The Trial of Margaret Clitherow – Final Day in Court

On 15 March 1586, Margaret Clitherow was taken to the York Lent assizes court, for the second and final day of her trial for harbouring Catholic priests. This article (the third in a series of four) describes her final day in court.

Margaret hands were tied, and she was led along Coney Street, flanked by halberdiers. By eight o’clock, she was standing before the bench in the Common Hall.

Her first biographer Father Mush describes how Judge Clench attempted to persuade her to make a plea of guilty or not guilty. ‘“Margaret Clitherow, how say you yet?… We see nothing why you should refuse; here be but small witness against you, and the jury will consider your case.”’

‘“Indeed,” said the martyr, “I think you have no witnesses against me but children, which with an apple and a rod you may make to say what you will.”’ With these words, Margaret began the second day in court by deriding the prosecution’s case, highlighting how the authorities could easily tempt or torture young witnesses to give evidence against her.

Margaret’s words caused the junior justice, Judge Rhodes, to speak out against her. ‘“It is plain that you had priests in your house by these things which were found.”’

Rather than deny this accusation, instead Margaret admitted she had harboured priests. ‘“As for good Catholic priests, I know no cause why I should refuse them as long as I live; they come only to do me good and others.”’

This was an astonishing admission to make. It was certainly one which exasperated the judges and the Council of the North. ‘Rhodes, Hurlestone, and others said, “They are all traitors, rascals, and deceivers of the Queen’s subjects.”’

‘The martyr said, “God forgive you. You would not say so of them if you knew them.”’

‘They said, “You would detest them yourself if you knew their treason and wickedness as we do.”’

‘The martyr said, “I know them for virtuous men, sent by God only to save our souls.”’

Father Mush’s court reports are compelling, especially as he must have received his information second hand. It would have been too dangerous for him to risk going to court himself. In the novel, ‘The Pearl of York, Treason and Plot’, this role is given to the young Guy Fawkes, but, in reality, we don’t know who the witness was.

The priest outlined how Judge Clench provided Margaret with yet another opportunity to make a plea. ‘“What say you? Will you put yourself to the jury, yea or no?”’

‘The martyr said, “I see no cause why I should do so in this matter: I refer my cause only to God and your own consciences. Do what you think good.”’

Margaret appeared to be refusing to recognise the jurisdiction of the court to try her. The judges began to lose patience. ‘All the people about her condemned her of great obstinacy and folly, that she would not yield; and on every hand persuaded her to refer her trial to the jury, which could not find her guilty, as they said, upon such slender evidence; but she would not.’

‘“Well,” said Judge Clench, “we must pronounce a sentence against you. Mercy lieth in our hands, in the country’s also, if you put your trial to them; otherwise, you must have the law.”’

Sensing what was about to happen, there was a hubbub in the gallery. Would Margaret be sentenced to suffer ‘peine forte et dure’ (being pressed to death)?

At this moment, there was a dramatic intervention in the courtroom from a Puritan preacher. For brevity, I won’t include the details her, other than to state it must have taken something for a man on the far opposite side of the religious spectrum to attempt to save a Catholic defendant.

When the preacher finally took his seat, Judge Clench once again gave Margaret an opportunity to avoid an awful deathby having her case heard by the jury. Even if she was found guilty, she’d die much more quickly from hanging than by being crushed to death.

Why did the judge go to so much trouble on Margaret’s behalf? He was used to condemning prisoners to death. It wasn’t just Catholic priests and lay people who were executed in York. In 1582, George Foster of Tadcaster was executed for coining. In the following year, Peter Clark suffered a similar fate for murdering Hannah Thompson in Pocklington. In August 1585, two men were condemned to death for coining guineas at a York silversmith’s house.

It’s likely Judge Clench had his own reasons, rather than any desire to see justice done. In some senses, he’d been set up. The local authorities wanted Margaret’s case to be heard by the assizes, rather than a York court. This would make the assizes judges responsible for her case and repercussions afterwards. Judge Clench now sought to shift the blame from himself to the jury. If Margaret pleaded not guilty, and the jury found otherwise, it would be they, not he, who would be responsible for her death.

There may have been another factor. Queen Elizabeth didn’t like executing women. As a senior justice, Judge Clench could have reasonably expected to be knighted in future. However, he never did get asked to kneel before the Queen.

With Margaret steadfastly refusing to make a plea, Judge Rhodes made his own frustrations clear. ‘“Why stand we all day about this naughty, wilful woman. Let us despatch her.”’

When Judge Clench spoke again, it was with a solemn voice. The courtroom listened intently. ‘“If you will not put yourself to the jury, this must be your judgment. You must return from whence you came, and there, in the lowest part of the prison, be stripped naked, laid down, your back upon the ground, and as much weight laid upon you as you are able to bear, and so to continue three days without meat or drink, except a little barley bread and puddle water, and the third day to be pressed to death, your hands and feet tied to posts, and a sharp stone under your back.”’

The judge was describing the traditional method of execution, where the prisoner was forced to suffer for several days before finally being killed. In the enlightened times of Elizabeth I, the punishment was much accelerated. Death usually occurred within twenty minutes, albeit of agonising pain.

Margaret caught the senior judge’s eye and said, ‘“If this judgment be according to your own conscience, I pray God send you better judgment before Him. I thank God heartily for this.”’

‘“Nay,” said the judge, “I do it according to law.”’

But he couldn’t help himself. Once again, he gave Margaret a chance to yield to the wishes of the court. ‘“This must be your judgment, unless you put yourself to be tried by the jury… Consider of it, you have husband and children to care for; cast not yourself away.”’

If her sentence wasn’t bad enough, Margaret’s response to this offer made things even worse, and shocked the gallery. ‘The martyr answered, “I would to God my husband and children might suffer with me for so good a cause.”’

There was uproar in the courtroom. Margaret appeared to be saying she would be happy for her husband and their children to be executed alongside her. ‘Upon which words the heretics reported after, that she would have hanged her husband and children if she could.’

The outcome of the case was clear. Judge Clench wouldn’t ask again. The other assizes cases could be heard. Margaret was taken away. Unless there was an unexpected reprieve, she would be brutally executed, not for being found guilty of committing the crimes she’d come accused of, but for refusing to make a plea in court.

Sheriff Fawcett, the same man who’d arrested Margaret Clitherow in the Shambles less than a week earlier, tied her arms together and led her away towards her prison cell. As he did so, there was something which nobody yet knew. There really was a chance for Margaret’s life to be saved.

The fourth and final article, describing what happened after the trial, will be released towards the end of March.

I hope you’ve found this post interesting. Details of what happened next can be accessed here.

I’m sure you’ll also be interested in my highly rated and award-winning novel which tells Margaret’s story and is filled with the intrigue of Tudor York. All profits have been donated to St Leonard’s Hospice in York, raising thousands of pounds so far.

The Pearl of York, Treason and Plot – A novel centred on the final weeks of Margaret Clitherow’s life – “A heartbreaking book that grabs you from the first page and does not let you go until the last full-stop. I cannot praise this book enough. It was absolutely brilliant from beginning to end.” (Coffee Pot Book Club).

Buy now from Amazon Kindle: UK Link / US Link

Buy now from Amazon Paperback: UK Link / US Link

•