On this day in Tudor history, 25th March 1586, Good Friday and also Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation, Catholic martyr Margaret Clitherow (née Middleton), known as “the Pearl of York”, was pressed to death at the toll-booth on Ouse Bridge in York, under 7 or 8 hundredweight. She was executed for harbouring Catholic priests.
Warning - I share an eye-witness account from Margaret's confessor and it gets quite graphic towards the end.
25th March, Lady Day, was the start of the calendar year in Tudor times. Here's a link to last year’s video:
Also on this day in history:
- 1571 – Roberto di Ridolfi left England with a commission to open negotiations to end the trade war, but also with authorisation from Mary, Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk to get Spanish aid for their plot against Elizabeth I.
- 1584 - Letters patent granted to Walter Ralegh to "discover, search for, fynde out and view... landes, countries and territories", for the benefit of himself, "his heyres and assignes forever."
Transcript:
On this day in Tudor history, 25th March 1586, Good Friday and also Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation, Catholic martyr Margaret Clitherow (née Middleton), known as “the Pearl of York”, was pressed to death at the toll-booth on Ouse Bridge in York, under 7 or 8 hundredweight. She was executed for harbouring Catholic priests.
The following information is taken from a talk I did for the Tudor Society on the rather cheerful subject of execution methods!
Margaret Clitherow had previously been imprisoned for helping and harbouring priests, hiding them in two chambers, one connected to her house and another in another part of York. Margaret refused a trial by jury as she did not want her children to be forced to testify and possibly tortured, so she was automatically sentenced to death. Her family and friends claimed that she was pregnant with her fourth child, but Margaret would not confirm it.
In his “Life of Margaret Clitherow”, Margaret’s confessor, John Mush, writes of her martyrdom:
“The place of execution was the tollbooth, six or seven yards distant from the prison. There were present at her martyrdom the two sheriffs of York, Fawcet and Gibson, Frost, a minister, Fox, Mr. Cheeke’s kinsman, with another of his men, the four sergeants, which had hired certain beggars to do the murther, three or four men, and four women.
The martyr coming to the place, kneeled her down, and prayed to herself. The tormentors bade her pray with them, and they would pray with her. The martyr denied, and said, ‘I will not pray with you, and you shall not pray with me; neither will I say Amen to your prayers, nor shall you to mine.’ Then they willed her to pray for the Queen's majesty. The martyr began in this order. First, in the hearing of them all, she prayed for the Catholic Church, then for the Pope's Holiness, Cardinals, and other Fathers which have charge of souls, and then for all Christian princes. At which words the tormentors interrupted her, and willed her not to put her majesty among that company; yet the martyr proceeded in this order, ‘and especially for Elizabeth, Queen of England, that God turn her to the Catholic faith, and that after this mortal life she may receive the blessed joys of heaven, For I wish as much good,’ quoth she, ‘to her majesty's soul as to mine own.’ Sheriff Gibson, abhorring the cruel fact, stood weeping at the door. Then said Fawcet, ‘Mrs. Clitherow, you must remember and confess that you die for treason.’ The martyr answered, ‘No, no, Mr. Sheriff, I die for the love of my Lord Jesu’; which last words she spake with a loud voice.
Then Fawcet commanded her to put off her apparel ;
‘For you must die,’ said he, ‘naked, as judgment was given and pronounced against you.’
The martyr with the other women requested him on their knees that she might die in her smock, and that for the honour of womanhood they would not see her naked; but that would not be granted. Then she requested that women might unapparel her, and that they would turn their faces from her for that time.
The women took off her clothes, and put upon her the long habit of linen. Then very quietly she laid her down upon the ground, her face covered with a handkerchief, the linen habit being placed over her as far as it would reach, all the rest of her body being naked. The door was laid upon her, her hands she joined towards her face. Then the sheriff said, ‘Nay, you must have your hands bound.’ The martyr put forth her hands over the door still joined. Then two sergeants parted them, and with the inkle strings, which she had prepared for that purpose, bound them to two posts, so that her body and her arms made a perfect cross. They willed her again to ask the Queen's Majesty's forgiveness, and to pray for her. The martyr said she had prayed for her. They also willed her to ask her husband’s forgiveness. The martyr said, “If ever I have offended him, but for my conscience, I ask him forgiveness.’
After this they laid weight upon her, which when she first felt, she said, ‘Jesu! Jesu ! Jesu ! have mercy upon me!’ which were the last words she was heard to speak.
She was in dying one quarter of an hour. A sharp stone, as much as a man’s fist, put under her back; upon her was laid to the quantity of seven or eight hundred-weight at the least, which, breaking her ribs, caused them to burst forth of the skin.
Thus most victoriously this gracious martyr overcame all her enemies, passing [from] this mortal life with marvellous triumph into the peaceable city of God, there to receive a worthy crown of endless immortality and joy.
This was at nine of the clock, and she continued in the press until three at afternoon.”
And that was the awful end of Margaret Clitherow, the Pearl of York.
Saint Margaret Clitherow pray for us. Amen.