Barton, Elizabeth (1506-1534)

English prophet. After an illness in 1525, she began to go into trances and make prophecies against the authorities. She denounced Henry VIII's divorce and marriage to Anne Boleyn, and was hanged for treason at Tyburn.

Edward Bocking, one of the monks who had been sent by Archbishop Warham to examine her, was hanged at the same time. He had become convinced that she was directly inspired by the Virgin Mary, and acted as her confessor at the Priory of St Sepulchre at Canterbury.

Barton was born in Kent, and had been employed as a domestic servant at Aldington.