During the reign of King Henry VIII, there were a huge number of executions that were
carried out across England.
Many of the most brutal and shocking executions saw many men being condemned for treason and
then hanged, drawn and quartered in barbaric scenes.
But Henry VIII executed 70,000 people including even two of his own wives, and also some of
his closest friends including Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More.
But during his reign, he expanded the rules on treason in terms of how someone could be
found guilty of the most serious offence.
Henry even took great steps to instil his reign of terror onto one cook who was allegedly
found guilty of poisoning people in the house of Bishop John Fisher.
Henry even allowed murder by poisoning to be incorporated into treason, and then would
force a defendant to be boiled alive in a savage execution.
But there was one woman who was executed for treason and specifically using dark arts to
bring the death of King Henry VIII and one of his closest advisors Thomas Howard the
3rd Duke of Norfolk.
Mable Brigge predicted Henry’s death and allegedly tried to manifest it’s happening.
Join us today as we look at her execution, remember to support our channel please make
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Mable Brigge was born around 1506, and she for work served as a servant inside a number
of different households.
Whilst working in the house of William Fisher, she was sacked from her job as Fisher suspected
her of stealing, and also she was known for fasting regularly and often.
But she worked then for the Nelson family, and then she was referred to the household
of John Locker in Yorkshire, and she then went to work for the Lokkar’s arriving with
her two children and a note saying that Nelson would pay her wages.
But in Summer 1537, Mable Brigge was hired by a lady named Isobel Buck to perform a black
fast.
This practice was also known as a St trinians’ fast, and in this ritual she would not consume
food, but would also harvest energy to bring about a specific outcome.
It was dependent on God’s will and listening, and it was hoped that God or evil sprits could
bring about some action by engaging in a black fast.
Brigge for 3 days fasted with no meat or milk consumed, and she focussed her mind on prayer
to bring about an end goal.
She carried out the fast, and told the Lokkar’s that it was charitable.
But Isobel Buck then offered Brigge a significant amount of wheat and half a yard or linen to
perform the fast to recover some money that Buck had lost.
This fast was sanctioned by a priest, and Brigge was allowed to perform it.
But then in January 1538 shocking accusations emerged regarding Mabel Brigge and her black
fast.
John Locker and his wife made an audacious accusation that she was actually fasting to
bring about a more sinister and deadly outcome.
Mabel Brigge was thrown out of their home, and the Lokkar’s claimed that she fasted
to kill Henry VIII and the Duke of Norfolk, and to bring about their deaths.
The authorities were told of this, and it was claimed that Mabel Brigge had done his
before, and had fasted to kill a man who then broke his neck and subsequently died from
his injuries.
Brigge then stated that John Locker had offered her money to back this up, but shockingly
things escalated heavily.
Alongside Isobel Buck, Mable Brigge was accused of bringing about evil spirits that would
lead to the King’s death.
Mabel Brigge was then taken to York and was placed on trial, and shockingly she was accused
of treason.
There was a great fear during the Tudor Period of witches, witchcraft and evil spirits.
With this, many women were accused of dealing with the dark arts and so on.
Over the Tudor times and also the following centuries, hundreds of women in Britain were
executed being wrongly accused of being witches.
Women were thrown into rivers accused of being a sorcerer or witch, and others were dunked
in rivers and many drowned because of this.
Mable Brigge was categorised in this same light, and at her trial she was accused yet
again of planning and plotting to kill the King Henry VIII, and bringing about his death
through her fasts.
Isobel Buck was also implicated, but she was given a reprieve, but then her husband was
also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by allegedly using bribery.
But Mabel Brigge was not spared.
The standard sentence for treason for men was being hanged, drawn and quartered, but
this was not a brutal punishment deemed suitable for women.
Women instead found of treason were either burned at the stake, or were hanged in cities
in large public executions.
Mabel Brigge was sentenced to be hanged in York on the 7th April 1538, and on this day
her execution took place.
She was taken to the public gallows, and was brought in front of a huge crowd.
Her death sentence was read out, and then she was handed over to the executioner.
He then secured the noose around her neck, as she was stood under the gallows on a stool,
and then quickly the stool was removed and she was left hanging.
Mabel Brigge’s crime today may be considered rather strange and bizarre, as she was trying
to engage the dark arts to allegedly bring Henry VIII’s death.
But it’s believed that she was probably more so a victim of the manipulations against
her of other people.
It was impossible for her to try to kill the King using spirits, and it shows us that during
the Tudor Period, people believed very different things to what they did today.
Dissenting against Henry VIII often just resulted in one thing, someone losing their head in
brutal fashion, or being executed in front of scores of the public who were bloodthirsty
and determined to witness the executions of a traitor.
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