Timeline Elizabeth Barton

English Catholic nun and prophetess known as the Holy Maid of Kent. A servant girl from Aldington in Kent, she began experiencing visions and trances during a severe illness in 1525 and was declared miraculously cured at a local chapel. Archbishop Warham found her orthodox and she entered a Benedictine convent in Canterbury, where she became a celebrity visited by pilgrims from across England. She met Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII and corresponded with Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. When she began prophesying that Henry would die if he divorced Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boleyn, she became a threat to the Crown. She was publicly denounced, attainted by Parliament and hanged at Tyburn in 1534 at the age of 28 — the first woman whose head was displayed on London Bridge.

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Elizabeth Barton 13

1506 Elizabeth Barton born in Aldington, Kent Born in the parish of Aldington, a village about fifteen miles south-west of Canterbury in Kent, close to one of the Archbishop of Canterbury's palaces. Almost nothing is known of her parents or early life.
1520 – 1524 Servant in the Cobb Household Worked as a domestic servant in the household of Thomas Cobb, a farmer and land agent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in Aldington.
1525 – 1526 Ecclesiastical Commission Archbishop Warham appointed a commission led by Edward Bocking, a Benedictine monk of Christ Church Canterbury, to investigate Barton's revelations. The commission examined her and found her orthodox on all points of faith, giving her visions official credibility.
1525 Severe Illness and First Visions Around Easter 1525, at the age of about 19, fell severely ill and began experiencing trances during which she claimed to receive divine revelations. Her visions included predictions of local events and impassioned pleas for people to remain faithful to the Catholic Church. The rector of Aldington, Richard Master, reported her case to the church authorities.
1525 Miraculous Cure at Court-at-Street Began visiting a rundown hermit's chapel at nearby Court-at-Street, where she prayed before a statue of Our Lady. Her visits attracted growing crowds of the pious and the curious. During one visit, she fell into a trance and upon waking was completely cured of her illness. Archbishop William Warham ratified this as a miraculous cure.
1527 Enters St Sepulchre's Convent At Archbishop Warham's direction, entered the Benedictine convent of St Sepulchre in Canterbury as a professed nun. She continued to have visions and became a celebrated figure, attracting pilgrims who believed she communicated directly with the Virgin Mary. Edward Bocking became her spiritual adviser.
1528 Meets Wolsey and Henry VIII Obtained a letter of introduction from Archbishop Warham and met Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. She subsequently had an audience with King Henry VIII himself. She also met and corresponded with Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher of Rochester, two of the most prominent figures in English public life.
1529 – 1531 Prophesies Against the Annulment As Henry VIII pursued the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Barton began prophesying against it. She declared that if Henry divorced Catherine and remarried, he would die within months and would no longer be king in the eyes of God. Her prophecies gained enormous influence among those opposed to the break with Rome.
1532 Claims Invisible Presence at Henry's Mass Claimed to have been miraculously and invisibly transported to witness Henry VIII attending Mass, reporting that an angel had denied the king the host. The claim was politically explosive — it directly challenged the king's standing before God.
1533 Henry Marries Anne Boleyn Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn in January 1533, and she was crowned queen in June. Barton's prophecy that the king would die within months of remarrying now carried treasonous implications. The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was ordered to investigate her.
1533 Public Denunciation at Paul's Cross Barton and her closest associates — two monks, two Franciscan friars, a priest and two laymen — were brought from the Tower of London and made to stand on a scaffold at Paul's Cross during the Sunday sermon. A preacher publicly denounced her visions as fraudulent and her miracles as the product of clerical manipulation. She was forced to confess that her revelations had been feigned.
1534 Act of Attainder Parliament passed an Act of Attainder against Barton and her supporters, receiving royal assent on 30 March. The Act declared her guilty of treason without trial. Thomas More and Bishop Fisher were initially included in the bill but More successfully argued for his removal. Fisher was fined but spared — temporarily. Both men would be executed the following year.
1534 Execution at Tyburn Dragged behind a horse through London's streets to the gallows at Tyburn, where she was hanged at the age of 28. She was then beheaded and her head boiled and placed on a spike on London Bridge — the first and only woman to suffer that fate. Five of her associates, including Edward Bocking, were executed alongside her. Her body was buried in the Grey Friars churchyard in Newgate Street.