Defying Henry VIII: Elizabeth Barton

Elizabeth Barton became a nun at St Sepulchre at approximately age 19. What did a holy servant of the Catholic Church do to defy the Tudor king? She shared the visions sent to her by God.

Elizabeth Barton prophesying
19th century woodcut
by Edward Bocking

An average country girl working as a servant, Elizabeth would have likely lived and died in obscurity had it not been for an illness that occurred during Lent 1526. After surviving this fateful illness, Barton began falling into trances and seeing visions that she and others were convinced were direct communications from God Himself. Her first prophecy predicted the death of the ill child sharing her sickroom. Was she an epileptic or a fraud? We have no way of knowing, but her contemporaries began calling her the Holy Maid of Kent. (Even if she did suffer from epilepsy, it was believed at this time that such disabilities could help one have heavenly visions. The stories of medieval prophetesses Margery Kempe and Juilian of Norwich both also begin with illness.)

For years, Sister Elizabeth prophesied and shared her visions without incident. She lived an exemplary life and, with the help of her visions, rebuked those who had failed to repent of their sin and change their ways. She became well-known and popular. The chapel where she had made one of her first prophesies, the Chapel of Our Lady in the Kent village of Court-at-Street, became a pilgrimage site. A printed compilation of her miracles and prophesies was published in 1527 as A Marueilous Woorke. She even had the opportunity to share her visions with Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, and King Henry VIII.

Then (you probably already guessed it), Henry decided to set aside his pious Catholic queen, Katherine of Aragon.

Chapel of Our Lady, Court-at-Street
courtesy of  historyfish.net

Barton unhesitatingly wrote letters to Wolsey and Pope Clement VII informing them that they risked divine retribution if he continued to support Henry in his plan to divorce Katherine. She also cautioned Henry, in person, that his soul and his realm were at risk if he stayed the course. Sister Elizabeth believed that Wolsey's fall and death were the consequences of ignoring her warnings. She claimed to have been given visions of Wolsey in purgatory and the place saved in hell for Henry.

As you can imagine, this did not set well with the King. And Sister Elizabeth did not stop there.

Henry was in Calais in 1532 for peace talks with King Francis. Barton claimed that she was spiritually present as the two kings took communion at the Church of Our Lady. She went on to insist that an angel had held back the sacrament from Henry and given it to Sister Elizabeth instead. In a singularly correct prophesy, Barton stated that Princess Mary would not be denied her birthright. In another, more provocative but less accurate, she insisted that Henry's reign would end within a month should he insist on marrying Anne Boleyn.

For the crime of predicting the death of the king, charges of treason were brought up against Elizabeth Barton. Traditionally, female traitors were burned at the stake, but in an effort to further humiliate and discredit Barton, she was ordered hanged. Sister Elizabeth Barton was executed on April 20, 1534. That same day, Henry's Oath of Succession was required of every London citizen.

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After his elderly mother is executed for treason, Reginald Pole must outsmart the assassins of Henry VIII. Through the political and spiritual upheaval of the Reformation, Reginald strives for peace and compromise. Is it possible? With royal blood running through his veins, Reginald Pole could have been a Tudor king. His position as a respected Cardinal of the Catholic Church could have earned him the position of Supreme Pontiff. Reginald chose neither.

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Defying Henry VIII: Evil May Day Rioters

No, it was not necessarily that the rioters were evil, but the festival day in 1517 became known as Evil May Day because of the atrocities that occurred. It is interesting to consider that we often think of Henry VIII as a tyrant only in his later years, after too many years without an heir and injuries and ailments that left him tempestuous. At the time of the Evil May Day Riots, Henry had been king only 8 years and was a healthy, athletic 25 year-old.

Medieval May Day was an exuberant festival, filled with food, drink, and dancing. The end of a long, cold winter and dawn of a new summer was even more exciting for those who lived off the land than it is for us today. However, tensions brewed throughout the spring of 1517, leading to a deadly riot in London on a day that should have been filled with celebrations.

King Henry had decided to go to war against France, an action that often leaves those at home overtaxed and underfed. Englishmen were displeased with an influx of immigration that occurred at the same time. Some of these foreign craftsmen and merchants fell outside normal rules of taxation, which inevitably angered their native competitors. Add to this economic downturn the religious unrest that would lead to Martin Luther's 95 Theses later that year, and London was ripe for conflict.

