Queen Mary I is known as Bloody Mary for her burning at the stake of Protestants.
Mary was a very complex Queen despite only reigning for around 5 years from 1553 to 1558,
and she was blighted by ill health and great upset.
When she came onto the throne, she attempted to restore Catholicism as the main religion
of England and to restore the property confiscated by her father Henry VIII in the form of the
Dissolutions of the Monasteries.
However she was never really too successful in this as she died on the 17th November 1558,
and her half sister Elizabeth then continued the protestant reformation in England, and
she did attempt to unite Catholicism and Protestantism in her own religious settlement.
But Mary as mentioned is most remembered for her brutal burnings of people, and during
her short time on the throne she had over 280 people burned at the stake in horrific
scenes during the Marian persecutions.
But one of these executions saw a huge number of 17 people burned inside of Lewes between
1555 and 1557.
But what is the story of this?
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One of the greatest upsets Mary I faced during her reign was based around her failed pregnancy.
She longed for an heir which she believed would carry on Catholicism in England following
her death, and she was desperate for a child.
But Mary would never have one and instead she had a failed pregnancy which caused her
great distress and pain.
She suffered from swellings in her stomach, and even the royal doctors believed she was
pregnant, but no baby ever came and it’s believed these swellings could be linked to
stomach cancer or ovarian cancer and problems with her health that she lived with the rest
of her life.
As she was greatly upset by this lack of child, she began to blame Protestants and thought
that God had punished her as she had not been dealing with heretics in her country as strongly
as she could have.
With this she ramped up the persecution, and inside the town of Lewes in East Sussex, over
the course of two years a number of brutal executions occurred inside of the town,
These were part of the Marian persecutions of Protestants, and on the 6th June 1556,
Thomas Harland, John Oswald, Thomas Reed and Thomas Avington were brought to Lewes from
nearby towns.
They had been imprisoned inside of various prisons, and they were then brought to Lewes
and were executed.
The four were burned together in one huge fire, with the men tied to stakes and then
the fires were lit.
The crowds gathered to see the huge and morose sight, with the four men succumbing to the
fire, for their crime of being a heretic or a protestant.
It’s likely the men refused to accept Mary’s Catholicism and they were all burned.
The smell and the sight would have been terrifying, as would have the sound of the mens piercings
screams which would be haunting.
John foxes’ Book of Martyrs which documented the burnings stated, ‘In June next following,
about the sixth day of the same month, four martyrs suffered together at Lewes, whose
names were these: Thomas Harland, of Woodmancott, carpenter; John Oswald, of Woodmancott, husbandman;
Thomas Avington, of Ardingley, turner; Thomas Read.
To Thomas Harland I find in the bishop of London's registers, to be objected for not
coming to church.
Whereunto he answered, that after the mass was restored, he never had will to hear the
same, because (said he) it was in Latin, which he did not understand, and therefore as good
(quoth he) never a whit as never the better.
John Oswald denied to answer any thing, until his accusers should be brought face to face
before him; and neverthe-less said, that fire could not make him afraid: but as the good
preachers which were in King Edward's time have suffered and gone before, so was he ready
to suffer and come after, and would be glad thereof.
These four, after long imprisonment in the King's Bench, were burned together at Lewes
in Sussex, in one fire, the day of the month aforesaid.
But then the shocking scenes in Lewes got worse in June 1557.
Richard Woodman along with 9 other people were taken into the town to be burned upon
the orders of Edmund Bonner, Bloody Bonner the Bishop of London.
He was known particularly for being a brutal hunter of heretics, and he was awful to many
Protestants across the country.
It is said that the 10 of them were kept inside the town’s jail briefly, before they were
then executed in front of the Star Inn which is now Lewes Town Hall.
This was the largest burning in English History as 10 people were burned on one huge fire,
and the preparations for this must have been large.
They were taken out of a basement in the undercroft and were then taken to the fire and the site
of the burnings.
The scenes must have been pure horror to have witnessed with 10 people burning on one huge
fire.
Foxes’ Book of Martyrs stated that, ‘After these examinations thus had and commenced
between Richard Woodman and the bishops, he was (as is afore told) judged by sentence
of condemnation, and so deprived of his life.
With Woodman also were burnt nine others; to wit, five men and four women, which were
taken not past two or three days before their judgment; the names of all which being also
before expressed, here again follow in this order: Richard Woodman, George Stevens, William
Mainard, Alexander Hosman, his servant, Thomasin h Wood, his maid, Margery Moris, James Moris,
her son, Dennis Burgis, Ashdon's wife, Grove's wife.
These persons here above-named, and blessed martyrs, were put to death at Lewes the twenty-second
of June.
Of the which number the eight last were apprehended (as is said) either the same day, or the second
or third day before, and so with the said Woodman and Stevens were together committed
to the fire; in which space no writ could come down from London to the justices, for
their burning.
Wherefore what is to be said to such justices, or what reckoning they will make to God and
to the laws of this realm, I refer that to them that have to do in the matter.
The like whereof is to be found also of other justices, who, without any lawful writ of
discharge or order of law, have unlawfully and disorderly burnt the servants of Christ,
(whose blood the law both may and also ought to revenge,) especially at Salisbury, and
at Canterbury, and Guernsey.
But concerning these matters, though man's law do wink, or rather sleep, at them, yet
they shall be sure God's law will find such murderers out at length.
I pray God the doers may repent betime.
In total 17 people were burned in Lewes over two years and they were referred to as the
Lewes Martyrs.
Each year these are remembered along with the Gunpowder Plotters in the 5th November
celebrations inside of the town.
But ultimately the executions showed the brutality of Mary I, and how she would stop at no lengths
to order the executions of people she deemed were heretics.
The burning at Lewes in particular the one in which 10 were burned on one fire was the
largest single bonfire of people that ever occurred inside of England, and it solidified
Mary’s reputation as a brutal and barbaric Queen who was greatly feared.
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