
TITLE: Royal Witches
AUTHOR: Gemma Holman
PUBLISHER: The History Press, 2019
ISBN: 0750989408
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Tracey Norman
The blurb on the back cover states that “This introduces new readers, in the most accessible and colourful way, to a group of royal women who certainly deserve more public notice than they have hitherto received”, a quote from Professor Ronald Hutton, author of “The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present”. He is quite correct; this book is extremely accessible, making it ideal for anyone approaching the subject for the first time.
Personally, I did not know a great deal about either Joan of Navarre or Eleanor Cobham prior to reading this book. It was fascinating to discover the background of the accusations against them, and how even the country’s most powerful women were entirely at the mercy of the men surrounding them. Funds were required to finance war in France; Joan of Navarre had a sizeable dowry. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was becoming too powerful in the eyes of certain factions at court; what better way to curtail that power than by destroying his beloved wife Eleanor Cobham? Jacquetta of Luxembourg’s connection to witchcraft is likely better known thanks to novelists such as Philippa Gregory, as is that of her daughter Elizabeth Woodville; they, too, were deemed by some to have too much influence at court.
As I read, it quickly became apparent that witchcraft was actually going to be a relatively scant subject in the book. The charges against each of the four women were tenuous to say the least and, in the case of Jacquetta, described in just a few pages. Her story in particular seemed glossed over to me, but there was clearly very little in the historical record regarding the accusations made against her. Similarly, parts of Elizabeth Woodville’s story were dealt with rather more quickly than I expected, not least the disappearance of her two young sons, Edward V and his brother Richard, in the Tower of London, which was covered in one short paragraph.
I ended up with mixed feelings about the book, which arose in part because the title led me to expect rather more “witchyness” than it actually contained. As a history, it was a good study of four fascinating and, as Hutton noted, overlooked Royal women, but witchcraft itself was not a central theme. Eleanor Cobham may have confessed to consulting with a wise woman regarding love magic, but there is nothing to suggest that she, or indeed any of the other women were personally actively engaged in the practice of witchcraft. Many of the charges against the four women were fabricated and not all of the charges that stuck, for whatever reason, resulted in a trial. In every case, there was a political motivation for the actions taken against them and in every case, those actions had a lasting and often devastating effect.
As a history of these intriguing women, this book is excellent, but if you are expecting descriptions of magic or witchcraft of the day, you may be disappointed. They were not witches as we have come to understand the term; rather, they were powerful women linked by the negative taint of witchcraft.
AUTHOR: Gemma Holman
PUBLISHER: The History Press, 2019
ISBN: 0750989408
PODCAST EPISODE: None
REVIEWER: Tracey Norman
The blurb on the back cover states that “This introduces new readers, in the most accessible and colourful way, to a group of royal women who certainly deserve more public notice than they have hitherto received”, a quote from Professor Ronald Hutton, author of “The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present”. He is quite correct; this book is extremely accessible, making it ideal for anyone approaching the subject for the first time.
Personally, I did not know a great deal about either Joan of Navarre or Eleanor Cobham prior to reading this book. It was fascinating to discover the background of the accusations against them, and how even the country’s most powerful women were entirely at the mercy of the men surrounding them. Funds were required to finance war in France; Joan of Navarre had a sizeable dowry. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was becoming too powerful in the eyes of certain factions at court; what better way to curtail that power than by destroying his beloved wife Eleanor Cobham? Jacquetta of Luxembourg’s connection to witchcraft is likely better known thanks to novelists such as Philippa Gregory, as is that of her daughter Elizabeth Woodville; they, too, were deemed by some to have too much influence at court.
As I read, it quickly became apparent that witchcraft was actually going to be a relatively scant subject in the book. The charges against each of the four women were tenuous to say the least and, in the case of Jacquetta, described in just a few pages. Her story in particular seemed glossed over to me, but there was clearly very little in the historical record regarding the accusations made against her. Similarly, parts of Elizabeth Woodville’s story were dealt with rather more quickly than I expected, not least the disappearance of her two young sons, Edward V and his brother Richard, in the Tower of London, which was covered in one short paragraph.
I ended up with mixed feelings about the book, which arose in part because the title led me to expect rather more “witchyness” than it actually contained. As a history, it was a good study of four fascinating and, as Hutton noted, overlooked Royal women, but witchcraft itself was not a central theme. Eleanor Cobham may have confessed to consulting with a wise woman regarding love magic, but there is nothing to suggest that she, or indeed any of the other women were personally actively engaged in the practice of witchcraft. Many of the charges against the four women were fabricated and not all of the charges that stuck, for whatever reason, resulted in a trial. In every case, there was a political motivation for the actions taken against them and in every case, those actions had a lasting and often devastating effect.
As a history of these intriguing women, this book is excellent, but if you are expecting descriptions of magic or witchcraft of the day, you may be disappointed. They were not witches as we have come to understand the term; rather, they were powerful women linked by the negative taint of witchcraft.