Anne Askew and Her Influence on the English Reformation

 By Simonetta Carr - Posted at Place for Truth:

On July 16, 1546, Anne Askew was burned at the stake after suffering terrible tortures – the only woman on record to have tortured in the Tower of London. What caused such a fury against her?

Anne was born around 1521 to Sir William Askew and Elizabeth Wrothesley in Lincolnshire. Her father was a courtier at King Henry VIII’s court, and one of her brother was Henry’s cup bearer. Little is known of Anne’s younger years but, as most noble women of her day, she was well educated.

Anne was fifteen when her sister Martha died and Sir William, who had already paid the dowry to Martha’s fiancée, Thomas Kyme, decided to give him Anne instead. According to her early biographer, John Bale, she tried to be a submissive wife and loving mother to her two children, but her careful and faithful study of the Bible eventually convinced her of the truth of the Protestant teachings that were circulating at that time – a conviction she couldn’t hide.

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