Anne Askew
Encyclopedia
Anne Askew (1520 – 16 July 1546) was an English
poet and Protestant who was condemned as a heretic
. She is the only woman on record to have been both torture
d in the Tower of London
and burnt at the stake.
into a gentry
family of Lincolnshire
, she was forced by her father, Sir William Askew
(1490–1541), to marry Thomas Kyme when she was fifteen, as a substitute for her sister Martha who had recently died. Anne rebelled against her husband by refusing to adopt his surname. Anne had at least one child, William Askew. The Dictionary of National Biography
says no more than that she left her children to go "gospelling". Her marriage did not go well, not least because of her strong Protestant
beliefs. When she returned from London, where she had gone to teach against the doctrine of transubstantiation
, her husband turned her out of the house. She then went again to London to ask for a divorce
, justifying it from scripture (1 Corinthians 7:15), on the grounds that her husband was not a believer.
Eventually, Askew left her husband and went to London where she gave sermons and distributed Protestant books. These books had been banned and so she was arrested. Her husband was sent for and ordered to take her home to Lincolnshire. Askew soon escaped and it was not long before she was back preaching in London.
was telling the king that diplomacy — the prospect of an alliance with the Catholic Emperor Charles V — required a halt to religious reform. The traditionalist party pursued tactics tried out three years previously, with the arrests of minor evangelicals in the hope that they would implicate those who were more highly placed. In this case measures were taken that were "legally bizarre and clearly desperate". The persons rounded up were in many cases strongly linked to Thomas Cranmer
, Archbishop of Canterbury
, who spent most of the period absent from court in Kent: Askew's brother Edward Ayscough was one of his servants, and Nicholas Shaxton
who was brought in to put pressure on Askew to recant was acting as a curate for Cranmer at Hadleigh. Others in Cranmer's circle who were arrested were Rowland Taylor
and Richard Turner
.
The traditionalist party included Thomas Wriothesley
and Richard Rich
who racked Askew in the Tower, Edmund Bonner
and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
. The intention of her interrogators may have been to implicate the Queen, Catherine Parr
, through the latter's ladies-in-waiting and close friends, who were suspected of having also harboured Protestant beliefs. These ladies included the Queen's sister, Anne Parr
, Katherine Willoughby, Anne Stanhope
, and Anne Calthorpe
. Other targets were Lady Denny and Lady Hertford, wives of evangelicals at court.
Thomas Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor of England at that time, undertook the prosecution. He subjected her to an examination which lasted five hours. He asked her opinion of the bread and the eucharist. She replied; "I believe that as oft as I, in Christian congregation, receive the bread in remembrance of Christ's death, and with thanksgiving, according to His holy institution, I receive therewith the fruits also of His most glorious passion." She was then asked; "How can you avoid the very words of Christ, 'Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you?'"
"Christ's meaning in this passage," she replied, "is similar to the meaning of those other places of Scripture, 'I am the door,' 'I am the vine,' 'Behold the Lamb of God,' 'That rock was Christ,' and other such references to Himself. You are not in these texts to take Christ for the material thing which He is signified by, for then you will make Him a very door, a vine, a lamb, a stone, quite contrary to the Holy Ghost's meaning. All these indeed do signify Christ, even as the bread signifies His body in that place." She was sent back to Newgate.
Askew was arrested again. She was examined in June 1546 by Martin Bowes
, Lord Mayor of London
. Sir Anthony Kingston
, the Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to torture Askew in an attempt to force her to name others.
According to Askew's own account, and also that of gaolers within the Tower, she was tortured only once. She was taken from her cell, at about ten o'clock in the morning, to the lower room of the White Tower. She was shown the rack
and asked if she would name those who believed as she did. Askew declined to name anyone at all, so she was asked to remove all her clothing except her shift. Askew then climbed onto the rack and her wrists and ankles were fastened. Again, she was asked for names, but she would say nothing. The wheel of the rack was turned, pulling Askew along the device and lifting her so that she was held taut about 5 inches above its bed and slowly stretched. In her own account written from prison, Askew said that she fainted with the pain, and was lowered and revived. This procedure was repeated twice. Kingston refused to carry on torturing her, left the tower, and sought a meeting with the king at his earliest convenience to explain his position and also to seek his pardon, which the king granted.
