Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Myelt from Aaron

Manky.

Listener discretion is advised.

It was an incredibly dangerous thing to be a woman in the 16th century who disagreed

with her husband.

A woman named Anne Asquew was born in 1521 in Lincolnshire.

When she was 15 years old, her sister died.

Her sister had been engaged to a man named Thomas Keim and to save money on the dowries

and negotiations.

Anne's father simply substituted Anne in to marry her sister's fiance.

One daughter was as good as the next.

Thomas Keim was a Catholic and he quickly realized that his young wife was a devout Protestant

who would enter the room to find her studying the Bible or reciting verses quietly to

herself that she was trying to memorize.

Anne publicly challenged the idea of transubstantiation, the notion that when taking Holy Communion,

the wafer and wine literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Christ.

Word got around town.

After women began avoiding Anne in the streets and the shops.

Though Thomas Keim and Anne had two young children, he kicked her out of the house for

her beliefs.

Anne was not put off.

Unmored but not undeterred, she moved to London and sticking with her maiden name began

...