Royal Witches: From Joan of Navarre to Elizabeth Woodville

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 practising witchcraft in order to kill or influence the king. Some of these women may have turned to the dark arts, 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. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer a tantalising insight of how malicious magic would be used and cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come. AUTHOR: Gemma Hollman has a Masters degree in Medieval History from the University of York. She runs Just History Posts blog and Twitter account (1,400 followers), and has written for the British Numismatic Journal. She lives in Hertfordshire.
10 b/w illustrations