When Henry
VIII died in 1547, his only son Edward
was only nine years old.
He was too young to rule, so his uncle, Edward
Seymour, Duke of Somerset, took over the running of the country.
Seymour was a Protestant and he soon began to make changes to the
Church of England. This included the introduction of an English Prayer
Book and the decision to allow members of the clergy to get married.
Attempts were made to destroy those aspects of religion that were
associated with the Catholic church, for example, the removal of stained-glass
windows in churches and the destruction of religious wall-paintings.
Somerset made sure that
Edward VI was educated as a Protestant,
as he hoped that when Edward was old enough to rule he would continue
the policy of supporting the Protestant religion. However, this was
not to be, as Edward died of tuberculosis at the age of fifteen.
The next in line to the
throne was Henry VIII's eldest daughter, Mary.
As her mother was Catherine of Aragon,
Mary had been brought up as a devout Catholic. Attempts were made
by the Protestants to make the sixteen-year-old Lady
Jane Grey queen. However, the attempted coup failed and she was
executed.
These Protestant attempts
to overthrow Mary made her feel insecure.
To protect her position, Mary decided to form an alliance with the
Catholic monarchy in Spain. In 1554 Mary married Philip
II, the eldest son of King
Charles of Spain.
The marriage was unpopular
with the English people. They disliked the idea of having a foreign
king. At that time the English particularly disliked the Spanish as
they were seen as England's main rivals in Europe. Soon after her
marriage, Mary declared that the Pope was the only true head of the
Church. This was followed by the execution of
Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury
and other Protestants who refused to accept the Pope as head of the
Church. These heretics were also punished
if they were found reading bibles that had been printed in the English
language.
In 1558 Mary began to get
pains in her stomach and thought she was pregnant. This was important
to Mary as she wanted to ensure that a Catholic monarchy would continue
after her death. It was not to be. Mary had stomach cancer. When Mary
died later that year. Henry VIII's other daughter, Elizabeth,
a Protestant, became queen of England.
Number
of people executed for heresy in England and Wales.
(1)
John
Gerard was a Catholic priest who
was tortured in the Tower
of London on 14 April
1597.
We went to the torture
room in a kind of solemn procession, the attendants walking ahead
with lighted candles.
The chamber was underground
and dark, particularly near the entrance. It was a vast place and
every device and instrument of human torture was there. They pointed
out some of them to me and said that I would try them all. Then they
asked me again whether I would confess.
'I cannot,' I said.
I fell on my knees for
a moment's prayer. Then they took me to a big upright pillar, one
of the wooden posts which held the roof of this huge underground chamber.
Driven in to the top of it were iron staples for supporting heavy
weights. Then they put my wrists into iron gauntlets and ordered me
to climb two or three wicker steps. My arms were then lifted up and
an iron bar was passed through the rings of one gauntlet, then through
the staple and rings of the second gauntlet. This done, they fastened
the bar with a pin to prevent it slipping, and then, removing the
wicker steps one by one from under my feet, they left me hanging by
my hands and arms fastened above my head. The tips of my toes, however,
still touched the ground, and they had to dig away the earth from
under them. They
had hung me up from the highest staple in the pillar and could not
raise me any higher, without driving in another staple.
Hanging like this I began
to pray. The gentlemen standing around
asked me whether I was willing to confess now.
'I cannot and I will not,'
I answered.
But I could hardly utter
the words, such a gripping pain came over me. It was worst in my chest
and belly, my hands and arms. All the blood in my body seemed to rush
up into my arms and hands and I thought that blood was oozing out
from the ends of my fingers and the pores of my skin. But it was only
a sensation caused by my flesh swelling above the irons holding them.
The pain was so intense that I thought I could not possibly endure
it, and added to it, I had an interior temptation. Yet I did not feel
any inclination or wish to give them the information they wanted.
The Lord saw my weakness with the eyes of His mercy, and did not permit
me to be tempted beyond my strength. With the temptation He sent me
relief. Seeing my agony and the struggle going on in my mind. He gave
me this most merciful thought: the utmost and worst they can do to
you is to kill you, and you have often wanted to give your life for
your Lord God. The Lord God sees all you are enduring - He can do
all things. You are in God's keeping. With these thoughts, God in
His infinite goodness and mercy gave me the grace of resignation,
and, with a desire to die and a hope (I admit) that I would, I offered
Him myself to do with me as He wished. From that moment
the conflict in my soul ceased, and even the physical pain seemed
much more bearable than before, though I am sure it must, in fact,
have been greater with the growing strain and weariness of my body.
When the gentlemen present
saw that I was not answering their questions, they went off to the
Lieutenant's house, and stayed there. Every now and again they sent
to find out how things were going with me.
Three or four robust men
remained behind to watch and supervise the torture, and also my warder.
He stayed, I think, out of kindness, for every few minutes he took
a cloth and wiped the perspiration that ran in drops continuously
down my face and whole body. That helped me a little, but he added
to my sufferings when he started to talk. He went on and on, begging
and imploring me to pity myself and tell the gentlemen what they wanted
to know. And he urged so many human reasons for this that I thought
that the devil instigated him to feign this affection or that my torturers
had left him behind on purpose to trick me. But I felt all these suggestions
of the enemy like blows in the distance: they did not seem to touch
my soul or affect me in any way. More than once I interrupted him,
'Stop this talk, for heaven's sake. Do you think I'm going to throw
my soul away to save my life? You exasperate me.'
But he went on. And several
times the others joined in.
'You will be a cripple
all your life if you live. And you are going to be tortured every
day until you confess.'
(2)
On 21 March 1556, Thomas
Cranmer, the first Protestant Archbishop
of Canterbury was executed for heresy.
An eyewitness in the crowd described his death.
Coming to
the stake... he put off his garments with haste, and stood upright
in his shirt The fire was lit... he stretched out his right hand,
and thrust it into the flame, and held it there before the flame came
to any other part of the body... As soon as the fire got up, he was
very soon dead, never stirring or crying all the while.
(3)
Rowland Lea worked in the Tower
of London during Lady
Jane Grey's imprisonment. In his diary, Rowland Lea described the
execution of Lady
Jane Grey on the green within the
walls of the Tower of London.
Lady Jane was calm, although . Elizabeth and Ellen wept...
The executioner kneeled
down and asked for forgiveness, which she gave most willingly... she
said: "I pray you dispatch me quickly." She tied a handkerchief
over her eyes; then feeling for the block, she said, "What shall
I do? Where is it?" One of the bystanders guided her... She laid
down her head upon the block, and stretched forth her body.
(4)
While she was in the Tower
of London,
the Protestant, Anne
Askew, wrote her own account of being
tortured. A copy of this account was then smuggled out to her friends.
(29 June, 1546)
Then they
did 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.
(5)
John Foxe, Book of Martyrs (1563)
The Lord Chancellor sent
to Anne Askew letters offering her the king's pardon if she would
recant.. she refused... and thus the good Anne Askew ended the course
of her long agonies and was burnt at the stake.
|
This book deals with the relationship between
Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. It was the defining relationship
of their lives and marked the intersection of the great Tudor
and Stuart dynasties. The distinguished biographer Jane Dunn
reveals an extraordinary story of two queens ruling in one isle,
both embodying opposing qualities of character; ideals of womanliness
and divinely ordained kingship. Theirs is a drama of sex and
power, recklessness, ambition and political intrigue, with a
rivalry that could only be resolved by death. (Jane Dunn, HarperCollins,
ISBN 0 00 257150 1, £20) |
Jane
Dunn, Elizabeth & Mary (HarperCollins)
Available
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