Yesterday

Chapter 1 - Hello...

Hello, I’m Sian Maiden, a 14 year old poor, protestant girl. I live in the suburbs of London with my grandma, my granddad, my 2 elder sisters, my 2 younger sisters, my 3 younger brothers, my 2 elder brothers, my mum, Claire and my dad, Dave. It is the year of 1557 and Queen Mary I is on the throne. In case you are still wondering Mary I hates protestants as she is Roman Catholic. She died at a young age of 42 after burning over 280 Protestants, my 7 cousins included.....

We were undercover and my mother, my grandmother, my 2 younger sisters and I had to do chores all day, theses chores were set by my elder sisters Amy and Lauran. We had to do exactly as they say because if we didn’t comply then they would hand us over to Mary I to be executed (burnt at the steak) and as my 7 cousins died that terrible way we were determined not to. While we girls were made to do chores, my father and my grandfather had to farm and collect grain to make flour which was then made into bread by my 3 younger brothers. These chores were made by my 2 elder brothers and they had a very different punishing system: first strike, no food for 2 weeks, second strike, work double hours for 1 week, third strike, no water for 3 weeks fourth strike, whipped round the face with the auto whip for 16 hours and fifth strike handed over to the Queen.

We had been doing this for 2 years now so the rest of the family decided to talk to each other and realised that if they hand us over and we say that they had us slave around then they will be accused of hiding away enemies so they would get the same treatment. It was the 8th July 1557 and they decided it had gone too far so they told my elder brothers and sisters the facts they had. This info made them worry about what would happen to them and they started screaming which made the town suspicious so the mayor of this catholic town decided to contact the queen and ask her if she personally could come to inspect each and every house. Days later she replied with a letter saying “of course I shall come dear friend, if there any house I should keep a good eye on just tell me. With your commitment and loyalty I can rule this country with confidence that we have your towns support. I will be with you within the week. Yours faithfully, Mary I, Queen of England.”

News of the Queen’s arrival soon spread and everyone in the village was either worried or excited. We were most certainly worrying. Everyone was preparing and we were almost certain that the mayor has told the queen to keep a good eye on us because we thought that he requested her to come because of the screaming of my elder brother and sisters. We started decorating our plain protestant house with gold and jewels like every other house in the town, we made sure that we didn’t stand out and the family decided that it was only best if I was to be sent away for a few days as I was the most religiously protestant.