1583 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1264 
Close(d. 1546) [Fines]
Tailor of Colchester,Essex; tried with Anne Askew and burnt with her
John Hemmysley, John Lasselles, John Adams and Anne Askew were burnt together at Smithfield. 1563, p. 666; 1570, p. 1421; 1576, p. 1211; 1583, pp. 1240-41.
Close(d. 1546) [Fines]
Former observant friar of Richmond [not Shropshire]; tried with Lasselles and Blagge; burnt with Anne Askew, Lasselles and John Adams
John Hemmysley, John Lasselles, John Adams and Anne Askew were burnt together at Smithfield. 1563, p. 666; 1570, p. 1421; 1576, p. 1211; 1583, pp. 1240-41.
Close(c. 1485 - 1555) [ODNB]
Courtier, diplomat. MP Buckinghamshire 1529; JP Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonsshire, Northamptonshire 1533; MP Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset 1539
Henry VIII's controller of the royal household 1536; lord privy seal (1542 - 55); lord high admiral 1540
Baron Russell 1539; earl of Bedford (1550 - 55)
John Russell had been saved from danger while abroad by Thomas Cromwell and later commended him to the king. 1570, p. 1348; 1576, p. 1150; 1583, p. 1179.
John Russell was a signatory to a letter to the king's commissioners relating Bishop Bonner's recantation of his protestation. 1570, p. 1502; 1576, p. 1273; 1583, p. 1310.
John Russell was one of the signatories of the letter of the council addressed to Thomas Cranmer ordering the abolishing of images in all churches in the archdiocese. 1563, p. 692; 1570, p. 1490; 1576, p. 1263; 1583, p. 1300.
He was a signatory to a letter from the council to the bishops, instructing them to administer communion in two kinds. 1570, p. 1491; 1576, p. 1264; 1583, p. 1301.
He was a signatory to a letter of commission against Stephen Gardiner. 1563, p. 777.
Sir John was appointed lieutenant-general of the king's troops in the west at the time of the Western Rising. Although outnumbered, his forces defeated the rebels and captured their leaders. 1570, pp. 1499-1500; 1576, pp. 1271-72; 1583, pp. 1307-08.
George Blage had been condemned to be burnt for heresy. John Russell made suit to the king on Blage's behalf and he was pardoned. 1570, p. 1427; 1576, p. 1216; 1583, p. 1246.
John Russell was present at Anne Askew's burning. 1570, p. 1419; 1576, p. 1211; 1583, p. 1240.
He was a signatory to a letter from the king and privy council to Nicholas Ridley, directing him to remove and destroy all altars within the churches of his diocese and install communion tables. 1563, p. 727; 1570, pp. 1519-20; 1576, p. 1288; 1583, p. 1331.
Edward Seymour, John Russell, John Dudley and Sir William Petre visited Stephen Gardiner in the Tower at various times to attempt to get him to accept the king's reforms. 1563, pp. 766; 1570, p. 1532; 1576, p. 1306; 1583, p. 1356.
Edward Seymour wrote to John Russell, describing the conspiracy against him and asking him to bring forces to Windsor. John Russell replied, hoping for a reconciliation between the Lord Protector and his adversaries. 1570, pp. 1545-46; 1576, pp. 1317-18; 1583, pp. 1367-68.
Russell was a deponent in the case of Stephen Gardiner. 1563, pp. 814, 824-25.
John Russell was a witness in 1551 to the sentence against Stephen Gardiner and his appellation. 1563, p. 867.
CloseLord Mayor of London (1545 - 46) [http://cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/leisure_heritage/corp_history/lm_history_office.htm]
Sir Martin Bowes was present at Anne Askew's burning. He ordered the fire to be lit under her, Lasselles, Hemmysley and Adams. 1570, p. 1419; 1576, p. 1211; 1583, p. 1240.
dered lyke as Christ instituted it and left it, a most singular comfort it were vnto vs all. But as cōcerning your masse as it is now vsed in our daies, MarginaliaThe Masse an abhominable Idoll.I do say and beleue it to be the most abhominable Idoll that is in the world: For my God will not be eaten with teeth, neyther yet dieth he agayne. And vpon these wordes that I haue now spoken, wyll I suffer death.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe prayer of Anne Askew.O Lord, I haue mo enemies now, then there be haires on my head. Yet Lord, let them neuer ouercome me with vaine words, but fight thou Lord in my stead, for on thee cast I my care. Withall the spite they can imagine, they fall vpon me, which am thy poore creature. Yet sweete Lord, let me not set by them which are against me: for in thee is my whole delight. And Lord I hartily desire of thee, that thou wilt of thy most mercifull goodnes forgeue them that violence which they do and haue done vnto me. Open also thou their blynd hartes, that they may hereafter doe that thing in thy sight, which is only acceptable before thee, and to set forth thy veritie aright, without all vaine fantasies of sinnefull men. So be it. O Lord, so be it.
