On this day in Tudor history, the 4th of March 1590, a man named Christopher Bales met a brutal and unjust end on the streets of London. His crime? Simply being a Catholic priest. His fate was sealed by laws that saw his faith and vocation as treason... and his punishment was death.
But who was Christopher Bales? And why was England so determined to silence men like him?
Christopher Bales was born in County Durham, the son of John and Catherine Bales. He actually came from a Protestant background, so it’s unclear what led him to convert and enter the English College in Reims, France, in 1581—a Catholic seminary where young men trained to become priests in defiance of English law.
From there, he continued his studies in Rome, but ill health forced him to return to Reims in 1584. Despite these challenges, Bales was ordained as a priest in 1587. And just a year later, he was sent on a dangerous mission back to England—a mission that would ultimately cost him his life.
At this time, Catholic priests were seen as enemies of the state. Elizabeth I’s government, fearing foreign invasion and internal rebellion, had passed the 1584 Act against Jesuits and Seminary Priests, making it treason for men to be ordained abroad as priests and then return to England.
But Christopher Bales wasn’t deterred. He operated under the names Rivers, Evers, and Mallett, secretly ministering to English Catholics. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before he caught the attention of Richard Topcliffe, a man infamous for hunting down Catholic priests.
Topcliffe was more than just a priest-hunter—he was a torturer, a man who took pleasure in extracting confessions. And when Bales was captured, he was thrown into Bridewell Prison before being moved to the Gatehouse.
What followed was sheer horror. Bales was racked and then subjected to one of Topcliffe’s preferred tortures—suspended by the hands for up to 24 hours at a time. And yet, despite the pain and torment, he refused to betray his fellow priests and those who had helped him.
At his trial, Bales knew his fate was already decided. He boldly questioned the judge, asking if St. Augustine—who had been sent to convert the Saxons—was also a traitor by the same logic. But his words made no difference. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death.
On the 4th of March 1590, Christopher Bales was led to Fleet Street, where he was executed under a placard that read:
"For treason and favouring foreign invasion."
He wasn’t the only one to die that day. Two men who had harboured him—tailor Nicholas Horner and Alexander Blake—were also executed, one at Smithfield and the other at Gray’s Inn Lane.
Christopher Bales’ death was part of a much larger story. Elizabethan England was a dangerous place for Catholics. The fear of Spanish invasion, combined with internal Catholic plots, meant that anyone practising the old faith was under constant suspicion.
And yet, men like Bales still chose to risk everything for their beliefs.
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