Chapter X: Introduction (7)

In the lore of these subjects no county in England is richer than Lancashire. The subject is a large one, and may even be said to include all the cases of demoniacal possession described in the earlier pages of this volume, since all these alleged possessions were the result of malice and (so-called) witchcraft. Indeed it is not easy to separate these two superstitious beliefs in their practical operation; witchcraft being the supposed cause, and demoniacal possession the imagined effect. The reader will find much, bearing on both branches of the subject, under both titles.

WITCHCRAFT IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

The first distinct charge of witchcraft in any way connected with this county, is that of the wife of the good Duke Humphrey, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, the associate of Roger Bolingbroke, the priest and necromancer, and Margery Jourdain, the witch of Eye. The Duke of Gloucester, uncle and protector to the king, having become obnoxious to the predominant party, they got up in 1441 a strange prosecution. The Duchess of Gloucester, Eleanor, the daughter of Lord Cobham, a lady of haughty carriage and ambitious mind, being attached to the prevailing superstitions of the day, was accused of the crime of witchcraft "for that she, by sorcery and enchantment, intended to destroy the king, to the intent to advance and promote her husband to the crown."[122] It was alleged against her and her associates, Sir Roger Bolingbroke, a priest, and chaplain to the Duke, (who was addicted to astrology,) and Margery Jourdain, the witch of Eye, that they had in their possession a wax figure of the king, which they melted by a magical device before a slow fire, with the intention of wasting away his force and vigour by insensible degrees. The imbecile mind of Henry was sensibly affected by this wicked invention; and the Duchess of Gloucester, on being brought to trial (in St. Stephen's Chapel, before the Archbishop of Canterbury) and found guilty of the design to destroy the king and his ministers by the agency of witchcraft, was sentenced to do public penance in three places within the city of London, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment. Her confederates were condemned to death and executed, Margery Jourdain being burnt to death in Smithfield. The duchess, after enduring the ignominy of her public penance, rendered peculiarly severe by the exalted state from which she had fallen, was banished to the Isle of Man, where she was placed under the ward of Sir Thomas Stanley. On the way to her place of exile, she was confined for some time, first in Leeds Castle, and afterwards in the Castle of Liverpool;[123] the earliest and the noblest witch on record within the county of Lancaster. Another account states that amongst those arrested as accomplices of the duchess were a priest and canon of St. Stephen's, Westminster, named Southwell, and another priest named John Hum or Hume. Roger Bolingbroke, the learned astronomer and astrologer (who died protesting his ignorance of all evil intentions), was drawn and quartered at Tyburn; Southwell died in prison before the time of execution; and John Hum received the royal pardon. The worst thing proved against the duchess was that she had sought for love-philters to secure the constancy of her husband.[124] Shakspere, in the _Second Part of King Henry VI._, Act 1, Scene 4, represents the duchess, Margery Jourdain, Hume, Southwell, and Bolingbroke, as engaged in raising an evil spirit in the Duke of Gloucester's garden, when they are surprised and seized by the Dukes of York and Buckingham and their guards. The duchess, after remaining in the Isle of Man some years, was transferred to Calais, under the ward of Sir John Steward, knight, and there died.

THE FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE LANCASHIRE WITCHES:

Containing the manner of their becoming such; their enchantments,
spells, revels, merry pranks, raising of storms and tempests, riding
on winds, &c. The entertainments and frolics which have happened
among them. With the loves and humours of Roger and Dorothy. Also, a
Treatise of Witches in general, conducive to mirth and recreation.
The like never before published.[125]