On the 20th April in 1534: Elizabeth Barton, traditionalist prophet, is executed for attacking Henry VIII's divorce

An article in yesterday's Telegraph caught my eye, Elizabeth Barton’s childhood is unknown. She was uneducated, and aged 19 was working in the household of Thomas Cobb, farm manager to the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Warham.
Barton’s fame increased when she prophesied her cure at a nearby chapel, then professed as a nun at St Sepulchre, Canterbury. Warham was closely involved, and even gave King Henry VIII a copy of her divine revelations.

At the convent, she became familiar with the visions of Saints Catherine of Siena and Bridget of Sweden, and perhaps started to see herself as similarly chosen. As news of her visions and prophecies spread, she received a constant stream of visitors eager for her guidance and intercession.

The stakes increased when Warham introduced her to Cardinal Wolsey, who was impressed by her, and met her several more times, before eventually arranging for her to meet the king. The two got on well, and Henry saw her on a number of further occasions.

When Henry began his programme of religious reforms, Barton came down strongly on the side of tradition, speaking out in favour of protecting the Church. Leading Protestants took against her.
Barton crossed a fateful line when she prophesied that disaster, war, plagues, and other calamities would afflict England if Henry abandoned Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boleyn.

Her most serious statement predicted that if the annulment went ahead, “hys Majestie shulde not be kynge of this Realme by the space of one moneth after, And in the reputacion of God shuld not be kynge one day nor one houre.” Thomas More intervened, meeting her, and advising her not to stray into “thinges as perteyne to princes' affeirs, or the state of the realme”. However, Barton remained firm in her convictions, and even wrote to the Pope.

Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Cranmer, by now Archbishop of Canterbury, moved in to silence her. A number of Barton’s supporters were arrested, and by November 1533 she was in the Tower. Following numerous examinations, it was announced that she had confessed to heresy and treason. She was made to do public penance at St Paul’s Cross, and she then confessed publicly. The Spanish ambassador noted that the event was a pitiful comedy designed to lower her standing in public opinion. The spectacle was repeated soon after at Canterbury.

Taking care to avoid a trial, in March 1534 Cromwell arranged for Barton and six of her supporters to be convicted of treason by act of attainder.  On 20 April, they were all executed. Barton was hanged and beheaded.

Possession of any of Barton’s writings was made an imprisonable offence, and most materials relating to her life and proclamations were destroyed, so it is difficult to reconstruct the real person. Writers of the period enjoyed extremes. Protestant authors portrayed her as a cunning, manipulative, and dishonest charlatan. Catholic writers saw her as a sincere mystic and a martyr. All that is certain is that she was an English mystic who profoundly impressed many, including Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More, and Archbishop Warham.

In other circumstances, she may have ended up remembered alongside other medieval and early-modern women visionaries and mystics like Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, St Catherine, St Bridget and St Joan of Arc.

As it is, she is remembered as the only English woman ever to have had her head skewered on a spike on London Bridge.

How things have changed...

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