BLOODY DUCKERY
HISTORY
Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, and as “Bloody Mary” by her Protestant opponents, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain and the Habsburg dominions as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She is best known for her vigorous attempt to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, King Henry VIII. Her attempt to restore to the Church the property confiscated in the previous two reigns was largely thwarted by Parliament, but during her five-year reign, Mary had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions.
Mary was the only surviving child of Henry VIII by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. She was declared illegitimate and barred from the line of succession following the annulment of her parents’ marriage in 1533, though she would later be restored via the Third Succession Act 1543. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded their father in 1547 at the age of nine. When Edward became terminally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because he supposed, correctly, that she would reverse the Protestant reforms that had taken place during his reign. Upon his death, leading politicians proclaimed Mary’s and Edward’s Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as queen instead. Mary speedily assembled a force in East Anglia and deposed Jane, who was eventually beheaded. Mary was—excluding the disputed reigns of Jane and the Empress Matilda—the first queen regnant of England. In July 1554, she married Prince Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556. After Mary’s death in 1558, her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism in England was reversed by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth.
Mary determinedly refused to acknowledge that Anne was the queen or that Elizabeth was a princess, enraging King Henry. Under strain and with her movements restricted, Mary was frequently ill, which the royal physician attributed to her “ill-treatment”. The Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys became her close adviser, and interceded, unsuccessfully, on her behalf at court. The relationship between Mary and her father worsened; they did not speak to each other for three years. Although both she and her mother were ill, Mary was refused permission to visit Catherine. When Catherine died in 1536, Mary was “inconsolable” Catherine was interred in Peterborough Cathedral, while Mary grieved in semi-seclusion at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire.
In 1536, Queen Anne fell from the king’s favour and was beheaded. Elizabeth, like Mary, was declared illegitimate and stripped of her succession rights. Within two weeks of Anne’s execution, Henry married Jane Seymour, who urged her husband to make peace with Mary. Henry insisted that Mary recognise him as head of the Church of England, repudiate papal authority, acknowledge that the marriage between her parents was unlawful, and accept her own illegitimacy. She attempted to reconcile with Henry by submitting to his authority as far as “God and my conscience” permitted but was eventually bullied into signing a document agreeing to all of Henry’s demands. Reconciled with her father, Mary resumed her place at court. Henry granted her a household, which included the reinstatement of Mary’s favourite, Susan Clarencieux. Mary’s Privy Purse accounts for this period, kept by Mary Finch, show that Hatfield House, the Palace of Beaulieu (also called Newhall), Richmond and Hunsdon were among her principal places of residence, as well as Henry’s palaces at Greenwich, Westminster and Hampton Court. Her expenses included fine clothes and gambling at cards, one of her favourite pastimes.n 1537, Queen Jane died after giving birth to a son, Edward. Mary was made godmother to her half-brother and acted as chief mourner at the queen’s funeral. English coinage was debased under both Henry VIII and Edward VI. Mary drafted plans for currency reform but they were not implemented until after her death.
SUMMON BLOODY MARY
- Choose your playing space. You may play this game in virtually any indoor setting; the only requirement is that your playing space be capable of total blackout conditions, with no light bleeding in from the outside. An interior room without windows, such as a bathroom, is ideal. If the only options available to you have windows, be sure to block them fully.
- Gather your supplies. You will need a candle, matches or a lighter, and a mirror.
- Wait until nightfall, then bring your supplies to the playing space and enter it alone. If you haven’t already, prepare the room: block the windows, set up the mirror if necessary, turn out the lights, light the candle, and place it in front of the mirror.
4. Face the mirror. Make eye contact with yourself. Be brave; be fearless. Take a deep breath. And when you are ready, begin repeating the name “Bloody Mary.” Say it aloud, beginning softly, but adding volume with each repetition. Repeat it once, twice, three times—all the way up to thirteen repetitions. Thirteen is the magic number. Speak the thirteenth repetition with finality. Then, stop.
5. Look in the mirror, Look harder. What do you see? Is it just yourself? Are you sure? Look again—but stand back. Do not place yourself within arms’ reach of the mirror. She might scream at you, but you can handle screaming. If she’s able to grab you, though? There’s no coming back from that.
6. If you survive the experience, extinguish the candle, turn on the lights, and leave the room.
Do not use the mirror again.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
A flashlight may be substituted for the candle; however, the success of the summoning may be somewhat less predictable.
- Begin the game precisely at midnight.
- Chant the name “Bloody Mary” three times instead of thirteen.
- Chant the name “Bloody Mary” seven times instead of thirteen.
- Run the water in the sink while chanting Bloody Mary’s name.
- Instead of gazing into the mirror while chanting Bloody Mary’s name, spin slowly in place. After the twelfth repetition, stop spinning, face the mirror, and chant the thirteenth repetition while looking into the mirror.
- Replace the chant of “Bloody Mary” with the chant “Bloody Mary, I stole your baby.”
- Replace the chant of “Bloody Mary” with the chant “I believe in Mary Worth.”
- There are no guaranteed ways to dispel Bloody Mary once she has been summoned, although various methods have been proposed. Some sources recommend drawing a cross on the mirror with soap for the three nights following the completion of the ritual. Others recommend burning sage in the playing space or flicking vinegar in the four corners of the room. You may, of course, try these methods, but don’t count on them working.
- Do not break the mirror.
- You wouldn’t want to let her out, would you?
- Flush the toilet and spin around thirteen times then look in the mirror.
