THE WORLD'S MOST EVIL PEOPLE (True Crime) by Rodney Castleden Page A
Authors: Rodney Castleden
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Gloucester soon followed, a great surprise to everyone, as he had been loyal to Mary in spite of their difference in religion. Many Protestant bishops and theologians fled abroad. Those that remained went one by one to the stake. Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, who had helped establish the Protestant Church in England, was an obvious target. Ridley, the Bishop of London who had supported Lady Jane Grey, was another. The pair of them were taken to Oxford and burnt together in the town ditch (now Broad Street). Archbishop Cranmer was burnt shortly afterwards.
These were great men, who had taken an active part in public life. They had taken calculated risks and lost. But most of Mary’s victims were ordinary people who had played no part in state politics and represented no threat to her at all. It was generally assumed, because of the Inquisition in Spain, that Prince Philip of Spain was egging her on, but in fact the opposite was the case. He urged her to stop it and practise more moderate policies. He had, meanwhile become disenchanted with Mary in every way. She had not yet reached 40, yet her face was heavily lined and she looked much older. She was carrying out pointlessly cruel persecutions of her subjects. He spent as much time overseas as possible, and whenever he left Mary wept.
Still the persecutions went on. People who saw the burnings came to regard those who were punished in this way as saints. Mary became very angry at the sympathy shown to the heretics, and demanded that anyone who voiced compassion for them should be punished too. In Norwich, a man who protested against the cruelty was given a flogging for it.
In 1558 Mary fell ill. It may have been dropsy. It may have been a malignant growth in her womb. She gave in to self-pity, weeping for Philip, weeping for the loss of Calais, England’s last possession in France. Protestantism flourished everywhere, with secret prayer meetings and increasingly open demonstrations against the burnings – but still the burnings went on.
On 10 November, she signed the death warrants for five Protestants to be burnt in Canterbury, bringing the total number of Protestant ‘martyrs’ to 238. On 13 November, she mercilessly signed away the lives of two more men in London. On 17 November, she died herself, just in time for the last two to be saved; they were set free at once. Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth became Queen. She generously laid on a lavish Catholic funeral for Mary, but the dead Queen was to be remembered by the people of England, for ever after, as ‘Bloody Mary’.
Elizabeth Bathory
(1561–1614)
Elizabeth Bathory was a countess who lived in the Carpathian Mountains. It was said that she was a real vampire, a drinker of human blood, and one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker’s novel about Dracula. The countess was born in Hungary in 1561. She was a beautiful girl with a good complexion and fair hair. At the age of fifteen she was married to an aristocrat and became the mistress of the Castle of Csejthe in the Carpathian Mountains.
Elizabeth’s husband was a soldier. He was often away on campaigns, and Elizabeth became very bored with life alone in the gloomy castle. She wanted excitement. This took the form of witchcraft, and she gathered around her a gang of alchemists, sorcerers and witches who were ready to teach her about witchcraft. She armed herself with a special pair of flesh-ripping silver pincers and a manual of torture that her husband had used when fighting the Turks.
Elizabeth’s husband died in 1604, when she was 43. She longed for a lover, but the mirror told her that too many years had passed and her good looks had gone. When one day she slapped the face of a servant girl and drew blood, she noticed, or fancied she noticed, that where the girl’s blood had spattered her the skin was much fresher and younger than before. She became convinced that bathing in the blood of young girls, and drinking it, would restore her beauty
These were great men, who had taken an active part in public life. They had taken calculated risks and lost. But most of Mary’s victims were ordinary people who had played no part in state politics and represented no threat to her at all. It was generally assumed, because of the Inquisition in Spain, that Prince Philip of Spain was egging her on, but in fact the opposite was the case. He urged her to stop it and practise more moderate policies. He had, meanwhile become disenchanted with Mary in every way. She had not yet reached 40, yet her face was heavily lined and she looked much older. She was carrying out pointlessly cruel persecutions of her subjects. He spent as much time overseas as possible, and whenever he left Mary wept.
Still the persecutions went on. People who saw the burnings came to regard those who were punished in this way as saints. Mary became very angry at the sympathy shown to the heretics, and demanded that anyone who voiced compassion for them should be punished too. In Norwich, a man who protested against the cruelty was given a flogging for it.
In 1558 Mary fell ill. It may have been dropsy. It may have been a malignant growth in her womb. She gave in to self-pity, weeping for Philip, weeping for the loss of Calais, England’s last possession in France. Protestantism flourished everywhere, with secret prayer meetings and increasingly open demonstrations against the burnings – but still the burnings went on.
On 10 November, she signed the death warrants for five Protestants to be burnt in Canterbury, bringing the total number of Protestant ‘martyrs’ to 238. On 13 November, she mercilessly signed away the lives of two more men in London. On 17 November, she died herself, just in time for the last two to be saved; they were set free at once. Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth became Queen. She generously laid on a lavish Catholic funeral for Mary, but the dead Queen was to be remembered by the people of England, for ever after, as ‘Bloody Mary’.
Elizabeth Bathory
(1561–1614)
Elizabeth Bathory was a countess who lived in the Carpathian Mountains. It was said that she was a real vampire, a drinker of human blood, and one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker’s novel about Dracula. The countess was born in Hungary in 1561. She was a beautiful girl with a good complexion and fair hair. At the age of fifteen she was married to an aristocrat and became the mistress of the Castle of Csejthe in the Carpathian Mountains.
Elizabeth’s husband was a soldier. He was often away on campaigns, and Elizabeth became very bored with life alone in the gloomy castle. She wanted excitement. This took the form of witchcraft, and she gathered around her a gang of alchemists, sorcerers and witches who were ready to teach her about witchcraft. She armed herself with a special pair of flesh-ripping silver pincers and a manual of torture that her husband had used when fighting the Turks.
Elizabeth’s husband died in 1604, when she was 43. She longed for a lover, but the mirror told her that too many years had passed and her good looks had gone. When one day she slapped the face of a servant girl and drew blood, she noticed, or fancied she noticed, that where the girl’s blood had spattered her the skin was much fresher and younger than before. She became convinced that bathing in the blood of young girls, and drinking it, would restore her beauty
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