Who was actually Bloody Mary?

 The origin of Bloody Mary: Queen Mary 

"BLOODY MARY" a popular horror game among people that has been around for a long time. It is sort of a ritual where the person goes to a dark room, mostly bathroom, lights candles, stands in front of a mirror and calls out the name "Bloody Mary". It is said that through this ritual one can summon the ghost bloody Mary. However, it is not that serious and just done for fun or a little thrill if you please. 

Although some players claim that Bloody Mary appeared in the mirror. They described her as an angry woman covered in blood. Some also claim that they were attacked by this particular figure.

Even though there's no physical evidence of the ghost, the game has been around for a long time. So who was Bloody Mary really?

The dark history of Queen Mary:

There are many conspiracies surrounding who Bloody Mary actually was. Some believe that Bloody Mary was a woman by the name of Mary Worth who was accused of witchcraft. While others believe that Mary was a woman killed in a car crash. However, many believe that Bloody Mary is indeed Mary, the queen of England. Because of the executions she carried out against the protestants to restore Catholicism to England.

Mary was born on 18th February, 1516, in Greenwich, England. She was the daughter of king Henry V111 and Catherine of Aragon. Mary had an interesting childhood growing up. When she was 17 her parents separated because king Henry was interested in another woman by the name of Anne. However, he claimed that they separated because Catherine couldn't give him a boy, to take over his throne one day. But Anne couldn't give him a boy either. They had a daughter and named her Elizabeth.

King Henry still didn't want  Mary to have the throne. He wanted to make sure that Elizabeth would get the throne one day. So he pressed parliament to declare Mary as illegitimate. 

After her parents were divorced, Mary was banished from seeing her own mother forever. In 1553, her mother passed away from a mysterious death and rumors started spreading. Some believed that she was poisoned. Mary believed those rumors to be true and resented her father and his new wife for it. 

Despite all the odds being against her, Mary became the queen of England in 1553, at 37. Mary knew she had to give her kingdom a new child. So she went on to marry Phillip 11 of Spain. Though their marriage wasn't based on love it was more of a negotiation. It was said that Phillip never liked her much but all Mary ever wanted was to be loved. 

At the time England was divided in two religions, Catholics and protestants. Mary thought it was her duty by God to reunite the nation under one religion. "Marian persecutions" was an act signed by the queen in 1554, which would incite a series of executions. About 240 men and 60 women were condemned as protestants and burned at stakes. Mary was convinced that this would scare the people and make them turn their faith back to God. 

During all of this, Mary's biggest wish came true, she was finally expecting a child. But for some reason the public refused to believe that she was. They assumed she was faking her pregnancy and would steal another woman's child and call it her own.

According to the rules whenever a royal member was about to give birth they would go to confinement, 6 weeks prior to their estimated due date. So Mary did.

Mary went into her chamber with her nursing staff and everyone eagerly waited. Her estimated due date, May 9th passed, but still nothing. The whole time the queen was in confinement rumors were flooding. Some said Mary had died in childbirth, some even said that she gave birth to a, what they called 'a mole'. 

Weeks and months pass by, still the people had no answers. Finally an ambassador paid a spy to gather info from a midwife from Mary's chamber. The midwife stated, "For weeks she'd lie in her bed without speaking a word like one dead, then she'd sit for whole days on the floor huddled up with her knees against her face."( a position nearly impossible to do during pregnancy).Nearly after a year Mary announced her pregnancy, in August Mary came out of her chamber, without a child in her arms.

This was history's most well documented case of pseudocyesis. This condition is known as false pregnancy, where a woman is so eager to have a child that her mind starts to believe she is expecting one, without actually being pregnant. The body plays along with the mind and shows signs of pregnancy. So, breasts swelling, menstrual pause, belly growing etc. 

2 years later Mary believed she was pregnant again but this time no one could care less. This time it wasn't pregnancy either, she had entered menopause. The following year Mary died at the age of 42 from ovarian cancer. 

Elizabeth took over the throne shortly after. She followed her step sister's footsteps and sent hundreds for execution.

Bloody Mary is still a popular name among young people. And it is a very scary game but the true history behind the actual bloody Mary is dark but more so upsetting.