The 'Holy Maid of Kent' who prophesied the death of King Henry VIII

In the 16th Century, household servant Elizabeth Barton became a celebrated visionary – but when she defied the monarch, she paid the ultimate price with a gruesome end. Was she a charlatan – or a brave heroine of the Tudor world?

In a small village in Kent, England in 1525, a household servant named Elizabeth Barton fell dangerously ill. In her delirium, she murmured passages from the Bible. Later, she began slipping into trances – which were dramatic experiences, like seizures – and uttering religious prophecies. Word quickly spread of her revelations, and people flocked to see this enigmatic young woman.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting.

After Barton publicly fell into an hours-long trance which then supposedly healed her of illness, she was declared a "genuine visionary". One eyewitness out of the thousands present said: "Her face was wonderfully disfigured, her tongue hanging out, her eyes being in a manner plucked out."

Barton then entered a small Canterbury nunnery and went on to have an enormous influence in Tudor England – senior religious figures, noblemen and even King Henry VIII all consulted her. But her prophecies – which became dangerously political – led to her tragic downfall. Now a book just out in paperback, Heroines of the Tudor World, re-assesses her significance.

Barton's rise in popularity coincided with the Reformation (the split between Catholics and the followers of Protestant reformers), which had arrived in England. By the 1520s, Protestant ideas – that were critical of the wealth of the Catholic church and challenged the power of the Pope – had spread from mainland Europe.

Many Catholics were worried. "They saw it all as a threat to their way of life, and anything that helped them combat that threat was going to be encouraged," says Sharon Bennett Connolly, author of Heroines of the Tudor World. Seeing Barton as a vessel for the word of God, people circulated her revelations widely through both word of mouth and writing. 

"Everybody took her seriously. Whether her visions were real or not, people believed them," Connolly tells the BBC.

Besides her following of ordinary people, the "Holy Maid of Kent" or the "Nun of Kent" – as Barton had become known – had impressed several monks and prominent religious figures including the king's chief minister Cardinal Wolsey and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Word was then passed on to Sir Thomas More – King Henry's influential lord chancellor. More, upon meeting Barton, said he wished to witness her "great virtue" that he had heard about for "so many years".  

But the lord chancellor later wrote to her with a warning: never to speak of the king or his personal affairs.

Barton went on to enjoy the personal favour of the king, and met with him many times – bonding over their devout Catholicism (Henry remained a Catholic for most of his life). However, Henry's desire to divorce, remarry and produce a male heir went directly against Catholic doctrine. Much of her prophesising was against the break with Rome, and she fervently supported Catherine of Aragon. So much so........

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