Barton, Elizabeth

Barton, Elizabeth
(1506–1534)
English nun called the “Holy Maid of Kent” whose prophecies caused trouble in the reign of Henry VIII.
She attracted notice by her response to divisive changes in England that Henry had launched. He wanted to end his marriage to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, who had borne a daughter but no surviving son who could be his heir. Furthermore, he had fallen in love with someone else, Anne Boleyn. He believed that there were grounds for annulment of the marriage, but the pope had to rule on this, and negotiations dragged on for years with no decision. At last, Henry acted independently to resolve his marital problem, going beyond it in the process: he broke away from Rome and declared himself to be the head of the Church in England. None of this was done without arousing antagonism. Meanwhile, the Reformation was advancing on the continent. Henry was never inclined toward Protestantism himself, but it was gradually making converts among his subjects, and its progress, together with economic and social factors, was adding to the public uncertainty.
This situation produced a flurry of freelance prophecy. It was apt to be hostile to the king. He would be deposed, he would die in his sins, his kingdom would be afflicted with wars and plagues. Several of the doomsayers were women. During the past century or so, women mystics and visionaries had begun to be heard more often. Elizabeth Barton was one. In 1525, when she was a domestic servant in Kent, she had a long illness and exhibited what some thought to be supernatural gifts. A monk named Edward Bocking, from a Benedictine community in Canterbury, was impressed by her and accepted her claim to be inspired by the Virgin Mary. The next year, her disease was miraculously cured, as people supposed, and she entered a convent in Canterbury under Bocking’s spiritual direction.
Elizabeth had visions and went into trances, sometimes lying on the floor, thrashing about, and uttering strange things. Bocking took some of these to be revelations and wrote a book about her. Others wrote pamphlets. Her sayings, when intelligible, upheld the Church’s doctrines and authority so firmly as to be, by implication, critical of the king. A belief in her sanctity and miracle working spread widely, winning friends and supporters in several religious houses, notably Syon Abbey, which had a tradition of feminine devotion. The fame of the Holy Maid of Kent reached the court; Henry himself granted her an audience, possibly in the hope of persuading her to stay within bounds. Presently, however, she began to denounce his attempts to discard his wife. She even wrote to the pope, urging him not to cooperate, and foretold that if Henry married Anne he would reign only another month. This was a dangerous matter, but some of his critics took her seriously and made her prophecies known. Prominent men who had misgivings about his policy listened to her, including Thomas More, the lord chancellor, and John Fisher, the bishop of Rochester. After reflection, More became cautious, Fisher not so cautious, but both were impartially beheaded for refusing to accept royal supremacy in the Church.
Before that, Barton’s prophetic career had come to an end. She was arrested and charged with treason. Under interrogation, she virtually recanted, asserting that she had been prompted and used by opponents of the king’s proceedings. There was some truth in this, but it is likely that she was not totally fraudulent. She really had produced “inspired” sayings, which conservative elements could exploit but did not invent or put in her mouth.
On April 20, 1534, together with Bocking, she was hanged. In England this was an unusual method of execution for a woman convicted of treason. Later, it became the normal treatment for women who were found guilty of witchcraft. That, however, was not a relevant issue here; a satirist called Barton a witch, but only as a term of abuse. The contemporary seer famous as “Mother Shipton,” who may have been a witch in a more serious sense, is reputed to have supported Henry and thus kept out of trouble. But in any case, Mother Shipton is very probably fictitious. There is no reliable evidence that she existed.
Further Reading
Watt, Diana. Secretaries of God: Women Prophets in Late Medieval and Early Modern England. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1997.