Soon the trilogy covering the early years of the legendary pirate Bloody Mary‘s reign of terror will be available through the Henricus Militia website. At the dawning of the Golden Age of Piracy she blazed a path of death and destruction from the colony of Virginia down the Atlantic coast straight into the Caribbean.

The Dutch pistols and wheel-lock carbine in this photo are original to the period and believed by some to be Bloody Mary’s actual weapons. The flag is a scaled down replica of the jawless skull and bones banner the pirate queen made famous in her day recreated using a contemporary sketch as a guide. Unfortunately the original has been lost to history.  According to the legend the skull and bones cartouche at the base of the ancient Spanish cross served as the inspiration for the flag.