Hi, my name is Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube channel the History Squad. Now
today's video is about a lady called Margaret Clitherow, she was from the Elizabethan age,
the last part of the Tudors, she ended up being crushed to death, pressed as they called it using
her own front door, and what we're going to do, we're going to delve into her life and see how
come she ended up dying in such a terrible way. Margaret Clitherow born in the City of York 1552.
Her parents were Jane and Thomas Middleton he was a wax chandler, dealt with all things to do with
wax, you know candles, waterproofing all of that kind of stuff but he was also a Freeman of the
City of York. I'll explain about being a Freeman a little bit later on but it shows that she was born
into a family that was I suppose middle class. Now at the age of 18 she marries the widower,
who's already got two sons, John Clitherow. Now he was a wealthy butcher as they had a house in the
Shambles in York which is a great place to visit, her house still stands, has a plaque outside you
can go in and see where Margaret Clitherow actually lived. Have a look at her front door
as you go in. Now John Clitherow himself he was a Freeman of the city of York and it's important
to know what a Freeman did. He was responsible for who traded in the city of York, responsible
for the strays that might wander into the city or escape you know cattle sheep. He also helped run
the city itself. Now on top of this in 1574 John is voted in as a Chamberlain of York that means he
has to do with the Royal Estates that are around about or the Royal interest, the finances of the
royalty within York so he’s quite an important man. Now Margaret and John had numerous children
but we don't know exactly how many they had and how many survived but I can tell you this
she converted to Catholicism in 1574, so there's going to be a bit of friction there between her
and her husband. This is a dangerous time to be a Catholic in in England, the reign of Elizabeth I.
That last part of the Tudors in 1558, it was made illegal to harbor a priest and then in 1559 there
was the Act of Uniformity so it was even illegal to have Catholic mass and in spite of all of this
danger Margaret actually harbors priests in her own home. She also makes available the sacraments
to her neighbors and friends who want to practice their Catholic, Catholicism in private,
you know hold that mass, but it's totally illegal. Now Margaret was so successful in the neighborhood
of spreading Catholicism that she comes to the attention of her neighbors and her poor husband,
John, he ends up getting fined but it's his wife’s doing because he remains Protestant. Now there
is an interesting piece from history that we've learned about this that he says to his wife that
‘You are a fine upstanding wife. There are only two things that bother me about you, your constant
fasting and you won't come to church with me to worship.’ One of the things about Margaret is, why
did she convert to Catholicism? Now there are a few differing stories but the ones that I've seen
repeated was that it was a friend of hers who was a Catholic and told Margaret the stories of the
Catholic martyrs, priests you know, burned at the stake, hanged all of those different things and
she became inspired by the sacrifice these people made for their beliefs in their religion however
she ends up going to prison, but apparently the prison regime suited her lifestyle. She liked to
fast prison food who wouldn't and also she liked to spend time in prayer. Now prison didn't do the
trick she didn't recant her Catholic faith. In fact she learned to read in prison and once again
I've got two different stories, one is she learned to read, the other is she learned to read Latin.
Now upon her release she makes a pilgrimage to Knavesmire which is where the Tyburn Tree
or the Hanging Place just outside of York used to stand. Between 1582 and 1583 five priests no less,
five priests have been hanged at that time and she made a pilgrimage to it, to pray at the site
where men had died for their faith. On the 10th of March 1586 the Clitherow house on the Shambles
there in York is searched. Somebody has tipped off the authorities. They searched the place
and a frightened child within the household shows them where the priest hole was but the priest had
gone he'd had it on his toes he was safely hidden next door in a neighbor's house. But you consider
this modest house on the Shambles wasn't very big and yet Margaret had made a secret little chamber,
a little room where a priest could hide, but now it had been found and she, she's arrested. Two
days later she appears that the assizes charged with harboring a Catholic priest but she refuses
to plea, she will not say guilty or not guilty. She refuses to be tried by a court with a jury.
You do that, you fall foul of the common law of England 1406. If you refuse to plea guilty or not
guilty you'll be subject to the hardest force of punishment that you can imagine it's called Peine
Forte et dure, you’re pressed to death. Now I'm going to go into that in a little while,
I've made some delicate models I suppose you call it. Now ministers of the Protestant faith, her
husband, friends all tried to persuade Margaret away from her path. Pretend you're pregnant
but there's some say she actually was pregnant at the time. The fact is they couldn't dissuade her.
She's going to die in the most cruelest way you can imagine now because Margaret refused to make a
plea. She was executed on the 25th of March 1586. She was taken to the toll booth which stood on the
bridge, the Ouse Bridge. That's the bridge in York that goes over the river Ouse. She would have been
stripped and then her modesty covered and splayed as you can see here, her arms and legs tied out
and then her own front door, believe it or not, which would have been removed from her house would
be brought to the place of execution. Now I have read that they took a sharp and stone the size of
the fist of a man and placed it under the spine or the neck so that when everything was pressed
it would hopefully snap the spine or the neck then what happened was the door would be placed on you
and then weight would be applied and hopefully as this was being done you could actually make
a plea. But Margaret didn't. She withstood the weight for 15 minutes apparently. What killed her
was she was asphyxiated as the weight simply crushed in her chest and then they left her
there. This is something up I can't quite get my head around, they simply left her there.
The body was discovered a couple of weeks later by a friend, John Marsh, and then together with other
friends they took the body and she was buried with full Catholic rights. This death was awful. It was
even used, the pressing, in the Americas. In the Salem Witch Trials an 80 year old man was pressed
because he wouldn't make a plea. Do you know that stood as a punishment up until the late 1700s,
awful to think isn't it? You're not going to plead guilty or not guilty? You're gonna die.
What happened after that, if you refused to make a plea they said you were guilty anyhow.
It's interesting to think that Margaret Clitherow’s story doesn't end with her death,
her stepfather actually accused her of committing suicide which is against the Catholic faith. You
commit suicide you end up in purgatory, you don't go to heaven. Others accused her of being mad and
then there were the rumors was she pregnant wasn't she pregnant? But her husband John,
he maintained his Protestant faith, but Margaret's rebellious streak when it comes to her religion
must have rubbed off on two of her children at least because one of them became a nun,
the other became a priest. Her two stepsons were also inspired by Margaret's beliefs because one of
them becomes a priest and the other dies in Hull jail, imprisoned for his beliefs. The final piece
of this tale of Margaret Clitherow’s life is that she became a saint, 25th of October 1970. Saint
Margaret which I find quite interesting because 25th of October it's St Crispin’s day. Cry God
for Harry England and Saint George. However there is a strange little thing that happened just after
Margaret was executed and it was a letter sent to the city and people of York and it was from none
other than Queen Elizabeth I, and she said that Margaret should have been spared the terrible fate
on account of her gender alone. Don't forget you know this was common law, it was the York assizes,
the whole business was dealt with by the City of York and on finding out about this, it would
appear that Queen Elizabeth herself was horrified at the terrible death of Margaret Clitherow.
Well that was a sad story, I hope it doesn't weigh too heavy on you,
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