Elizabeth Barton
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Elizabeth Barton (known as The Nun of Kent, The Holy Maid of London or The Holy Maid of Kent; 1506? – April 20 1534) was executed for prophesying that if King Henry VIII of England married Anne Boleyn against the wishes of the Pope, he would die within six months.
Little is known of Barton's early life, although she appears to have come from a poor background, as she was working as a servant when her visions first began in 1525. During that year she suffered from a severe unknown illness, and she claimed to have received revelations from God. Barton's revelations either predicted future events (such as the death of a child living in her household), or more frequently took the form of pleas for people to follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. In particular she urged people to pray to Mary and go on pilgrimages. It should be noted that such behavior was not uncommon during the period; people would not have jumped to the conclusion that she was mentally unbalanced.
Shortly after she had begun receiving visions, she entered a convent and became a nun. She rapidly became popular among both the masses and the elite leadership that controlled England. Barton held a private meeting in 1528 with Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the most powerful man in England after the King, and shortly thereafter met with the King himself on two occasions. Barton was tolerated by the government because her prophecies did not challenge the existing order, but rather supported it.
Unfortunately for Barton the existing order changed when Henry VIII, in order to receive an annulment from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, decided to break off the church in England from the Pope, and create the protestant Church of England. Barton was incredibly opposed to the Henrician Reformation, and around 1532 Barton began prophesying that if the King would remarry he would die shortly thereafter. Remarkably, Barton went unpunished for her opposition to the King for nearly a year, in large part because she appears to have been more popular than the King. In fact, Barton was only tried for treason after supporters of the King had severely damaged her reputation by spreading rumors that Barton was engaged in several sexual relationships with her priests. Other critics also began to argue that Barton suffered from madness. With her reputation damaged, in 1533 the crown arrested her and either got Barton to make a confession or fabricated one. According to the confession presented by the crown, Barton admitted that she had made up her revelations on the insistence of several priests. In 1534 she was executed for treason.
See also
Bibliography
- John McKee: Dame Elizabeth Barton OSB, the Holy Maid of Kent: London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1925.
- Alan Neame: The Holy Maid of Kent: The Life of Elizabeth Barton: 1506-1534: London: Hodder and Stoughton: 1971: ISBN 0340025743
- Ethan H. Shagan, Popular Politics in the English Reformation, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003: chapter 2, "The Anatomy of opposition in early Reformation England: the case of Elizabeth Barton, the holy maid of Kent," p. 61-88.
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