18 June – Protestant martyr Anne Askew is found guilty of heresy

On this day in Tudor history, 18th June 1546, twenty-five-year-old Anne Askew was found guilty of heresy at London’s Guildhall along with Nicholas Shaxton (former Bishop of Salisbury), Nicholas White and John Hadlam.

Anne Askew has gone down in history as a Protestant martyr, after having been burned at the stake in July 1546, but also as a woman who was illegally put to the rack at the Tower of London by two of Henry VIII's trusted men.

In today's video, I use contemporary sources and Anne Askew's own accounts, to piece together what happened that June and July, and what led to Anne Askew's execution.

Also on this day in history:

• 1529 – Catherine of Aragon makes her first appearance at the Legatine Court at Blackfriars.
• 1558 – Proving of the will of Robert Recorde, Welsh mathematician and physician. Click here to read more about him.
• 1588 – Death of Robert Crowley, Protestant printer, author, poet and Church of England clergyman. He was buried in the chancel of St Giles Cripplegate under the same stone as his great friend martyrologist, John Foxe.
• 1592 – Death of Francis Wyndham, Judge, at the Committee House, St Peter Mancroft, Norwich. His trials included the treason trials of John Somerville and William Parry in the 1580s, and his legal knowledge led to him being approached for advice on Mary, Queen of Scots.
• 1616 – Death of Thomas Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, at Westminster. He was buried at Westminster Abbey.