Wriothesley and Rich set to work themselves. Askew's cries could be heard in the garden next to the White Tower where the Lieutenant's wife and daughter were walking. Askew gave no names, and her ordeal ended when the Lieutenant ordered her to be returned to her cell.
aged 26, on 16 July 1546, with John Lascelles and two other Protestants. Anne Askew was carried to execution in a chair wearing just her shift as she could not walk. She was dragged from the chair to the stake which had a small seat attached to it, which she sat astride. Chains were used to bind her body firmly to the stake at the ankles, knees, waist, chest and neck. Because of her recalcitrance she was burned alive slowly rather than being strangled first or burned quickly. Those who saw her execution were impressed by her bravery, and reported that she did not scream until the flames reached her chest.The execution lasted about an hour and Anne was unconscious and probably dead after fifteen minutes or so.
Prior to their death, the young martyrs were offered one last chance at pardon. Bishop Shaxton mounted the pulpit and began to preach to them. His words were in vain, however. Anne, in spite of her sufferings, listened attentively throughout his discourse. When he spoke the truth she audibly expressed agreement, but when said anything contrary to Scripture, she exclaimed; "There he misseth, and speaketh without the book."
, and later in John Foxe
's Acts and Monuments of 1563 which proclaims her as a Protestant martyr. The story of Askew's martyrdom was thus written into the Protestant hagiography, but as McCulloch comments, under a version of her unmarried name (which he attributes to some embarrassment over her desertion of her husband Kyme). As he notes Robert Parsons picked up on this aspect of the story.
Several ballads were written about her in the 17th century. As Thomas Fuller
described it, "she went to heaven in a chariot of fire." There was a resurgence of interest in her story during Victorian times, and the Bleets company produced an Anne Askew doll complete with rack and stake. One is on show at the Leeds Toy Museum.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poet and Protestant who was condemned as a heretic
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
. She is the only woman on record to have been both torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
d in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
and burnt at the stake.
Life
Born at StallingboroughStallingborough
Stallingborough is a village and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, a short distance from both Grimsby and Immingham. The parish stretches from Lincolnshire to the Humber coast, and includes the hamlet of Little London.-Geography:...
into a gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
family of Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
, she was forced by her father, Sir William Askew
William Askew
William Askew was a gentleman at the court of Henry VIII of England. He has gone down in history as one of the jurors in the trial of Anne Boleyn and as the father of Anne Askew, the only woman to be tortured at the Tower of London.Askew is described as a welcome guest in Mary's household in...
(1490–1541), to marry Thomas Kyme when she was fifteen, as a substitute for her sister Martha who had recently died. Anne rebelled against her husband by refusing to adopt his surname. Anne had at least one child, William Askew. The Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
says no more than that she left her children to go "gospelling". Her marriage did not go well, not least because of her strong Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
beliefs. When she returned from London, where she had gone to teach against the doctrine of transubstantiation
Transubstantiation
In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...
, her husband turned her out of the house. She then went again to London to ask for a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, justifying it from scripture (1 Corinthians 7:15), on the grounds that her husband was not a believer.
Eventually, Askew left her husband and went to London where she gave sermons and distributed Protestant books. These books had been banned and so she was arrested. Her husband was sent for and ordered to take her home to Lincolnshire. Askew soon escaped and it was not long before she was back preaching in London.
Background on 1546
In the last year of Henry VIII's reign, Askew was caught up in a court struggle between religious traditionalists and reformers. Stephen GardinerStephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.-Early life:...
was telling the king that diplomacy — the prospect of an alliance with the Catholic Emperor Charles V — required a halt to religious reform. The traditionalist party pursued tactics tried out three years previously, with the arrests of minor evangelicals in the hope that they would implicate those who were more highly placed. In this case measures were taken that were "legally bizarre and clearly desperate". The persons rounded up were in many cases strongly linked to Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
, who spent most of the period absent from court in Kent: Askew's brother Edward Ayscough was one of his servants, and Nicholas Shaxton
Nicholas Shaxton
Nicholas Shaxton was an English Reformer and Bishop of Salisbury.-Early life:He was a native of the diocese of Norwich, and studied at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1507. M.A. in 1510, B.D. in 1521 and D.D. in 1531. He was elected a fellow of Gonville Hall in 1510. In 1520 he was appointed...
