Elizabeth Woodville – “The White Queen” – Was She A Witch?

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Elizabeth Woodville and her mother create a ‘magic mist’.

The  BBC did an article on if Elizabeth Woodville was actually a witch, having historian Peter Maxwell-Stuart look into the suspicions surrounding Elizabeth and her mother, Jacquetta.

In the BBC One series ‘The White Queen’, Elizabeth Woodville and her mother Jacquetta conjure a mist to help her husband Edward IV defeat his enemies.

But did they really practise witchcraft? Historian Peter Maxwell-Stuart investigates the magical myth that surrounds the two women.

When the White Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, became the first ‘commoner’ to marry an English king, some muttered she may have used magic to enchant him. Edward was said to be so enamoured with her beauty that he married her in secret, rather than wed a French princess.

However, it was Elizabeth’s mother Jacquetta who was first accused of witchcraft.

In February 1471, Edward IV had lost the English throne after the Earl of Warwick imprisoned him in his castle and reinstated Henry VI.

Warwick also executed Elizabeth’s father, Earl Rivers. Shortly after, the now widowed Jacquetta was accused of witchcraft by one of Warwick’s squires, Thomas Wake.

He brought a broken puppet made of lead to Warwick castle, and said Jacquetta had fashioned it in order to practise witchcraft. To support his allegation, he claimed that a parish clerk called John Daunger knew of two more images, one representing Edward, the other Elizabeth.

By April, Edward was back on the throne, and his Council examined Wake and Daunger’s claims at Jacquetta’s request. Wake said he knew nothing about the puppet until Daunger showed it to him. However, Daunger claimed Wake himself had asked if he could see it. Daunger also denied saying there were images of Edward and Elizabeth. The Council dismissed the whole story.

In the 15th century belief in magic, white or black, was universal throughout society.

Royal persons in both France and England had long been viewed as vulnerable targets of witchcraft. In 1419, the Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to every English bishop, saying that the life of Henry V was being threatened by ‘the heathenish rituals of necromancers’, and ordered public prayers for the King’s protection. In 1429, several knights, gentlemen, and clerics were accused of making a wax image of Henry VI and melting it in order to cause his death, and in 1430 seven women were imprisoned in London on similar charges.

The allegations of witchcraft against the Woodvilles returned, this time directed at Elizabeth. When Edward died of an illness in 1483, their twelve-year-old son was declared King Edward V, while his uncle Richard was appointed Protector. However, within months Richard shut his two nephews in the Tower and took the throne to become Richard III.

In order to undercut their claim to the throne, Richard resurrected the allegations of witchcraft against Elizabeth’s family. Richard’s title to the throne, set out by Parliament in 1484, makes several defamatory claims against Elizabeth and her mother, including the use of sorcery and witchcraft to procure her marriage to King Edward. Yet no proof was ever advanced and Richard never brought Elizabeth to trial.

Witchcraft itself was not a crime on the statute book at this time. Witches – female or male – were not punished simply for being witches. When accusations were made against Elizabeth it was not so much against the practice of magic itself, rather what it had been commissioned for. It wasn’t until many years later that that witchcraft became a capital offence.

Although there is no conclusive proof that either Elizabeth or her mother really practised magic, they lived in a time when magic was seen as neither unusual nor exotic. It was just one way among many to solve a practical problem. People believed that it was a way of opening channels between this world and the worlds of spirits, angels, and demons, whose power could then be used for human ends.

The practice of magic could be elaborate or simple – a sentence or two accompanied by gestures, so anyone could use it and most people did. Women would often use magic where brute force or political power was not really open to them.

The widespread belief in magic also allowed Warwick, Richard the Third and others to make accusations against their enemies on little or no evidence and to be believed.

For more on The White Queen check out our Pocket Guide to the series.

Photos/Article Source: BBC

Author: Heather Duval

Heather Duval is a co-owner of Fanspired and entered the world of pop culture at an early age by studying film in high school, attending IMTA in NYC and working with New England Models Group. With a Bachelor’s degree from Keene State College, Heather studied Marketing and Business Economics, filling every possible elective with film studies, social media and web design.