witchcraft
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I have been trying to understand the downfall of Eleanor Cobham. Not because I plan to write about her (life is too short) but purely because I like to understand events clearly. Eleanor was, of course, the wife of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, Henry VI‘s youngest and last surviving uncle. I have no doubt at…
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Royalty and magic (black or otherwise). Well, the connection isn’t new, after all, King Arthur had Merlin. And when it suited one’s enemies, a charge of witchcraft was always a guaranteed spanner in the works. The first section of this article this article deals with Elizabeth Woodville, and is perhaps of most interest to…
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Trial by combat was a last-ditch method of proving one’s case. Of course, it didn’t prove innocence or guilt, just that one or other of the combatants was luckier/stronger on the day. Nor did trial by water prove a woman innocent of witchcraft, because it killed her no matter what the outcome. If…
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King James VI of Scotland, James I of England podcast….
“favourites”, Abdication, Agnes Sampson, Anna Whitelock, Anne of Denmark, Arbella Stuart, assassination, Basilikon Doron, BBC, Bible translators, Bye plot, Calvinism, Charles I, Counterblast against tobacco, David Rizzio, Edinburgh Castle, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth Stuart, Esme Stuart, executions, Fotheringhay, Frederick of Bohemia, George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Greg Jenner, Gunpowder Plot, Henrietta Maria, Henry Lord Darnley, Henry Stuart, James Earl of Morton, James VI/I, Jamestown, King James Bible, Larry Dean, Mary Stuart, New World discoveries, North Berwick trials, Oath of Allegiance, podcasts, Popish Recusants Act, Radio 4, Regency, Roanoke, Robert Carr Earl of Somerset, Robert Catesby, Robert Cecil, Ruthven Raid, Scotland, Sir Walter Raleigh, Spain, Stirling Castle, Stuarts, The wisest fool in Christendom, Thirty Years’ War, tobacco, Union Jack, Union of the Crowns, voyage to Denmark, Wicked Bible, witchcraft, You’re dead to meHere is a link to a BBC podcast about King James VI of Scotland, who, of course, became James I of England and was the first of our Stuart monarchs. I can’t say I’m a Stuart expert, being much more interested in the Plantagenets, but a monarch is a monarch!
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Elizabeth Hopton, Countess of Worcester, died 1498.
“Perkin”, “Princes”, Battle of Bosworth, Constable of England, Elizabeth Hopton, executions, France, Henry III, Henry VII, John Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, Mowbrays, Oscar Wilde, Ranulf Earl of Chester, Readeption, Richard of Warwick, Shropshire, Sir Brian Stanley-Wainwright, Sir Roger Corbet, Sir William Stanley, Spain, William Brews, witchcraftElizabeth Hopton happens to be the present author’s 14th Great Grandmother, which prompted an interest in her. I think it is fair to say she is little-known. Of course, she did not (to our knowledge) involve herself in national politics, become the King’s mistress, murder the Princes in the Tower or get in trouble for…
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Originally posted on Mid Anglia Group, Richard III Society: Mary Lackland, or Lakeland, was burned on the Cornhill on 9th September 1645 but why? The heresy laws had been repealed in 1558/9 although they were invoked later, up to 1612/3. This execution took place at the peak of the Matthew Hopkins witch mania but those…
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On 5th December 1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull known as Summis desiderantes affectibus (“desiring with supreme ardour”). Its purpose was to suppress the practice of witchcraft by any necessary means. The following paragraph is taken from the 1928 English translation of it:- “….Many persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying…
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According to https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hdovAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA342&lpg=PA342&dq=elizabeth+devilish+dame&source=bl&ots=ZZGPTAz6n6&sig=ACfU3U00pw4KiBMUmlu-OBTeW7AFdQIeXQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj2ipLJwPvlAhVYSxUIHblZCHQQ6AEwAnoECAwQAg#v=onepage&q=elizabeth%20devilish%20dame&f=false in the middle of the 14th century, Sir Thomas Holand of Estovening (Estoveninghall, Estovenhall) Manor in the parish of Swineshead in Lincolnshire, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Piers Tempest. Elizabeth was apparently known as the “Devilish Dame”, and the unfortunate (or exceedingly wise!) Sir Thomas spent most of his time in the…
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I quote the footnote below because I believe it to be an example of giving someone the wrong name. “….Another high-profile case comes in 1376, during the Good Parliament, with antagonism against Alice Perrers, Knights of the Parliament captured her physician, the Dominican friar Palange Wyk, accused of practising black arts on her behalf; Carole…