Joan Boughton

Biography

Boughton was a widow of 80 years or more (fourscore years of age or more) who held views associated with the pre-Luther English church reformer John Wycliffe. She was described as "an old cankered heretic, weak-minded for age." She was said to be the mother of a woman named married to Sir John Young, also suspected of following Wycliffe. Boughton would not recant her beliefs and was burnt at the stake as a heretic at Smithfield, London on 28 April 1494. Boughton was supposedly "in such reverence for her virtues, that, during the night after her martyrdom, her ashes were collected" so that they could be preserved and kept as a relic.

In English historian and martyrologist John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, Boughton is the first recorded female Christian martyr. She also is thought to be the oldest person ever executed in London.

In popular culture

In Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy of historical novels, Thomas Cromwell witnesses her execution as a boy. Cromwell helps the Lollards who gather remains of Boughton after the execution crowd has departed.

References

Sources

References

1. (2019-04-28). "1494: Joan Boughton, "old cankered heretic"".
2. Thrupp, Sylvia L.. (1989). "The Merchant Class of Medieval London, 1300-1500". University of Michigan Press.
3. (2023-04-14). "Piety and Politics in Britain, 14th–15th Centuries: The Essays of John A.F. Thomson". Taylor & Francis.
4. Timperley, Charles Henry. (1839). "A Dictionary of Printers and Printing: With the Progress of Literature; Ancient and Modern". H. Johnson.
5. Haisell, Simon. (2024-03-07). "The memory burns the body".
6. Brown, Matt. (2023-03-09). "London's Public Executions: How Many Were Killed? Where? And For What Crimes?".
7. Mantel, Hilary. (2020). "The Mirror and the Light". 4th Estate.
8. Burrow, Colin. (2020-03-07). "Charm with Menaces". London Review of Books.