Anne Askew (née Anne Ayscough or Ascue, married name Anne Kyme) (born 1520/1521 – died 16 July 1546) was an English poet and Protestant who was condemned as a heretic. She is the only woman on record known to have been both tortured in the Tower of London and burnt at the stake. She is also one of the earliest female poets to compose in the English language and the first Englishwoman to demand a divorce (especially, as an innocent party on scriptural grounds). Anne Askew was born in 1521 in Lincolnshire, England. William Askew, a wealthy landowner, was her father. William was a gentleman in the court of King Henry VIII, as well as a juror in the trial of Anne Boleyns co-accused. William had arranged that his eldest daughter, Martha, be married to Thomas Kyme. When Anne was 15 years old, Martha died. William decided Anne would take Martha’s place in the marriage to Thomas. Anne was an avid Protestant. She studied the Bible and memorized verses. She was true to her belief for the entirety of her life. Unfortunately, Thomas was a Catholic, which resulted in a brutal marriage between Anne and him. Anne had two children with Thomas before he threw her out for being Protestant. It’s said that Anne was seeking to divorce him, so being kicked out did not upset her. Upon being thrown out, Anne moved to London. Here she met other Protestants and studied the Bible. Anne stuck to her last name Askew, rather than her husband’s name. While in London, Anne became a gospeler or a preacher. In March 1545, Thomas had Askew arrested. She was brought back to Lincolnshire, where Thomas demanded her to stay. The order was short-lived, she escaped and returned to London to continue preaching. In 1546 she was arrested again, but released. In May 1546 she was arrested again, and tortured in the Tower of London. (She is the only woman recorded to have been tortured there.) She was ordered to give up likeminded women, but refused. The torturers, Lord Chancellor Thomas Wriothesley and Sir Richard Rich, used the rack, which stretches the victim by the limbs eventually causing dislocation. Askew refused to alter her beliefs. On 18 June 1546, Anne was convicted of heresy, and was condemned to be burned to death. On 16 July 1546 Askew was martyred in Smithfield, London. Due to the torture she endured, Anne had to be carried to the stake on a chair. She burned to death, along with three other Protestants, John Lassells, John Hemley (a priest) and John Hadlam (a tailor). In the last year of Henry VIIIs reign, Askew was caught up in a court struggle between religious traditionalists and reformers. Stephen Gardiner 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 people 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: Askews 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 Cranmers 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 latters ladies-in-waiting and close friends, who were suspected of having also harboured Protestant beliefs. These ladies included the Queens sister, Anne Parr, Katherine Willoughby, Anne Stanhope, and Anne Calthorpe. Other targets were Lady Denny and Lady Hertford, wives of evangelicals at court. Anne Askew underwent two examinations before she was finally burned at the stake for heresy. On 10 March 1545, the aldermen of London ordered for her to be detained under the Six Articles Act; she was accused of heresy and acts against the Catholic church. Askew stood trial before the quest, which was an official heresy hearing commission. She was then cross examined by the chancellor of the Bishop of London, Emmund Bonner. He ordered to have her imprisoned for 12 days. During this time she refused to make any sort of confession. Her cousin Brittayn was finally allowed to visit her after the 12 days to bail her out. On 19 June 1546, Askew was, yet again, locked away in prison. She was then subject to a two-day long period of cross examination led by Chancellor Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Stephen Gardiner, The Bishop of Winchester (John Dudley), and Sir William Paget (the kings principal secretary). They threatened her with execution, but she still refused to confess, name fellow Protestants, or convert back to Catholicism. She was then ordered to be tortured. Her torturers did so, probably motivated by the desire for Askew to admit that Queen Katherine Parr was also a practicing Protestant. According to her own account, and that of gaolers within the Tower, she was tortured only once. She was taken from her cell, at about ten oclock 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 she fainted from 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. They turned the handles so hard that Anne was drawn apart, her shoulders and hips were pulled from their sockets and her elbows and knees were dislocated. Askews cries could be heard in the garden next to the White Tower where the Lieutenants wife and daughter were walking. Askew gave no names, and her ordeal ended when the Lieutenant ordered her to be returned to her cell. Anne Askew was burned at the stake at Smithfield, London, aged 26, on 16 July 1546, with John Lascelles, Nicholas Belenian and John Adams. She was carried to execution in a chair wearing just her shift as she could not walk and every movement caused her severe pain. She was dragged from the chair to the stake which had a small seat attached to it, on 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 she was unconscious and probably dead after fifteen minutes or so. Prior to their death, the prisoners 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 listened attentively throughout his discourse. When he spoke anything she considered to be the truth, she audibly expressed agreement; but when he said anything contrary to what she believed Scripture stated, she exclaimed: There he misseth, and speaketh without the book. **Eleanor of Aquitaine** Owner
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 13:11:00 +0000
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