SOURCE: Travitsky, Betty. “Anne (Askew) Kyme (1521-1546).” In The Paradise of Women: Writings by Englishwomen of the Renaissance, compiled and edited by Betty Travitsky, pp. 167-173. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981.

In the following essay, Travitsky offers an introduction to Askew's life, provides a historical context for her writings, and discusses the qualities of taciturnity, wit, and fearlessness that are revealed in her works.

There were many women martyrs in Renaissance England. John Foxe compiled the names of at least forty-six women who were executed because of their religious principles.¹ Besides the Protestants, in whom, of course, Foxe was interested, there were also Catholic martyrs. Perhaps the most notable of the women among this group was Margaret Clitherow, the martyr of York (d. 1586), who was pressed to death after refusing to divulge the names of others, and who was canonized in recent years as St. Margaret.

Of the large...