In a sermon that proves some things never change, a Dr Bell of London preached that immigrants, "eat bread from poor, fatherless children," before encouraging men to, "cherish and defend themselves, and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal." A fortnight later, the riots began.

British Museum Woodcutting
from "London Apprentice" 1852

After curfew on the evening of April 30, a group of over 1000 men prepared for a very different kind of May Day. They freed some comrades who had been jailed for harassing foreigners and marched to St Martin le Grand, a London precinct heavily settled with immigrants. Thomas More, who served London as under-sheriff at this time, dared to stand before them and encourage them to disperse. His efforts were in vain, for local residents started raining bricks, debris, and boiling water upon those gathered. A fight broke out between the two groups that lasted through the new May Day until it was brought under control. Shockingly, no one had been killed. Yet.

Within just a few days, King Henry had more than three hundred rioters (men, women, and children) arrested and charged with treason. John Lincoln, who was charged with inciting Dr Bell's sermon, was hanged, drawn, and quartered. Thirteen rioters were also executed, and Henry intended for the rest of them to suffer the same fate. Were it not for Katherine of Aragon begging the king to show mercy to those who remained, even more would have endured the ultimate penalty for protesting the king's policies.

Defying Henry VIII: Edward Stafford

Edward Stafford came from a brief line of unfortunate Dukes of Buckingham. The first Duke of Buckingham, Humphrey Stafford, Edward's great-grandfather, had been killed at the Battle of Northampton during the Wars of the Roses, fighting with the Lancastrian army. At his death, Henry Stafford, Edward's father, gained the title. He is infamous for first supporting Richard III and then rebelling against him. He was executed after being denied an audience with the king. Because of Henry's treason, his son, Edward, did not inherit the title until it was granted to him by King Henry VII in 1485. Given his history, one might have expected Edward Stafford to live and speak carefully. One would be wrong.

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

Edward had been a child when his father was executed, and he does not seem to have learned the lessons he should have from his demise. Proud of his royal lineage that he traced back to Edward III, Edward was also a cousin to the king through his mother, Katherine Woodville. He was not the only one to notice that his blood was equally royal as Henry VIII's.

But did he commit treason? Edward's most serious sins seem to be pride, vanity, and an uncontrollable mouth. His household was always splendidly dressed and decorated with a coat of arms that included the Plantagenet lions and French fleur de lis, claiming his royal lineage. He was not shy about pointing out his close relation with the king and may have even claimed he could do a better job at it than cousin Henry. He arranged excellent marriages for his children, including securing Ursula Pole of royal York blood for his son.

However, Edward had also served alongside Henry in France, served as an ambassador, and been a member of the Privy Council. Buckingham had failed to please the king in controlling Welsh marcher lords, but seems to have served him well besides. Contemporary reports describe his astonishment and grief when arrested.

So what made Henry change his mind?

Coat of Arms of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham

In 1521, Henry VIII was the father of a single daughter and husband to a wife who had proven her inability to provide him with a son. Where Henry had once embraced his extended family in a way that his father never had, this situation made him look more suspiciously at families such as the Staffords, Poles,  Courtenays, and de la Poles. These families, each with noble blood to rival his own, were no longer trusted by him and each paid the price for thriving while he could only pray for a son.

Besides the king's obsession with the future of his dynasty, a problem that would mar the remainder of his reign, a bill of attainder also enabled him to obtain Buckingham's great wealth, including the beautiful, newly built Thornbury Castle.

Edward Stafford was one of the first to pay the ultimate price (Edmund de la Pole had been executed in 1513). He was accused of "imagining and compassing the death of the king," a controversial and doubtful charge at best. But Henry VIII's desires were known. Therefore, Stafford was found guilty and executed on May 17, 1521. His son, Henry Stafford, never received the Buckingham title but was created Baron Stafford decades later.


Don't miss the rest of the Defying Henry VIII series!

Edward Stafford is a character in Faithful Traitor: The Story of Margaret Pole, 

available on Kindle, paperback, hardcover, or audiobook.