other week and it was so good. I had to just get that off my chest really quick.

But Mary, she just wanted love. She wanted love, she wanted to love, she wanted to be in love. And because Mary just wanted love, she would become dependent on her new husband. Now, Philip, he fulfilled the negotiated duties expected of a royal marriage.

And two months later, Mary's greatest wish came true. She was pregnant! Now back in the olden days, they didn't have, we're spoiled now. We have this thing called pregnancy tests, where you can actually find out if you're pregnant or not, you know? But back then, they didn't. And doctors were not allowed to thoroughly examine a sitting monarch. Mary had the symptoms of a usual pregnancy, swelling of the breasts,

morning sickness and her menstruation had stopped. Why is menstruation just like such a gross word? But it does make me uncomfortable, menstruation. It's just like menstruation, I don't know. It's just, you bleed, you know? Now Mary's experiencing all these symptoms but the public had remained suspish of the Queen's recent death.

Pregnancy. For some reason, they just like were loved hating on her. Now again, because there is no pregnancy testing, Mary really couldn't come out and be like, "Hey, look, here's my pregnancy test. See, I am pregnant." So she really couldn't defend herself. The people of Spain and England kept tabs on Mary with a very judgmental eye, as they always do. If you leave it up to us, we're judgmental and mean.

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Each month, Mary's stomach grew a little bigger and she would tell people that she could even feel the baby move. But rumors...

were still going around, that she wasn't pregnant at all, and that Mary was secretly plotting to take some other woman's baby and then call it her own. Now, all of these rumors were definitely amplified by the constant comparison to Mary's younger sister, Elizabeth, who was seen as the golden child. And again, since everybody seemed to know about Mary's

menstruation and that she had like problems and pain and whatnot, the public thought that they had a say in everything. I mean, they still feel that way to this day, you know, why do I need to explain? You know how it goes. It's the same, nothing's changed. That's the only thing that stayed constant in history. Rumors, have you noticed? So everyone knew about her menstruation issues because of this,

It led to the rumors of her not really being pregnant. They didn't think it was possible. And they thought that Mary definitely seems like the type who would lie about a pregnancy and steal a child, so they just ran with it. At this time, England was divided between Catholics and Protestants, but Mary was determined to reunite the country under the true religion.

by any means necessary. Shortly before Christmas in 1554, she signed an act which would incite a legendary series of executions known as the Marian Persecutions beginning in February 1555. An estimated 240 men and 60 women were condemned as Protestant and burned at the stake.

So most who were burned at the stake were popular preachers, farm laborers, or poor ignorant folk who could not recite the Lord's Prayer or did not know what the sacraments were. And if you didn't know, you got burned.

Killed. Scary. So Mary believed it was her duty by God to bring a Catholic prince into a Catholic realm and that if she failed to do any of this, she would suffer the wrath and displeasure of the almighty. Mary was convinced that these executions would scare people and force them to turn their backs on their old faith. And Mary wanted to set an example of what would happen if they decided

to not follow her suggestion. Now, when one of the royal family members was about to give birth, they would go into like a confinement for six weeks before their due date, their estimated due date. Mary followed that, the regulation, okay? She went into confinement six weeks before her estimated due date, which was around May 9th. By her side, she had a bunch of her lady companions and servants, and she entered into like a private chamber ready with a bunch of

equipment needed for the birth. They just kind of waited there for the labor pains to kick in. Now tension during this time was reaching an all time high because everyone was waiting. All those people who swore Mary wasn't pregnant, they were waiting to be proven wrong. Mary's advisor, his name was Simon Renard, he wrote a letter to Emperor Charles V to give an update. And he said, quote,

Everything in this kingdom depends on the queen's safe deliverance. If God is pleased to grant her a safe delivery, things will take a turn for the better. If not, I foresee disturbance and a change for the worse on so great a scale that the pen can hardly set it down." May 9th came and went.

