Title/Author: The Path to Martyrdom by John Taylor
Category: Living History
Format: Paperback

Author Profile

John Taylor was born in Bottesford in North Lincolnshire. Apart from short absences as a sergeant in the army and a student at college, he has lived in villages in this lovely part of the county for all his life.

After completing his teacher training in Sheffield, John worked in local schools for forty years, twenty-five of them as a head teacher. On retirement from teaching, he qualified as a school inspector and spent another eight years working in that capacity.

His wife Mary - they married in 1962 - is a RCN nurse and is due to retire in the near future. Their three sons, now in their forties, all enjoy successful careers in education and engineering and the family, which remains very close, also includes seven grandchildren who do their best to keep John and Mary up to date with current trends.

Now fully retired, John had originally hoped to follow his major sporting interests and a shared love of gardening, the countryside, bird-watching and walking with his wife but a major back operation left him partially disabled and this meant he had to find other hobbies. Hence he developed an interest in the village Church which, in Tudor times, was closely associated with the noble Ayscough family whose ancestral manor house was situated in Stallingborough - John and Mary's home village for almost forty years.

Noting the many discrepancies and erroneous stories about Anne Ayscough (Askewe) that had been previously published, John decided to research her life thoroughly. Although historical documents revealed many important events in Anne's short existence there were also significant gaps. Thus John took the authentic historical information he discovered and used a little poetic licence to fill in the gaps. He adopted a different tact to authors of normal history books and wrote Anne Askewe's story as a novel. The result is John's first published book - The Path to Martyrdom.

Book Price: £8.99

Synopsis

The Path to Martyrdom is a story about the short life of Anne Askewe, one of the last heretics to be burned at the stake during the reign of King Henry VIII.

Although her story has been told before this is not just another history book. John Taylor, a retired headmaster, has portrayed Anne’s life in such a way that the reader is totally involved with her conflicts and courage, her beliefs and her relationships. This is Tudor history played in real time - a living history

Taster ...

Sir William Ayscough had been knighted by the second Tudor monarch, King Henry VIII, during the victorious campaign against the French in 1513 which resulted in England gaining possession of several towns and territories in France. He was a well favoured knight and, in1521, he was appointed Sheriff of Lincolnshire to act as King Henry’s ‘ears and eyes’ in the county.

In the previous year, during the summer of 1520, Anne Ayscough was born into a Tudor society in which women were considered to be significantly inferior to men. This was the belief of the church and its servants used the bible as justification. If the men of God - the Catholic priesthood - said women were inferior, then it had to be true. Even John Knox, a prominent Protestant and social reformer, wrote, ‘Women in their greatest perfection were made to serve and obey men.’

Girls rarely received any formal education but were taught that their sole function in life was to marry, have children, look after their homes and serve their husbands with due humility. The law gave a husband full rights over his wife who, once married, became his property. Similarly, children born of their marriage were also his chattels. Women were not allowed to preach, express opinions about social or religious matters or, during the latter part of King Henry’s reign, even read the bible to themselves or others. Daughters of the wealthy were often the victims of ‘forced’ marriages’ simply to increase the land ownership of their fathers.

Anne Ayscough - more commonly known as Anne Askewe - challenged all these rules and conventions. For the time in which she lived she was a most unusual charismatic lady, full of courage and fortitude.

This is her story.

Copyright © 2008 John Taylor

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