Margaret Clitherow of York was pressed to death on 25 March 1586 for refusing to plead to charges of harbouring priests. Her death caused revulsion even among Protestants — pressing to death was rarely used. She was canonised in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. Her case illustrated both the extremity of Elizabethan recusancy enforcement and the resistance of ordinary Catholics across Yorkshire.
Margaret Clitherow pressed to death
York sheriff and armed guard
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