Elizabeth Barton was a servant girl in Kent who in 1525 fell into violent convulsions and began speaking prophecies that came true, word for word, and the Archbishop of Canterbury investigated her himself and declared her genuine, and the Pope received her letters, and Thomas More visited her, and Cardinal Wolsey sought her counsel, and twenty thousand people travelled to witness her visions, and then she walked into Henry VIII’s presence in 1532 and told him to his face that if he divorced Catherine of Aragon and remarried, he would be dead within a month, and Henry VIII did not die, and Elizabeth Barton was hanged at Tyburn on 20 April 1534, and she was the last person in English history to have their head displayed on London Bridge while still attached to a woman’s body, and she was the only woman ever to receive that punishment.
Interesting Fact: Elizabeth Barton never recanted. Even after her arrest she maintained everything she had said was given to her by God. Henry VIII was so afraid of her influence that he pushed through an act of attainder — she was condemned by Parliament without ever standing trial.
Nearby on the Dark Atlas
- The Boy Who Woke Up on the Dissection Table
Hanged and pronounced dead at 17, he opened his eyes as surgeons prepared to cut him open.
Tyburn, London, United Kingdom · 1740 · same site
- The Last Woman Burned Alive for Politics in England
Betrayed by the man she sheltered, she arranged her own straw to make the fire catch faster and end it quickly.
Tyburn, London, United Kingdom · 1685 · same site
- The Man Who Survived His Own Hanging
He hung strangling at Tyburn for fifteen minutes before a reprieve arrived, and he lived for decades afterward.
Tyburn, London, United Kingdom · 1705 · same site
- The Woman Who Hanged Herself Before the Executioner Could
She fought off her executioner, stripped to deny him his fee, and threw herself from the cart on her own terms.
Tyburn, London, United Kingdom · 1763 · same site