Margaret Clitherow was a medieval butcher's wife who lived in York and was born in the mid 1550s. She married John Clitherow in 1571 and they lived in the Shambles, a famous street in the city which was the centre of the butchers' trade. About two years after her marriage, she converted to Catholicism, which was to be her undoing.

A Whistlestop Tour Through Religion in Reformation England

At the time, England was a Protestant country but had been Catholic until fairly recently. The rivalry for supremacy between the two religions resulted in a great deal of violence. Henry VIII, father of Queen Elizabeth I, sovereign at the time, had changed England's religion from Catholicism to Protestantism, which was continued by his short-lived son and successor, Edward VI. He was soon succeeded by his elder sister Queen Mary, who changed the religion back to Catholicism and persecuted those who stayed Protestant. When she died, her younger sister Elizabeth became queen and she changed the national religion back to Protestantism. Still following? Good.

Under Elizabeth, Catholic worship was mostly tolerated as long as it was private not public and the people involved publicly conformed to Protestantism. The authorities would not stand for the harbouring of Catholic priests, which they considered subversive.

Offences

Margaret's activities have come back to us through the account of her martyrdom written by John Mush, a Catholic priest who spent a great deal of time with her and wrote her story to encourage other Catholics to hold firm in their faith – it was a propaganda tool.

Margaret was immensely pious. She spent hours every day in prayer and gave help to priests wherever possible, helping them to hide and hearing mass from them. She fasted four days a week. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays she ate only one meal in the whole day, and no meat. On Fridays, she ate only bread. Her husband John appears to have been unaware of her activities. She even sent their eldest son away to France to study Catholicism without the knowledge of her husband, in the hope that the boy would one day be a priest.

Margaret's stepfather Henry May was on the political rise in York – he later became Lord Mayor - and a flagrantly Catholic stepdaughter was an embarrassment. His position may have protected her from earlier punishment, but her mother, May's wife, died in June 1585 which may have allowed her stepfather to act to remove her.

On 10 March 1585 the Council of the North¹ called John Clitherow to them to explain the absence of his son abroad. It appears that this was in fact just a ruse to get him out of the house so it could be searched. Margaret was arrested.

Trial

The authorities threatened a young Flemish boy who worked for the Clitherows and he showed them where the Catholic items in the house were kept.

On 14 March Margaret was brought before assize judges and indicted for offences including hearing mass and harbouring priests, who were considered to be traitors. She refused to plead despite the fact that she would most likely win a trial as the only evidence against her was the testimony of a child, and refused to attend Protestant sermons. One reason for this, Mush suggests, was that the only witnesses against her were her servants and family, and she wished to spare them from testifying against her. She told them that she did not believe she had committed an offence, and therefore no trial was required. The judges were forced to pass sentence, and Margaret was condemned to death. She was pleased with the verdict, delighted at the opportunity to die for her beliefs, but her husband wept.

Margaret thought she was pregnant and was accordingly examined by women who confirmed her verdict as far as they could tell. Margaret herself wouldn't confirm or deny this, despite being urged to say she was as it would spare her life.

She was to be stripped and placed on the ground under a door, which would then have rocks added to it until she was pressed to death. It would be gruesome and extremely painful.

Execution

Knowing the powerful symbolism it would entail, the authorities refused to allow her execution to take place at Knavesmire² which was the usual site of such executions and where a number of other Catholic martyrs had been executed.

Margaret gave out alms on the way to her place of execution, and on arrival began to pray. Her Protestant executors asked her to pray with them and she refused.

The women attending her begged that she be allowed to stay dressed, but were forced to undress her. She lay down and her hands were tied to posts on either side. A fist-sized sharp stone was placed under her back and weight was added to the door. Eventually, she died.

Catholics viewed her death as extremely brave and treated her as a martyr. She was canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1970 and is the patron saint of the Catholic Women's League. What was believed to be her house on the Shambles in York was turned into a small, free, public shrine to her, though it is now thought that the actual house was further down the street.