The Final Days of Margaret Clitherow

On 25 March 1586, Margaret Clitherow was executed on Ouse Bridge. It’s surely one of the saddest dates in York’s history. However, there were at least three reasons why Margaret’s life could have been saved. This fourth and final article explores the events which took place between her court case and execution.

On 15 March, Margaret returned to her cell on Ouse Bridge, having been sentenced to death. Her husband John was incarcerated in York Castle and the couple were forbidden from seeing each other. Margaret’s biographer, Father John Mush, describes John’s reaction to the sentence. ‘He wept so vehemently that the blood gushed out of his nose, and said, “Alas! Will they kill my wife? Let them take all I have and save her, for she is the best wife in all England.”’

The Protestant authorities hoped Margaret might repent her Catholic faith. If she did so, her sentence would likely be commuted to imprisonment. ‘Came to her… others of the Council, and secretly asked her many things.’

When the Councillors asked if she’d like to listen to a sermon, Margaret surprisingly said she would. She also said she’d have to choose the priest and the authorities must promise his safety. Knowing the man would be a Catholic, the idea was rejected.

Once Margaret made it clear she had no intention of apostatizing her religion, what happened next was almost incredible. Several years earlier, Margaret had been sent to prison in the early stages of pregnancy. Suspicions were raised this had happened again. ‘They asked her also if she thought in her conscience that she was with child.’

This is one of the most incredible aspects of Margaret’s story. It was illegal to execute a pregnant woman, so this was the perfect opportunity to prevent her death. At the very least, the execution would be stayed until the baby was born.

Amazingly, Margaret made the following response. ‘She said she knew not certainly and would not for all the world take it on her conscience that she was, or she was not but, as she thought, rather she was than otherwise.’

Surely the vast majority other women in this situation would have assured anyone who’d listen they most certainly were pregnant. The men sent to question her were perplexed. ‘They asked her why she would not so much as desire to be reprieved for some time. She said, “I require no favour in this matter; you may do your pleasures.”’

News of Margaret’s potential pregnancy spread quickly. ‘Her kinsfolks and friends laboured much all that week to cause her to say directly that she was with child, but she would never affirm it of any certainty, but said she would not dissemble with God and the world, for that she could not tell certainly whether she was or no.’

With no date set for Margaret’s execution, the senior judge found himself in a tricky position. ‘Upon Wednesday the Sheriff of York came to the judge, Clench, and demanded what he should do with her. The judge answered, “She may not be executed, for they say she is with child.”’

Once again, Judge Clench appeared to grab at an opportunity to ensure Margaret’s death was avoided. However, others disagreed with him. ‘They urged sore that she might be executed according to judgment and law. Judge Rhodes said, “Brother Clench, you are too merciful in these cases; if she had not law, she would undo a great many.”’

Judge Clench replied, ‘“If she be with child, I will not consent that she shall die.”’

‘“Then,” quoth the Sheriff, “my lord, I shall make a quest of women to go upon her.”’

‘Quote the judge, “Call four honest women, which know her well, and let them try it.”’

Four women were despatched to Margaret’s cell. Although their findings were inconclusive, the women believed on balance Margaret was pregnant. In the King’s Manor, sides were taken. Judge Clench took one position, while Judge Rhodes, the Council of the North and the Church took the other.

‘That night, or the next day, the Councillors and ministers, who most greedily thirsted after her blood, came to Clench in his chamber and said, “My lord, this woman is not to have the benefit of her condition, for that she hath refused trial by the country, and the sentence of death is passed against her.”’

At first, the judge stood firm. ‘“God defend she should die, if she be with child; although she hath offended, yet hath not the infant in her womb. I will not for a thousand pounds, therefore, give my consent until she be further tried.”’

Finally, the Council of the North offered Judge Clench a way out. They would, ‘“…take it upon our conscience that she is not with child.”’

Offered this compromise, Judge Clench believed he could extract himself from what happened next. ‘The judge would by no means consent; but, thinking to wash his hands… referred all to the Council, and willed them to do their own discretions; and at his departure he commanded to stay the execution till Friday after… and then to do as they should think good.’

Judge Clench instructed the execution should be delayed until the assizes had left York. After this, the Council of the North could do what they saw fit. It would no longer be his responsibility.

Margaret continued to be questioned by Protestant clergymen. ‘“Why refuse you to come to our church, we having so plain and sure testimonies to show on our side for the truth?” And to this end they brought forth many texts of Scriptures.’

‘The martyr answered, “I am not minded to your Church, God defend I should, for I have been within the Catholic faith twelve years.”’

The ministers asked questions and quoted scripture at Margaret, until she interrupted them. ‘“I beseech you trouble me not; I am no divine, neither can answer you to these hard questions. I am according to the Queen’s Majesty’s laws to die, and my spirit is very willing, although my flesh may repine.”’

Father Mush gives us a brief glimpse into both Margaret’s understandable fear but also her fortitude. ‘“My desire is to die a member of the Catholic Church… flesh is frail, but I trust in my Lord Jesu, that He will give me strength to bear all troubles and torments which shall be laid upon me for His sake.”’

Although a steady stream of callers visited her cell, Margaret appeared to reject every effort to save herself. ‘Every day after there came to her either minister or some of her kinsfolks, both men and women, to desire her to consider of her husband and children; but the martyr answered them with great courage and constancy.’

Finally, Margaret’s stepfather, the Lord Mayor of York, Henry Maye, appeared. ‘Came the Lord Mayor, and by all means persuaded her to yield in something, and he would not doubt yet to get her pardon… He kneeled down, with great show of sorrow and affection, by all flattery allured her to do something against her conscience, but she valiantly resisted.’

