BLOODY
MARY QUEEN OF ENGLAND
There are many ideas behind the Legend of ‘Bloody
Mary’, one of these being that the woman who presents herself in the mirror is
none other than Mary I, Queen of England. She was bestowed with the nickname of
‘Bloody Mary’ after her brutal persecution of Protestants, with around 300
Protestant heretics faced to death by being burnt to death in a three year
period. However, Queen Mary’s reign as Queen was short and she died of an
illness, possibly cancer, leaving the throne to her younger half-sister, Queen
Elizabeth I.
It is assumed that Queen Mary’s spirit is restless
as all she worked towards was undone by that of her half-sister, so she spends
her days haunting the mirrors, waiting to be summoned and take her revenge on
those who called her, in her eyes, everyone is now guilty of disobeying her
laws, simply because times have changed as have laws, but these don’t follow
how she wanted things to be so death befalls all those who speak her name three
times into the mirror. However, this is only one theory behind this urban
legend and there is no real reason to link her other than her nickname.
VENGEFUL
SPIRIT OF MARY
Queen Bloody Mary isn’t the only name for the woman
in the mirror though: ‘Mary Worth’, ‘Mary Worthington’, ‘Mary Jane’, ‘Mary
Whales’, ‘Mary White’ and ‘Hell Mary’ are just a few more names many people
use. These names are more personal and related to a variety of different
stories and deaths which caused the spirit to attack whoever calls to her.
There is no way to tell what the original story is
as several varieties of the story date back from the 1960s and only more versions
have arisen since. Though almost all of the stories of Mary follow the ideas
that Mary was once beautiful but her face became disfigured as result of a
horrific death, being self-obsessed with her appearance her spirit was disturbed
and set out to disfigure other people, possibly so that she would not be alone
or perhaps out of jealously. She is also thought to be trapped inside the
mirror as because she was so obsessed with her beauty she spent most of her
time in front of one.
The general theme of all these stories is that you
must speak her name three times in order to summon her, she will then attempt
to disfigure and possibly kill those who called her, mimicking what happened to
her in death. Though there isn’t a solid story to follow for this Legend, it
does leave it open to a lot of interpretation and ideas.
SPIRITS
TRAPPED IN MIRRORS
In the past during the eighteenth century, there
was superstition behind mirrors. It was thought that mirrors must be covered or
facing the wall in the presence of a dead person, many people believed that if
it was left uncovered it was an open invitation for spirits, meaning that the
spirit would become trapped and never be at peace.
In this respect, the Legend of Bloody Mary could
have come into being from this belief. Mary could have died in front of a
mirror and this caused her spirit to become trapped, in torment from not being
able to move on, whoever calls to her is subjected to die in the exact same way
so that she wouldn’t be alone in her hell.
Reference:
Queen Mary I. [online] [viewed 12 April
2013] Available From: http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/elizsister.jpg
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