16th century Spain – the apogee of Spanish imperialism and ruled by King Philip II, whose goal of an entirely Catholic Europe, perpetuated the brewing of a Spanish invasion of England. The Spanish Armada was strong – her soldiers and ships seemingly unconquerable. However, this young girl from Madrid doubted the fleet’s brilliance.
By the early sixteenth-century, sixty-thousand Europeans were executed for witchcraft, four-fifths of whom were female. Biological sex did not offer exclusive protection against accusations of witchcraft, but let us discuss the sex-related reasons that compelled an overwhelmingly female majority of witchcraft accusations in early modern Europe.
In Shakespeare’s day, theatre was intended for all realms of society; the upper and lower classes experienced the same masterpiece, albeit through financially segregated seating zones. Strangely, with the birth of cinema and the inevitable birth of Shakespearean cinematic depictions, this intentional accessibility vanished – Shakespeare became a product of high culture, intended for a demographic of well-cultured thespians and critics. Perhaps due to presumptions about the capability of the uneducated population to understand Elizabethan theatre, individuals outside of these parameters were no longer expected to enjoy Shakespeare.
However, 90s cinema sought to challenge this.
The study of the persecution of witches is not a new idea – the almost morbid fascination with women’s persecution in the form of witch trials has permeated our imaginations for decades. Indeed, the image of the witch has long been a figure of literature and art: from folkloric tales, to modern day films. Yet beneath the comical and exaggerated depictions in popular media and children’s literature lies a very real history, with arguably quite disturbing ties to medieval Christianity and the persecution of women more generally.
The phrase “Bloody Mary” typically pertains to either the Tudor Queen, murderous ghosts in mirrors, or the eponymous drink. The first of these reigned over England from 1553-58 and remains a controversial figure today due to the roughly 300 Protestants she burned for heresy – a fate that earned them instant martyrdom. The condemnation of such a person as “bloody” when presented with this does appear logical. However, arguably, Mary was given this nickname not solely due to these burnings. The following centuries of English religion and the implications of her gender must be considered when deciding whether “Bloody Mary” is a just name.