Having failed to persuade his stepdaughter, Henry asked Margaret for something else. ‘And when he perceived that nothing would serve, he desired her to give him her eldest daughter. She thanked him, and refused his courtesy, because that she was loathe her child should be infected with his heresy.’

Although Henry Maye left empty-handed, with neither apostasy nor a new ward, the clergymen and Council officials kept on coming to Margaret’s cell. By now, it must have dawned on them what Judge Clench had done. Responsibility for Margaret’s fate and potentially that of her unborn child were in their hands.

When their attempts to persuade Margaret to denounce her religion failed, ‘They brought in ridiculous slanders against her, and told her how the boy had confessed that she had sinned with priests.’

Eventually, a date was set for Margaret’s execution. Over in York Castle, John Clitherow received a visit from the Council of the North. ‘Her husband was set at liberty and commanded by the Council to depart the city for five days, whereby the martyr and all others first gathered that they intended indeed to suck her blood.’

Once John was removed from York, Sheriffs Fawcett and Gibson visited Margaret in her cell. ‘Two days before her martyrdom, the Sheriffs of York came to her and told her what day was appointed for her death.’

If Margaret had ever doubted this might happen, she now knew she’d be crushed to death. Unsurprisingly, the knowledge affected her deeply. ‘After the Sheriffs were departed, the martyr said to a friend of hers, “The Sheriffs have told me that I shall die on Friday next; and now I feel the frailty of mine own flesh, which trembleth at this news…”’

Margaret made her final arrangements. She asked for the fine hat she’d worn on the first day of her trial to be given to her husband, ‘in sign of her loving duty to him, as to her head’, and requested her hose and shoes be saved and passed on to her daughter Anne, ‘signifying that she should serve God and follow her steps of virtue’.

There was little else Margaret could do but pray and prepare for her death. She was alone, apart from two Puritan cellmates, Mr and Mrs Yoward. Despite their religious differences, the two women had developed a close relationship.

Father Mush describes Mrs Yoward’s observation of Margaret’s last night. ‘At twelve of the clock, she saw the martyr rise from her knees, and put off all her apparel, putting on a linen habit, which she had made with her own hands to suffer martyrdom in. Then she kneeled down again… until three, at which time she arose and came to the fireside. There she laid her down flat upon the stones one quarter of an hour. After that she arose and went to her bed, covering herself with clothes, and so continued until six in the morning. Then she arose and put on her apparel and made herself ready against the Sheriffs’ coming.’

By the morning, crowds were lined up on both sides of Ouse Bridge. ‘About eight of the clock the Sheriffs came to her, and she being ready expecting them… She went barefoot and barelegged, her gown loose about her.’

Once outside, Margaret spoke to Sheriff Fawcett, “Good Master Sheriff, let me deal my poor alms before I now go, for my time is but short.” They marvelled all to see her joyful countenance.’

As Margaret handed out coins to the poor, she was unaware of the final missed opportunity to prevent her death. The city sergeants, the men tasked with laying weights on her body, had refused to accept their orders. Unfortunately, there was an alternative solution, as Father Mush outlines, ‘The place of execution was the tollbooth, six or seven yards distant from the prison…. The four sergeants hired certain beggars to do the murder, three or four men, and four women.’

After entering the tollbooth, ‘The martyr coming to the place, kneeled down, and prayed to herself.’ Margaret said her final prayers. ‘First, in the hearing of them all, she prayed for the Catholic Church, then for the Pope’s Holiness, Cardinals, and other Fathers which have charge of souls, and then for all Christian princes… and especially for Elizabeth, Queen of England, that God turn her to the Catholic faith, and that after this mortal life she may receive the blessed joys of heaven. For I wish as much good to her majesty’s soul as to mine own.”’

At this point, Sheriff Gibson could take no more. ‘Sheriff Gibson, abhorring the cruel fact, stood weeping at the door.’ The man who’d been elected above him as senior Sheriff of York wasn’t so easily deterred. ‘Then said Fawcett, “Mrs Clitherow, you must remember and confess that you die for treason.”’

‘The martyr answered, “No, no, Mr Sheriff, I die for the love of my Lord Jesu,” which last words she spake with a loud voice.’

Commentary of what happened next is not needed. Following her death, Margaret’s crushed body was kept in the press until three in the afternoon, after which time the authorities took the corpse away for burial. Margaret was interred in a secret location to avoid the local Catholics from holding a vigil or removing her body. Eventually, six weeks later, the grave was discovered, and the body transported to a secret location. Margaret’s final resting place is thought to be beneath Stydd Chapel in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, or beneath the chapel at Hazlewood Castle, or somewhere else.

Since her death, Margaret Clitherow has become known as ‘the Pearl of York’. In more recent times, her life and martyrdom have been widely recognised and celebrated by the Catholic Church. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929 and canonised as Saint Margaret Clitherow by Pope Paul VI in 1970, becoming one of the ‘Forty Martyrs of England and Wales’.

I hope you’ve found these articles interesting. For brevity, I’ve omitted many details. If you’re interested in the full story, my new non-fiction book about her life and death (in the context of Elizabethan York and Tudor politics) will be published in 2022.

In the meantime, please read my highly-rated and award-winning novel The Pearl of York, Treason and Plot, centred on the final weeks of Margaret Clitherow’s life. All profits donated to St Leonard’s Hospice in York – raising thousands of pounds so far. You’ll learn a great deal about the intrigue and life in Tudor York.

“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).

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