[Back to Top]By me Anne Askew.
CloseHEtherto we haue entreated of this good woman. Now it remayneth that we touch somewhat as concernyng her ende and Martyrdome
CloseFoxe again adds to the information provided by his base text in providing details of Askew's execution. In the 1563 edition (681-82) he describes Askew's crippled state which made it necessary to bring her to the stake in a chair, and portrays her both 'stoutly' resisting Shaxton's attempt to 'make her turn' in the sermon of recantation that he gave at her execution, and refusing even to look at the royal pardon offered to her on condition of her own recantation. Foxe adds to these details in the 1570 edition; it is here that the reader learns the names of those notables in attendance and of Askew's interjections into Shaxton's sermon ('where he sayde well, confirmed the same: where he sayd amysse, there sayd she, he misseth, and speaketh without the book' (1570, p. 1420). It is also in this edition that the reader learns of Askew's response to the offer of a royal pardon - that 'shee came not thither to deny her Lord and Mayster' - and that, as she was offered her pardon first, the men burnt with her followed 'the constancie of the woman' in refusing theirs. Like Askew in the 1563 edition, they 'denyed not onely to receive them, but also to looke upon them'.
[Back to Top]Foxe's source for this additional information remains uncertain, but it is likely that this material came from eyewitnesses to her death, and Freeman and Wall suggest, as a source, Francis Russell, the second Earl of Bedford. As they note, Russell had provided Foxe with other information and documents for the 1570 edition of the Acts and Monuments, and John Russell, his father, was seated at the execution with Wriothelsey and other notables. It is possible that Francis, a young man at the time, was with his father at the execution. (See Thomas F. Freeman and Sarah E. Wall, 'Racking the Body, Shaping the Text: The Account of Anne Askew in Foxe's Book of Martyrs', Renaissance Quarterly 54 [2001], 1185).
[Back to Top]The Sermon beyng finished, the Martyrs standyng there tyed at three seuerall Stakes ready to theyr Martirdome, beganne theyr prayers. The multitude and concourse of the people was exceedyng, the place where they stoode beyng rayled about to keepe out the prease. Vpon the Benche vnder Saint Bartelmewes Church, sate Wrisley Chauncellour of England, the old Duke of Norfolke, the olde Earle of Bedford, the Lord Mayor wyth dyuers other moe. Before the fire should be set vnto them, one of the Benche hearyng that they had gunnepouder about them, and beyng afrayde least the fagots by strength of the gunnepouder would come flieng about their eares,began to be afraid, but the Erle of Bedford declaring vnto him how þe gunpouder was not laid vnder the fagots, but onely about theyr bodies to rydde them out of their paine, which hauyng vente, there was no daunger to them of the fagottes, so diminished that feare.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAnne Askew refuseth the kinges pardon.Then Wrisley Lord Chauncellour, sent to Anne Askew letters, offring to her the kyngs pardon, if she would recant. Who refusing once to looke vpon them, made this answer agayne: that she came not thether to deny her lord and Maister. Then were the letters likewise offered vnto the other, who in lyke manner followyng the constancie of the woman, denied not onely to receyue them, but also to looke vpon them. Whereupon the Lord Mayor commaundyng fire to be put vnto them, cryed wyth a lowde voyce, Fiat iustitia. MarginaliaIusttitia iniusta.
[Back to Top]And thus the good Anne Askew with these blessed Martyrs, beyng troubled so many maner of ways, and hauing passed through so many torments, hauyng now ended the long course of her agonies, beyng cōpassed in with flames of fire, as a blessed sacrifice vnto God, she slept in the lord, an. 1546. leauyng behynd her a singular example of christian constancy for all men to follow.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of Anne Askew Io. Lacels, Io. Adams, Nich. BelenianTHere was at the same time also burnt together wyth her, one Nicholas Belenian priest of Shropshire, I. Adams a Taylor, and Iohn Lacels Gentleman of the