NEED A BLOODY MARY?
By Florencia de Broucker Youden

As the sun shines through the bedroom blinds, you lie on your king-size bed trying to wake up on this beautiful sunny vacation day. But your head hurts so much…You had way too much fun last night in wild “Party Vallarty.” Mariachis, margaritas, ahhh, and now you’re paying the price.

You finally manage to crawl out of bed and make it to the pool where you grab a lounge chair, signal a waiter and order, what else, but a Bloody Mary. When your drink arrives you take a grateful gulp, then settle back and wait for it to kick in. As you do, a thought surfaces: Why does something that makes you feel better have such an unhealthy sounding name?

Well, allow me to enlighten you as you begin recuperating from last night. Close your eyes and I’ll take you back in time to the sixteenth century when Henry VIII was King of England. Henry was looking, as he was for much of his life, for a wife. He wants only the best and most honorable princess to become his next Queen of England. Spain is a major world player, becoming powerful and rich. So who would make a better ally and queen than Catherine of Aragon, the Catholic princess of Spain? A lavish wedding takes place, fitting for a princess, and a few years later Princess Mary is born.

Time passes and King Henry finds himself in love with a French girl, Lady Anne Boleyn. Now he wants to get rid of Queen Catherine, but Spain refuses. And the Pope’s offended: How dare he think he can just dismiss his relationship with a Catholic Queen? The church will never accept a divorce. But the king is stubborn, he will marry Anne, Still, the Pope is adamant. Horses run back and forth from Spain to France; boats sail up and down the French coast to England…

The king won't give up, no matter what happens. The church won't agree? Fine, he’ll just change religion and become Protestant. Isn't French love worth it? (Hah! You have never experienced it, have no idea how powerful it can be.) It puts England into civil war and Europe in turmoil. Spain sends the famous armada to defeat him, but the Spanish aren't familiar with the English coast’s confusing fog, so are unsuccessful. Queen Catherine ends up in the infamous Tower of London (with Princess Mary), where she stays prisoner until her death.

Now the king is free to marry Anne Boleyne and England becomes Protestant. She gives him a daughter named Elizabeth, who later became the great Queen Elizabeth I. But love didn't last and the king tied the knot with Jane Seymor.

What happened to Anne Boleyne? Her husband had her beheaded.

A few years passed and again he married. The story repeated until he’d had six wives, most of whom lost their heads.

When he died little Mary became queen. Being Catholic, she decided to bring England back to Catholicism and civil war erupted again. She had learned a great deal about cruelty from her father, having been raised in the London tower where it was all happening. Anyone not agreeing with her she had killed, mostly by the ax. She had so much blood on her hands that throughout Europe she was referred to as BLOODY MARY. And upon her death, everyone celebrated with a drink made red with tomato juice for all the blood she had spilled called a BLOODY MARY. And even if everyone has long forgotten Mary, no one has forgotten the drink. So now lay back and enjoy it. After all, if a Bloody Mary can't take care of your head (ache), what or who else could do it?