who was brought in to put pressure on Askew to recant was acting as a curate for Cranmer at Hadleigh. Others in Cranmer's circle who were arrested were Rowland Taylor
Rowland Taylor
Rowland Taylor was an English Protestant martyr during the Marian Persecutions....
and Richard Turner
Richard Turner (reformer)
Richard Turner was an English Protestant reformer and Marian exile.-Life:Born in Staffordshire, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow....
.
The traditionalist party included Thomas Wriothesley
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton
Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, KG , known as The Lord Wriothesley between 1544 and 1547, was a politician of the Tudor period born in London to William Wrythe and Agnes Drayton....
and Richard Rich
Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich
Sir Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich , was Lord Chancellor during the reign of King Edward VI of England. He was the founder of Felsted School with its associated alms houses in Essex in 1564....
who racked Askew in the Tower, Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner , Bishop of London, was an English bishop. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonized by the Protestant reforms introduced by Somerset and reconciled himself to Roman Catholicism...
and Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk
Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was a prominent Tudor politician. He was uncle to Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of the wives of King Henry VIII, and played a major role in the machinations behind these marriages...
. The intention of her interrogators may have been to implicate the Queen, Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr
Catherine Parr ; 1512 – 5 September 1548) was Queen consort of England and Ireland and the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII of England. She married Henry VIII on 12 July 1543. She was the fourth commoner Henry had taken as his consort, and outlived him...
, through the latter's ladies-in-waiting and close friends, who were suspected of having also harboured Protestant beliefs. These ladies included the Queen's sister, Anne Parr
Anne Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
Anne Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, Baroness Herbert of Cardiff was lady-in-waiting to each of Henry VIII of England's six wives. She was the younger sister of his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.-Early years:...
, Katherine Willoughby, Anne Stanhope
Anne Stanhope
Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset was the second wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, who held the office of Lord Protector during the first part of the reign of his nephew King Edward VI, through whom Anne was briefly the most powerful woman in England...
, and Anne Calthorpe
Anne Calthorpe
Anne Calthorpe, Countess of Sussex , was the second wife of Henry Radcliffe, 2nd Earl of Sussex, who divorced her in 1555 on the grounds of her alleged bigamous marriage to Sir Edmund Knyvet, and her "unnatural and unkind" character.She served as a lady-in-waiting in the household of Queen consort...
. Other targets were Lady Denny and Lady Hertford, wives of evangelicals at court.
Arrest and interrogation
In 1545 she was arrested and falsely accused as a heretic. She was examined by church leaders regarding her beliefs and found to disagree with their doctrine of Transubstantiation. Her answers were full of wisdom and truth and she often caught them in their own questions, which only enraged them more. She was brought before Lord Bonner, who was determined to see her burned. He was unable to draw anything from her that would incriminate her, so instead he taunted her with insinuation that her life was not as pure as the Scripture required. Anne calmly challenged him to bring forth anyone who could prove dishonesty in her. He could not and eventually released her.Thomas Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor of England at that time, undertook the prosecution. He subjected her to an examination which lasted five hours. He asked her opinion of the bread and the eucharist. She replied; "I believe that as oft as I, in Christian congregation, receive the bread in remembrance of Christ's death, and with thanksgiving, according to His holy institution, I receive therewith the fruits also of His most glorious passion." She was then asked; "How can you avoid the very words of Christ, 'Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you?'"
"Christ's meaning in this passage," she replied, "is similar to the meaning of those other places of Scripture, 'I am the door,' 'I am the vine,' 'Behold the Lamb of God,' 'That rock was Christ,' and other such references to Himself. You are not in these texts to take Christ for the material thing which He is signified by, for then you will make Him a very door, a vine, a lamb, a stone, quite contrary to the Holy Ghost's meaning. All these indeed do signify Christ, even as the bread signifies His body in that place." She was sent back to Newgate.
