William Page (MP)

thumb|I have left there a true Englishman's hand. William Page (died after 1584) was an English politician. He was a Member of the Parliament of England for Bridport in 1559, Oxford in 1563, Saltash in 1571 and 1572. Notoriously, Page became involved in the case of John Stubbs and his pamphlet A Gaping Gulf, objecting to the proposed marriage between Queen Elizabeth I and Francis, Duke of Anjou, a Roman Catholic who was the brother of the King of France. Intent on distributing copies through Sir Richard Grenville, Page was tried with Stubbs and the publisher Hugh Singleton. Page and Stubbs could have been sentenced to death, but instead had their right hands cut off. Quotes Holding up his right hand, [he] said: "This hand did I put to the plow and got my living by it many years. If it would have pleased Her Highness to have pardoned it and have taken my left hand, or my life, she had dealt more favorably with me, for now I have no means to live; but God, which is the father of us all, will provide for me. I beseech you all to pray for me that I may take this punishment patiently." And so [he] laid his hand upon the block and prayed the executioner quickly to dispatch him; and so at two blows his hand was smitten off, and so, lifting up the stump, [he] said to the people, "I have left there a true Englishman's hand," and so went from the scaffold very stoutly and with a very great courage. Folger MS. V.b.142, f. 54; also Harington, Nugae Antiquae, I, 157–158. Lloyd Eason Berry (ed.) John Stubbs's 'Gaping Gulf': With Letters and Other Relevant Documents (Charlottsville: University Press of Virginia, 1968) p. xxxvi External links Category:Members of the Parliament of England