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

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 wom...