The Tower of London is seen today as a site synonymous with horror, execution and torture.
It is regarded as one of the most brutal prisons in History, because of the experiences of
those held there and what they endured inside the walls.
One device which was used to inflict such a huge amount of pain and suffering was the
rack, where a prisoner was stretched limb from limb on the horrific structure.
But there was only one woman on record to have endured such a horrific fate on the rack.
Things got worse for her though as she was then executed being burned at the stake in
a truly terrifying spectacle.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The HORRIFIC Execution and Torture of Anne Askew.’
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Anne Askew was born around the year 1521 in Lincolnshire.
Her father was a well off land owner, and he was also a gentleman inside the court of
Henry VIII.
William Askew also was present as a juror when a number of men were accused of adultery
and treason with Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s Second Wife.
The revelations led to the executions of 5 men and also Queen Anne, but this shows us
that the Askew family were not entirely of low standing were well thought of.
Anne was the fourth of 5 children, and she was also related to Robert Aske, the leader
of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a huge protest that arose in the north against King Henry
VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries.
It was organised for Anne to marry Thomas Kyme, and Anne herself was a very strong and
devout Protestant.
She was a very learned young lady, who devoted her time to studying and reading the bible,
and she stuck by her faith throughout her life.
She began to rub some people the wrong way through some of her comments and preaching
in Lincoln, but her father was a Catholic.
Anne would spend most of the days reading the Bible, but in her marriage to Thomas Kyme
she had two children.
However her husband did throw her out for being too strongly protestant, and Askew tried
to divorce her husband.
After she was thrown out of the family house, Anne moved to London and whilst here she met
with other leading Protestants.
She also tried to meet with Henry VIII to request a divorce from her husband, and from
documents at the time it was suspected that she was a spy, and she was placed under servalliance.She
used her maiden name to preach and speak to the people of London about her Protestant
beliefs.
This caused controversy as she was arrested a number of times, and was imprisoned for
her religious beliefs.
In March 1545, she was arrested on suspicion of heresy and religious crimes, which was
incredibly dangerous.
The standard sentence for this was death at the time, and Anne was questioned about a
book that was found on her possession.
This was written by a Protestant Priest called John Frith, who himself had been burned at
the stake over 10 years before.
He stated that purgatory could not be proven, and Anne was interrogated by Edmund Bonner,
the bishop of London known as ‘Bloody Bonner.’
Bonner was known for his ill treatment and persecution of Protestants and those deemed
supisicious of Heresy.
Anne was eventually persuaded to sign a confession, and she was released from prison 12 days later
and was sent back to Lincolnshire to live with her brother.
But in February 1546, a number of conservatives in the Church led by Bishop of Winchester
Stephen Gardiner began to seek to destroy and eliminate radical protestants.
Henry VIII did support this, and implicated in this was even Catherine Parr the King’s
sixth wife who was regarded as a radical protestant.
It was said that ‘Protestant heresies would not be tolerated,’ and Henry VIII in May
1546 gave permission for 23 people to be arrested, those accused of heresy and this included
Anne Askew.
Anne was chosen as it was considered that she was associated with Catherine Parr and
was linked to her radical religious views.
Catherine in the past had stated that the Bible did not benefit the lower classes, and
that they could get nothing from it.
An act was even passed banning women and lower class people from reading the bible in private,
and Catherine Parr ignored this and encouraged women to read the Bible and to write scripture
themselves.
Bishop Gardiner believed she was undermining the King and the state, and for this he then
tried to interrogate Anne to get her to implicate the Queen of England.
Gardiner tried to charm Askew, and he tried to befriend her but on the 28th June she rejected
a number of things that implicated her of heresy.
But she did stay strong in her belief, and because she would not tell of any other co-conspirators,
she was sent tortured in the Tower of London.
Sir Anthony Kingston, the constable of the tower was told to torture her to attempt to
get her to name Catherine Parr and other protestant heretics.
Kingston was not comfortable with torturing a woman as it was illegal at the time, but
the Lord Chancellor Thomas Wriothesley and his assistant Richard Rich then took over
the rack.
Askew was throne onto it and strapped to it, and the pair them operated it brutalising
Anne.
She refused to name anyone who shared the same religious belief as her, and Anne said,
‘They put me on the rack, because I confessed no ladies or gentlemen to be of my opinion.
The Lord Chancellor and Master Rich took pains to rack me with their own hands, till I was
nearly dead.
I fainted, and then they recovered me again.
After that I sat two long hours arguing with the Lord Chancellor upon the bare floor, with
many flattering words he tried to persuade me to leave my opinion.
I said that I would rather die than break my faith.’
Anne was broken.
She had been racked to within an inch of her life, and many of her limbs had dislocated
and she was in agony.
The questioning continued, but she was taken away to recover and yet again was asked to
leave her faith.
She refused yet again, and after this she was sent to Newgate Prison to await her execution.
She was brutalised by the men who tortured her, and on the 16th July 1546, Anne Askew
was taken to Smithfield to be burned at the stake.
This was a common sentence for heretics, and during the reign of Mary I she gained the
nickname Bloody Mary for her burning of Protestants.
Smithfield was a common place of execution especially for burnings.
Anne was carried to her execution in a chair as it was said she was, ‘still crippled
by her tortures,’ and she was carried to the stake.
She could not walk and every step the men took, she screamed as she was in so much pain.
It was then said that she was fastened to the stake which was modified, as a small seat
had been placed on it.
She was sat on the small seat, and then was tied to the stake.
She was chained to the stake, and she was bound by the ankles, knees waist, chest and
neck.’
Her executioner did take some pity on her, as he also helped her to not prolong her suffering,
and to die quickly.
He tied a small bag of gunpowder around her neck, but she was burned alongside 3 other
men.
The fires were lit and quickly as imagined Anne Askew succumbed to the fire.
The huge crowd watched on as the martyr died, and the 3 other men burned.
After Anne’s death, Henry VIII later reconciled with Catherine Parr with regards to her religion,
and things were sweetened over.
At the time Henry did not have long left in his life, and he tolerated Catherine’s radical
views on religion as she also took good care of him.
Anne Askew story was published in Foxes’ book of martyrs, which told the world of her
suffering and plight.
She remains today the only woman who it’s been found on record was tortured inside the
Tower of London using the rack.
Her story is one of immense cruelty and barbarism, that saw a young woman of around 25 being
burned in front of a huge crowd.
Anne is considered one of the earliest known female poets, and also the first Englishwoman
to demand a divorce.
In her short life, she devoted her time to her religion, study and pursuit of what she
deemed was the right religious way.
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