On our London walks that take in Smithfield we pass the gatehouse to the oldest Parish Church in London, St Bartholomew the Great, which was founded in 1123.
Nearby is a plaque that remembers the fact that the Smooth Field (of which Smithfield is a corruption) was once a place of execution.
On our haunted London walks we pause alongside the plaque that commemorates the execution here in 1305 of William Wallace, Braveheart himself.
But this was also a place of execution in the reign of Henry V111 and on our London Executions Walk we tell the stories behind some of those who died here for their faith.
Of all the executions that took place during the reign of Henry VIII, the burning of Anne Askew, - or Kyme, the young wife of a Lincolnshire landowner, was the worst, of the whole series.
It was on the morning of July I6th, 1546, that a large crowd assembled at Smithfield, beneath the shadow of the church of St Bartholomew to witness the burning of Anne Askew and three other martyrs.
The distinguished nature of, the company, who were accommodated with a good view of the proceeding from a specially erected gallery, indicated the importance attached to the death of this poor woman, whose offence was declared to be heresy.
But there was much more behind the affair than a refusal to conform to the dogma of the Church. The interminable domestic strife of Henry was working up again into another crisis this time, with Catherine Parr.
The crackling of the faggots at Smithfield as they consumed the body of the woman who had held the Reformed faith were in the nature of a warning to the Queen.
For the supposed connection of Anne Askew with Catherine had caused her to be singled out for the purpose of forcing her into a confession that the Queen, too, held heretical views.
The torture on the rack of Anne Askew has been disputed,but it is substantiated by her own story and, contemporary chroniclers. She endured these inflictions without implicating the Queen, and she went to her death subsequently condemning no one.
Anne, who was born at Stallingborough, about 1521, was the second daughter of Sir William Askew of South Kelsey; Lincoln. Her elder sister was betrothed by her parents to Thomas Kyme, a Lincolnshire Justice of the Peace.
When she died before the marriage could take place, the younger Anne was forced to take her place.
Anne is said to have had two children by Kyme, but she and her husband quarelled on the question of religion.
She was beautiful, intellectual, and high-spirited, and no doubt adopted an independent attitude on the subject. Eventually her husband turned her out of doors and she came to London to sue for a separation.
She appears to have known many influential women in London, and she became a friend of Catherine Parr who was almost (if not quite) a convert to the views held by Anne.
Anne distributed books and tracts issued by the Reformers, and Catherine was caught reading some of these by her lord and, master.
Henry had actually ordered Chancellor Wriothesley to come with forty men of the guard and arrest his wife, but she, being craftier than his previous wives, got round him.
Thus when Wriothesley appeared with his guard, he was called knave, fool, and beast for his pains.
Wriothesley did not forget this indignity, and determined to be avenged on the Queen in some way or other.
His opportunity came when Anne Askew was arrested, for it was he who applied the rack in the Tower to extort a Confession from Anne in the hope that she would name the Queen.
Anne was tried at Guildhall at the instance of Bishop Bonner.
Bonner, the Bishop of London, drew, up a form of recantation for Anne which he entered in his register. This fact has led Catholic historians to declare that Anne did recant, but it seems clear that she refused to sign the form.
During her examination, Anne was asked how she had obtained food in prison. The question was designed to implicate others.
She replied : “My maid bemoaned my wretched condition to the apprentices in the streets, and some of them sent me money, but I never knew their names.”
Pressed as to whether any of the ladies of the Court had sent her money, she said : ‘My maid once told me that a man in a blue coat had given her ten shillings for me, saying that they came from Lady Hertford and at another time that a man in a violet coat had given her eight shillings for me,saying that they came from Lady Denny.
“Whether these accounts are true I have no knowledge.” She also denied that any member of the Council had secretly supported her.
With Anne there went to the stake two gentlemen of the Royal Household, William Morice, the King’s Gentleman Usher, and Sir George Blagge, of the Privy Chamber.
The male victims were not tortured. Their offence was solely a matter of religious faith. Anne Askew’s death was as much political as religious. It was brought about by the parties who had hoped to make her an instrument in their attacks upon the Queen.
Among those present to see the end of Anne were Wriothesley and Bishop Bonner, who had State seats near St. Bartholomew’s Gate.
These men were most uncomfortable during the tragic scene; not because of remorse, but because they were afraid that the gunpowder hanging on the necks of the victim would injure them when it exploded!
