Anne Askew Biography

Anne Askew (née Ayscough , Ascue; married name Anne Kyme; 1521 – 16 July 1546) was an English writer, poet, and Protestant martyr who was condemned as a heretic in England in the reign of Henry VIII of England. She is the only woman 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 and the first Englishwoman to demand a divorce (especially as an innocent party on scriptural grounds).