Hi, my name is Kevin Hicks welcome to my
YouTube channel the History Squad. Now today's video is about a lady called Margaret
Clitherow, she was from the Elizabethan age, the last part of the Tudors, she ended up being
crushed to death, pressed as they called it using her own front door, and what we're going to do,
we're going to delve into her life and see how come she ended up dying in such a terrible way.
Margaret Clitherow born in the City of York 1552. Her parents were Jane and Thomas Middleton he was
a wax chandler, dealt with all things to do with wax, you know candles, waterproofing all of that
kind of stuff but he was also a Freeman of the City of York. I'll explain about being a Freeman a
little bit later on but it shows that she was born into a family that was I suppose middle class.
Now at the age of 18 she marries the widower, who's already got two sons, John Clitherow. Now he
was a wealthy butcher as they had a house in the Shambles in York which is a great place to visit,
her house still stands, has a plaque outside you can go in and see where Margaret Clitherow
actually lived. Have a look at her front door as you go in. Now John Clitherow himself he was
a Freeman of the city of York and it's important to know what a Freeman did. He was responsible
for who traded in the city of York, responsible for the strays that might wander into the city or
escape you know cattle sheep. He also helped run the city itself. Now on top of this in 1574 John
is voted in as a Chamberlain of York that means he has to do with the Royal Estates that are around
about or the Royal interest, the finances of the royalty within York so he’s quite an important
man. Now Margaret and John had numerous children but we don't know exactly how many they had
and how many survived but I can tell you this she converted to Catholicism in 1574, so there's
going to be a bit of friction there between her and her husband. This is a dangerous time to be a
Catholic in in England, the reign of Elizabeth I. That last part of the Tudors in 1558, it was made
illegal to harbor a priest and then in 1559 there was the Act of Uniformity so it was even illegal
to have Catholic mass and in spite of all of this danger Margaret actually harbors priests in her
own home. She also makes available the sacraments to her neighbors and friends who want to
practice their Catholic, Catholicism in private, you know hold that mass, but it's totally illegal.
Now Margaret was so successful in the neighborhood of spreading Catholicism that she comes to the
attention of her neighbors and her poor husband, John, he ends up getting fined but it's his wife’s
doing because he remains Protestant. Now there is an interesting piece from history that we've
learned about this that he says to his wife that ‘You are a fine upstanding wife. There are only
two things that bother me about you, your constant fasting and you won't come to church with me to
worship.’ One of the things about Margaret is, why did she convert to Catholicism? Now there are a
few differing stories but the ones that I've seen repeated was that it was a friend of hers who was
a Catholic and told Margaret the stories of the Catholic martyrs, priests you know, burned at the
stake, hanged all of those different things and she became inspired by the sacrifice these people
made for their beliefs in their religion however she ends up going to prison, but apparently the
prison regime suited her lifestyle. She liked to fast prison food who wouldn't and also she liked
to spend time in prayer. Now prison didn't do the trick she didn't recant her Catholic faith. In
fact she learned to read in prison and once again I've got two different stories, one is she learned
to read, the other is she learned to read Latin. Now upon her release she makes a pilgrimage
to Knavesmire which is where the Tyburn Tree or the Hanging Place just outside of York used to
stand. Between 1582 and 1583 five priests no less, five priests have been hanged at that time and
she made a pilgrimage to it, to pray at the site where men had died for their faith. On the 10th
of March 1586 the Clitherow house on the Shambles there in York is searched. Somebody has tipped
off the authorities. They searched the place and a frightened child within the household shows
them where the priest hole was but the priest had gone he'd had it on his toes he was safely hidden
next door in a neighbor's house. But you consider this modest house on the Shambles wasn't very big
and yet Margaret had made a secret little chamber, a little room where a priest could hide, but now
it had been found and she, she's arrested. Two days later she appears that the assizes charged
with harboring a Catholic priest but she refuses to plea, she will not say guilty or not guilty.
She refuses to be tried by a court with a jury. You do that, you fall foul of the common law of
England 1406. If you refuse to plea guilty or not guilty you'll be subject to the hardest force of
punishment that you can imagine it's called Peine Forte et dure, you’re pressed to death. Now
I'm going to go into that in a little while, I've made some delicate models I suppose you call
it. Now ministers of the Protestant faith, her husband, friends all tried to persuade Margaret
away from her path. Pretend you're pregnant but there's some say she actually was pregnant at
the time. The fact is they couldn't dissuade her. She's going to die in the most cruelest way you
can imagine now because Margaret refused to make a plea. She was executed on the 25th of March 1586.
She was taken to the toll booth which stood on the bridge, the Ouse Bridge. That's the bridge in York
that goes over the river Ouse. She would have been stripped and then her modesty covered and splayed
as you can see here, her arms and legs tied out and then her own front door, believe it or not,
which would have been removed from her house would be brought to the place of execution. Now I have
read that they took a sharp and stone the size of the fist of a man and placed it under the spine
or the neck so that when everything was pressed it would hopefully snap the spine or the neck then
what happened was the door would be placed on you and then weight would be applied and hopefully
as this was being done you could actually make a plea. But Margaret didn't. She withstood the
weight for 15 minutes apparently. What killed her was she was asphyxiated as the weight simply
crushed in her chest and then they left her there. This is something up I can't quite get
my head around, they simply left her there. The body was discovered a couple of weeks later by
a friend, John Marsh, and then together with other friends they took the body and she was buried with
full Catholic rights. This death was awful. It was even used, the pressing, in the Americas. In the
Salem Witch Trials an 80 year old man was pressed because he wouldn't make a plea. Do you know that
stood as a punishment up until the late 1700s, awful to think isn't it? You're not going to
plead guilty or not guilty? You're gonna die. What happened after that, if you refused to
make a plea they said you were guilty anyhow. It's interesting to think that Margaret
Clitherow’s story doesn't end with her death, her stepfather actually accused her of committing
suicide which is against the Catholic faith. You commit suicide you end up in purgatory, you don't
go to heaven. Others accused her of being mad and then there were the rumors was she pregnant
wasn't she pregnant? But her husband John, he maintained his Protestant faith, but Margaret's
rebellious streak when it comes to her religion must have rubbed off on two of her children
at least because one of them became a nun, the other became a priest. Her two stepsons were
also inspired by Margaret's beliefs because one of them becomes a priest and the other dies in Hull
jail, imprisoned for his beliefs. The final piece of this tale of Margaret Clitherow’s life is that
she became a saint, 25th of October 1970. Saint Margaret which I find quite interesting because
25th of October it's St Crispin’s day. Cry God for Harry England and Saint George. However there
is a strange little thing that happened just after Margaret was executed and it was a letter sent to
the city and people of York and it was from none other than Queen Elizabeth I, and she said that
Margaret should have been spared the terrible fate on account of her gender alone. Don't forget you
know this was common law, it was the York assizes, the whole business was dealt with by the City
of York and on finding out about this, it would appear that Queen Elizabeth herself was horrified
at the terrible death of Margaret Clitherow. Well that was a sad story, I hope
it doesn't weigh too heavy on you, and to support my channel if you could like share
and subscribe and turn on that little notification button if you can. And now just a quick shout out
to a couple of my Patreon members Trish McFerrin and Bishop Odo's nephew, how about that for a
handle, hey guys thanks a million. Bye for now.
