Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England

by Gemma Hollman

Overview

The stories of four royal women, their lives intertwined by family and bound by persecution, unravel the history of witchcraft in fifteenth-century England.

Until the mass hysteria of the seventeenth century, accusations of witchcraft in England were rare. However, four royal women, related in family and in court ties—Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville—were accused of practicing witchcraft in order to kill or influence the king.

Some of these women may have turned to the “dark arts” in order to divine the future or obtain healing potions, but the purpose of the accusations was purely political. Despite their status, these women were vulnerable because of their gender, as the men around them moved them like pawns for political gains.

In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of fifteenth-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer a tantalizing insight into how malicious magic would be used and would later cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643137704
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	07/13/2021
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	360,629
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gemma Hollman has a Master’s degree in Medieval History from the University of York. She runs the Just History Posts blog and Twitter account and has written for the British Numismatic Journal. She is the author of Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth Century England, also available from Pegasus Books, and lives Hertfordshire, England.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7

Author's Notes 9

Introduction 11

1 Magic in the Late Medieval Period 15

Joan of Navarre

2 Duchess of Brittany 23

3 Our Most Dear Mother 37

4 In the Most Evil and Terrible Manner Imaginable 59

Eleanor Cobham

5 A Very Noble Lady 89

6 From Mistress to Princess 107

7 The Duchess and the Witch of Eye 123

8 Alle Women May Beware By Me 135

Jacquetta of Luxembourg and Elizabeth Woodville

9 Lively, Beautiful and Gracious 159

10 From Woods to Rivers 179

11 A Common Noise of Witchcraft 203

12 The Mother, the Queen and the Mistress 233

13 A Royal Coven of Witches 271

Genealogical Tables 276

Notes 283

Bibliography 305

Index 315

Editorial Reviews

"An important and timely book looking at royal women who faced envy and political attack in the guise of accusations of witchcraft."

Philippa Gregory

"The way Hollman deftly untangles royal lineages and courtly machinations to bring sky to the stories of these women makes me want to accuse her of witchcraft. Well done."

J.W. Ocker

"This introduces new readers, in the most accessible and colorful way, to a group of royal women who certainly deserve more public notice than they have hitherto received."

Professor Ronald Hutton

"Some of history's most overlooked witches finally have their day in a smart expose boiling over with intriguing women."

Susan Fair

Even readers familiar with the basic history of the Wars of the Roses will see aristocratic skulduggery in a strikingly fresh way in Royal Witches, as we continue to grapple with the treatment of women who rise to important positions even in our own time.

BookPage

06/26/2020

In her first book, historian Hollman reveals how allegations of witchcraft were used as political weapons against powerful women in late medieval England. Exploring the cases of queens and high-ranking nobles, Hollman demonstrates the effectiveness of such unprovable accusations in stripping women of their wealth and damaging the fortunes of their families. The life of Joan of Navarre, wife of Henry IV, is particularly illustrative, as Hollman describes how Henry V allowed accusations of the use of malevolent magic to be leveled against his stepmother in order to seize Joan's property to finance his war for the French crown. In the case of Eleanor of Cobham, similar accusations succeeded in destroying the influence of her husband, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Rank and nobility of blood offered little protection against allegations of witchcraft, and Hollman notes how a foreign birth and widowhood made women yet more vulnerable to such plots. VERDICT Gaps in the historical record prompt Hollman to make some questionable speculations about the women's attributes and relationships, but for the most part this is a well-researched and enlightening look at how cultural fear was used to justify acts of misogynistic vengeance and greed.—Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

Library Journal

2020-05-04
A history of the 15th-century political and societal events that put four royal women on trial for witchcraft.

Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and Elizabeth Woodville were the wives of nobility and the mothers of kings and queens; they sat at the top of a hierarchical society and ruled over vast tracts of land. Yet when the interests of the men of their time warranted it, each, in turn, was accused of witchery, whether it was the use of love potions or something more nefarious. Hollman, who has a master’s degree in medieval history, provides an in-depth account of each woman’s rise to power and then chronicles, in occasionally excessive detail, the events of the time. This sometimes leads readers away from the direct stories of the women as the men in their lives launched wars and engaged in political battles for power. Thankfully, each narrative eventually returns to the women, who fulfilled their duties as wives and were often used as pawns by the many manipulative men in their lives. However, as Hollman amply shows, they were not without their own powers. The comprehensive details might overwhelm those looking for a more sensational history of royalty and witchery, as the author’s painstaking work, which reads like a textbook at times, is focused on historical accuracy rather than the scandalous nature of the accusations leveraged against these women. “The reality is that these women were real, living, breathing human beings whose lives some 600 years ago we can touch through surviving documents,” writes Hollman. “It is overwhelmingly certain that these women were not the wicked schemers they have been portrayed as across the centuries, and almost certainly, they were all overwhelmingly good people.” Most readers will be convinced of the veracity of that statement.

A meticulous historical analysis that will appeal most to students of British royal history. (b/w images, family trees)

Kirkus Reviews