No baby in sight. Mary had now agreed with her ladies like, "Oh yeah, I must've accidentally mixed up my due dates." Right guys? Yeah, it must be, you know? They thought, "Okay, yeah, maybe you're going to be having a baby in June instead, not May." So then the media comes out and they're like, "No baby yet." They're thinking June, right? Okay.

But of course those nasty rumors spreading people were living, right? They were like, "Oh my God, she's not pregnant." They're just going crazy. False reports spread all across Europe claiming that Mary had delivered a baby boy, but Mary had died in childbirth. So at this time, Mary was still in confinement. So nobody was seeing her to verify that this was true or not. As the days passed with no sign of labor, the stories turned strange. Some of them were just saying that Mary had delivered

a mole or a lump of flesh, which is like a real thing. It's a very rare condition that I honestly regret Googling. But what I'm getting at is, so people were thinking that's what she maybe had, but all of this was just,

just based off of pure gossip. So the end of May is approaching. Mary's stomach was appearing to recede. Obviously very worried, she brings in her doctors who told Mary that like, oh yes, this is a sign of approaching labor. So don't freak out, you know, you're okay. So the weeks were still passing and nothing is happening. No baby, nothing.

So Mary started to think like that God was punishing her for not shutting down the rumors with aggression and ordered that the burnings be stepped up a notch. So people were dying to know what exactly was going on and Mary wasn't coming out and telling the people what was going on, right? So an ambassador who got some info from a paid spy who got their info from a midwife in the queen's chamber said,

quote, 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, end quote. Which that was a position nearly impossible for someone about to give birth

to lay in. Everyone was tearing Mary's pregnancy apart and seemed to be getting off over each detail of her failure to have a child. June and July passed, the doctors continued to extend the due date, but they knew that she wasn't going to have a baby. In August, nearly a year after she announced her pregnancy, Mary finally dismissed her nursing staff and left her chamber childless, which I'm sure was absolutely heartbreaking.

but nobody was really, what's the word, compassionate towards her, it seemed like. It just, it seemed really sad. So this incident remains history's most notorious and well-documented cases of pseudosciences,

which is sort of, or false pregnancy. It's a complex and mysterious condition, but the short version is that a person could be so convicted in their desire for a child that the mind tricks the body into thinking it's pregnant and the body follows. Hormones shift, periods stop, the belly grows and

It's wild, it's wild what your mind can do and like we're so unaware of it. Today, false pregnancies are usually diagnosed early on thanks to ultrasounds, but the conditions still exist. Usually between one and six women experience this out of every 22,000 births. Yeah, insane. Like you can think yourself and your body will think it's pregnant. Like that's weird. I'm gonna think my way to a size two.

That's not funny. Mary moved forward though, and she never acknowledged or spoke of the pregnancy again during her lifetime. But two years later, she believed she was pregnant again. This time though, there was no interest in her pregnancy and no one cared, okay? Not even her husband seemed to be convinced that she was pregnant.

Mary insisted to everyone that she had very, very sure signs of pregnancy and that she was correct on this one. But this time it was not pregnancy. Her periods had stopped because she had entered menopause.

The following year, Mary died at 42 from what was believed to be ovarian cancer. And Elizabeth I would go on to take the throne and like her sister, Elizabeth would send hundreds to be executed, but only Mary bore the shame for these afflictions.

Mary became the myth, the witch in the mirror, whose name can still be heard today, chanted by kids in a dark bathroom, all hoping for a terrifying glimpse of this ghost with little to no understanding of the real story of the Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary is essentially like we were mocking or making fun of this poor woman who couldn't get pregnant and had shitty periods.

But she killed a lot of people, so it kind of balances itself out, I think. Many believe when you chant Mary's name in the mirror, she will show up with a baby in hand. And that, my friends, is the awful story about Bloody Mary and where it comes from, I think. Again, it's pretty, what's the word? It depends on who you ask, but this story I found very interesting. Bloody Mary, are you there?

So next time you play Bloody Mary, make sure to give a little shout out to Mare. Hey Mare, maybe talk to her. Mare, you need a shower? Mare? Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.