If the world hate you,
ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.
John 15:18
"Anne Askew’s life (c. 1521-1546) was one of many made famous by John Foxe in his book of Martyrs in 1563, though at the time of her death in 1546 the crowd that came to see her was so large that it had to be forced back to make space for her to burn.
Anne had been relatively well educated, and could certainly read, and so she read, and she read the Bible. And what she read their turned her mind to the teachings of evangelicals. Anne was not of the shy and retiring type, she shared her views with her neighbors and husband. Neither were happy with her talk.
There in the Cathedral she quietly read their Bible – though the Act in Advancement of Religion in 1543 had laid down that women should only read the Bible in private.
But Anne attracted attention in London and it was probably March 1545 when she first got into trouble. She was hauled in front of the Bishop of London Edmund Bonner and interrogated. Eventually Bonner went away and wrote a document, a confession of faith and demanded she agree to it. Anne’s statement though was equivocal: “I Anne Askew do believe all manner of things contained in the faith of the Catholic church”.
This sounds innocuous enough, but Anne had managed to distance herself from the Roman church, and claimed the proper catholic church was of her own, the reformers. But for now, Anne was released as her family and connections fought her cause. In June 1545 Anne Askew was arraigned again before a jury for denying the mass; but no witness came forward and so the jury released her.
Gardiner tried to charm her – he was her friend, he said, he only wanted to save her soul. Anne firmly and contemptuously pushed this away; these were the kind of weasel words of Judas she spat. The Council got nowhere, neither in persuading her that she was in error, or in eliciting any names. Time and again they pressed her about her connection to the Countess of Hertford, Lady Denny, the Duchess of Suffolk – all women of Catherine Parr’s household. Eventually the Council gave up. The recorder of the session concluded wearily that
seeing no persuasion of good reason could take place, she was sent to Newgate, to remain there to answer to the law.
In Newgate prison, Anne started writing of her experience, and composing her ballad. But her ordeal had only just started.
She flatly rejected the existence of any priestly miracle in the eucharist:
“As for that ye call your God, it is a piece of bread. For a more proof thereof… let it but lie in the box three months and it will be mouldy.”
But Stephen Gardiner, Thomas Wriothesley, and Richard Rich were
Essentially, Wriothesley and Rich ordered Kingston to put Anne to the rack. She as stripped to her shift, and she climbed onto the rack and was tied, hands and feet and the wheel turned to tighten the ropes. Anthony Kingston was clearly horrified, and once again Anne refused to talk. So Wriothesley and Rich demanded she be racked again, and much harder.
Still Anne would not tell them what they wanted to know. She would admit that some men had come to give her some money in prison to help her, and that they had said they’d come from Lady Denny and Countess Hertford, but that was all.
Anne was taken quietly and secretly to a private house to recover from her torture – but the violence visited on her body was too hideous, her joints were dislocated, she could not walk. Rich and Wriothesley had to face the music of the Council, horrified at what had been done – but the kind of music we are talking about here is a good old traditional establishment cover up.
Anne was once more given a chance to recant, and once more refused, and was returned to Newgate, there to write her story. The date for her execution was set as 12th July 1546. She would not die alone – three others, John Lascelles, John Hadlam, and John Hemley were also to be burned. There was a huge crowd, and both Wriothesley and Norfolk were there to see all was done. All three men were tied to stakes with faggots around them as normal, but Anne’s case was different – she was too broken to walk. Pushing through the crowd and the noise came the serjeants, bringing between them a chair on which Anne was carried. She could not stand at the stake to be burned, and so a small chair was set at the bottom of the stake and she was tied by ankles, wrist, chest and neck to the stake where she sat. Then through the crowd came her torturer Thomas Wriothesley, and he cried out that they could still recant and be pardoned. Anne replied for them all that when she replied that she ‘came not hither to deny my Lord and Master!’.
Anne had to be carried to the stake on a chair. She was then tied with chains to a separate chair which was attached to the woodpile, which was then set alight. As if this wasn’t enough, the fire was set to burn slowly, ensuring that Anne endured as much pain in her
Somebody who took pity on Anne, covered her in gunpowder to ensure a swift end.
At the time of Anne’s execution, a thunderstorm rolled into London. It was believed that this was a display of Gods wrath at the murder of innocents."
TheTudorilist
At the time of Anne’s execution, a thunderstorm rolled into London. It was believed that this was a display of Gods wrath at the murder of innocents."
TheTudorilist