Askew was arrested again. She was examined in June 1546 by Martin Bowes
Martin Bowes
Sir Martin Bowes , was a sixteenth-century English politician.Bowes made a career at the Royal Mint, as a master-worker and under-treasurer, and personally contributed to the debasement of English currency. He was a Sheriff of London for 1540 and the Lord Mayor of London for 1545...
, Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
. Sir Anthony Kingston
Anthony Kingston
Sir Anthony Kingston was an English royal official, holder of various positions under several Tudor monarchs.-Life:He was son of Sir William Kingston of Blackfriars, London...
, the Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to torture Askew in an attempt to force her to name others.
According to Askew's own account, and also that of gaolers within the Tower, she was tortured only once. She was taken from her cell, at about ten o'clock in the morning, to the lower room of the White Tower. She was shown the rack
Rack (torture)
The rack is a torture device consisting of a rectangular, usually wooden frame, slightly raised from the ground, with a roller at one, or both, ends, having at one end a fixed bar to which the legs were fastened, and at the other a movable bar to which the hands were tied...
and asked if she would name those who believed as she did. Askew declined to name anyone at all, so she was asked to remove all her clothing except her shift. Askew then climbed onto the rack and her wrists and ankles were fastened. Again, she was asked for names, but she would say nothing. The wheel of the rack was turned, pulling Askew along the device and lifting her so that she was held taut about 5 inches above its bed and slowly stretched. In her own account written from prison, Askew said that she fainted with the pain, and was lowered and revived. This procedure was repeated twice. Kingston refused to carry on torturing her, left the tower, and sought a meeting with the king at his earliest convenience to explain his position and also to seek his pardon, which the king granted.
Wriothesley and Rich set to work themselves. Askew's cries could be heard in the garden next to the White Tower where the Lieutenant's wife and daughter were walking. Askew gave no names, and her ordeal ended when the Lieutenant ordered her to be returned to her cell.
Execution
She was burnt at Smithfield, LondonSmithfield, London
Smithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...
aged 26, on 16 July 1546, with John Lascelles and two other Protestants. Anne Askew was carried to execution in a chair wearing just her shift as she could not walk. She was dragged from the chair to the stake which had a small seat attached to it, which she sat astride. Chains were used to bind her body firmly to the stake at the ankles, knees, waist, chest and neck. Because of her recalcitrance she was burned alive slowly rather than being strangled first or burned quickly. Those who saw her execution were impressed by her bravery, and reported that she did not scream until the flames reached her chest.The execution lasted about an hour and Anne was unconscious and probably dead after fifteen minutes or so.
Prior to their death, the young martyrs were offered one last chance at pardon. Bishop Shaxton mounted the pulpit and began to preach to them. His words were in vain, however. Anne, in spite of her sufferings, listened attentively throughout his discourse. When he spoke the truth she audibly expressed agreement, but when said anything contrary to Scripture, she exclaimed; "There he misseth, and speaketh without the book."
Legacy
She wrote a first-person account of her ordeal and her beliefs, which was published as the Examinations by John BaleJohn Bale
John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...
, and later in John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
's Acts and Monuments of 1563 which proclaims her as a Protestant martyr. The story of Askew's martyrdom was thus written into the Protestant hagiography, but as McCulloch comments, under a version of her unmarried name (which he attributes to some embarrassment over her desertion of her husband Kyme). As he notes Robert Parsons picked up on this aspect of the story.
Several ballads were written about her in the 17th century. As Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his Worthies of England, published after his death...
described it, "she went to heaven in a chariot of fire." There was a resurgence of interest in her story during Victorian times, and the Bleets company produced an Anne Askew doll complete with rack and stake. One is on show at the Leeds Toy Museum.
External links
- Representative Poetry Online - Anne Askew's Newgate ballad
- Anne Askew - Illustrated story on History's Heroes
- Spartacus Educational - Anne Askew
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/798 Diane Watt, ‘Askew , Anne (c.1521–1546)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- Anne Askew at University of Toronto LibrariesUniversity of Toronto LibrariesThe University of Toronto Libraries is the library system of the University of Toronto, comprising about 30 individual libraries that hold more than 10 million bound volumes and 5 million microform volumes...