Anne Askew
Anne Askew (sometimes spelled Ayscough or Ascue), married name Anne Kyme (152116 July 1546), was an English writer, poet, and Protestant preacher who was condemned as a heretic during the reign of Henry VIII of England. She and Margaret Cheyne are the only women on record known to have been both tortured in the Tower of London and burnt at the stake. She is also one of the earliest known female poets to compose in the English language. Biography Anne Askew was born in 1521 in Lincolnshire, England to Sir William Askew, a wealthy landowner, and Elizabeth Wrotessley of Reading, Berkshire. Her father was a gentleman in the court of King Henry VIII, as well as a juror in the trial of Anne Boleyn's co-accused. Anne Askew was the fourth of five children by Sir William Askew and Elizabeth Wrotessley. Her brothers were Francis and Edward, and her sisters were Martha and Jane. She also had two stepbrothers, Christopher and Thomas, by her father's second wife Elizabeth Hutton. Anne Askew was also related to Robert Aske, who led the Pilgrimage of Grace. Anne Askew's father, Sir William Askew, had arranged that his eldest daughter, Martha, be married to Thomas Kyme.