‘A trewe reporte of the li[fe] and marterdome of Mrs. Margarete Clitherowe’

In May 1586, a manuscript began circulating among the recusant Catholic community in York.1 It contained dramatic and horrific details of the recent trial and execution of a well-known local woman set within scenes of alleged sexual licence with Jesuits, a powerless husband, dramatic exchanges in court, a divided Council, and refusal on the part of the central figure, Margaret Clitherow, to plead to a charge of harbouring priests. She was 32 years old, a Catholic recusant, the wife of a prosperous butcher and the stepdaughter of the mayor of York. She had four children and she was pregnant. Not only did she refuse to plead, but she refused to confirm her pregnancy in order to save herself from execution. The only sentence which the court could pass in these circumstances was that of peine forte et dure under a rarely used statute of the reign of Edward I.2