Anne was an English poet and Reformer who was persecuted as a heretic. She is the only woman on record to have been tortured in the Tower of London before being burnt at the stake.
Born at Stallingboroug in 1521, the daughter of a nobleman, she was forced by her father, Sir William Askew to marry when she was just fifteen.
Her marriage did not go well, not least because of her strong Reformed beliefs. Her husband turned her out of the house. She then went to London. Henry VIII was on the throne at this time. There was much strife between Reformers and Catholics. While many people think that Henry was a Protestant because he broke with the Pope, his own beliefs remained very much Catholic. The main difference was that he made himself the head of the Church in England and forced everybody to take an oath of allegiance to him. He also used the antagonisms between the Reformers and the Catholics to achieve his political goals. While they were fighting amongst themselves, he maintained much power.
In London, Anne proclaimed Christ wherever she went and distributed Reformed books. These books had been banned and so she was arrested. That was the pretext, but there was also another reason why she was arrested. It seems that as a noblewoman she had access to the royal court. Apparently she knew some of the royal women, including the Queen who was known to be sympathetic to the Reformed cause. Henry VIII was near death. The Catholics and Reformers were wrangling over positions of power and each wanted control of the throne. Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley and Richard Roth were two high ranking Catholics who saw their chance to get evidence against Queen Katherine Parr and put her out of favor with Henry VIII. They decided to do something never done before – torture a woman, and not just any woman, but a noble woman.
Sir Anthony Kingston, the Constable of the Tower of London, was ordered to torture Anne in an attempt to force her to name other Reformers, especially those of a high rank, and so Anne was put on the rack. However, Kingston refused to carry on torturing her on the grounds that it was not the custom to torture women, and especially one from a noble family, thus he could no longer partake in such an abominable act. Kingston ran away from the Tower and sought a meeting with King Henry VIII at his earliest convenience to explain his position. Henry VIII listened, but did not say that there should be an end to the torture. Sir Anthony refused to do it anymore, so now it was left to Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, Thomas Wriothesley, and Richard Roth, to take over.
According to Anne’s own account – and that of jailors within the Tower – she was tortured only once. She was taken from her cell to the lower room of the White Tower to where the torture chamber was situated, at about ten in the morning. She was shown the rack and asked if she would name those who believed as she did. Although she never said so, she must have realized that the intention of her interrogators was to implicate Katherine Parr, the Queen Consort. (The Sixth and last wife of Henry VIII.) She bravely refused to implicate the queen or any of the other women.
She was asked to remove all her clothing except her shift, which she did. Anne then climbed onto the rack and lay quite still as she was spread-eagled and her wrists and ankles were fastened. Again, she was asked for names, but she would say nothing. The wheel of the rack was turned, pulling Anne along the device and lifting her so that she was held taut about 5 inches above its bed and slowly stretched. In her own account written from prison, Anne said that she fainted with the pain and that she was then lowered and revived. This procedure was repeated twice more before the Lieutenant of the Tower stopped it, and went to complain to the King.
Left on their own Wriothesley and Rich may have been worried: they had put a noble woman to torture with no result. They were unable to persuade the professional torturers to carry on, so they set to work themselves. The rack was worked by a wheel at the head, and in the first stage this was turned and held taught by hand. For more reluctant prisoners, a ratchet could be applied which stopped the rack going slack between turns. Wriothesley and Rich put the ratchet on, and went to work stretching Anne. Apart from the pain of stretching muscles and cracking joints, the rack also constricted the wrists and ankles, causing blood to flow from the fingernails. Anne’s cries could be heard in the garden next to the White Tower where the Lieutenant’s wife and daughter were walking. So piteous were the cries that they turned indoors and shut the windows. In spite of this terrible treatment, Anne gave no names and her ordeal was ended when the Lieutenant returned and ordered her to be returned to her cell to await her execution.
Here she wrote a first-person account of her arrest and torture, and put forth all of her beliefs. This was published as the “Examinations” by Protestant Bishop John Bale, and later in John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments of 1563, which proclaims her as a Protestant martyr.
Anne Askew was carried to her execution in a chair, as she could not walk after her torture. She was dragged from the chair to the stake which had a small seat attached to it, which she sat astride. Those who witnessed her execution (including Lady Jane Grey) were very impressed by her bravery, and many witnesses reported that throughout the long execution she did not scream until the flames reached her chest whereas the three men burned with her cried out from the first touch of the fire. Undoubtedly Anne was very brave but she may also have been so badly damaged on the rack that she had lost the feeling in her legs and perhaps even below the waist. She was burned at the stake at Smithfield, London, aged 25, on July 16, 1546. Her testimony at the stake, and also the published writings of her torture and burning inspired many who came after her. She had given her all for her Lord, Jesus Christ.
She died only a few months before Henry VIII died. Henry’s only son, Edward, succeeded him to the throne.
