Bloody Mary Research Paper

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Bloody Mary was born on February 18, 1516 and died on November 17, 1558. Her real name is Mary, she was a queen when she received the nickname she now has. She was the first-ever Queen of England to rule in her own right, but to her critics,” Mary of England” has long been known only as “Bloody Mary”. ”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 …show more content…

All over Europe, the punishment for heresy was not only death but also the total destruction of the heretic’s corpse to prevent the use of their body parts for relics. Therefore, most heretics were burned and their ashes thrown into the river, and Mary’s choice of burning was completely standard practice for the period. Her sister, Elizabeth I, was a little more savvy: in her reign, those convicted of practicing Catholicism by training as priests or sheltering them were convicted as traitors and punished accordingly, by being hanged and quartered. The idea behind the different crimes was that, while people could dispute religious belief, no one could ever possibly agree that treason was permissible. If one person can be held responsible for Mary’s reputation, however, it is the Protestant “martyrologist,” John Foxe. His bestselling work, The Acts and Monuments, better known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, was a detailed account of each and every martyr who died for his or her faith under the Catholic Church. It was first published in 1563 and went through four editions in Foxe’s lifetime alone, a testament to its …show more content…

She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is chanted repeatedly. The Bloody Mary apparition may be benign or malevolent, depending on historic variations of the legend. Bloody Mary appearances are mostly witnessed in group play. Historically, the divination ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backward holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face. There was, however, a chance that they would see a skull (or the face of the Grim Reaper) instead, indicating that they were going to die before they would have the chance to marry. In the ritual of today, Bloody Mary allegedly appears to individuals or groups who ritualistically invoke her name in an act of catoptromancy. This is done by repeatedly chanting her name into a mirror placed in a dimly lit or candle-lit room. The name must be uttered 13 times (or some other specified number of times). The Bloody Mary apparition allegedly appears as a corpse, witch, ghost that can be friendly or evil or a demonic spirit, and is sometimes seen covered in blood (hence the

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