Royal Witches

June 15, 2020
A history of the 15th-century political and societal events that put four royal women on trial for witchcraft. Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and Elizabeth Woodville were the wives of nobility and the mothers of kings and queens; they sat at the top of a hierarchical society and ruled over vast tracts of land. Yet when the interests of the men of their time warranted it, each, in turn, was accused of witchery, whether it was the use of love potions or something more nefarious. Hollman, who has a master's degree in medieval history, provides an in-depth account of each woman's rise to power and then chronicles, in occasionally excessive detail, the events of the time. This sometimes leads readers away from the direct stories of the women as the men in their lives launched wars and engaged in political battles for power. Thankfully, each narrative eventually returns to the women, who fulfilled their duties as wives and were often used as pawns by the many manipulative men in their lives. However, as Hollman amply shows, they were not without their own powers. The comprehensive details might overwhelm those looking for a more sensational history of royalty and witchery, as the author's painstaking work, which reads like a textbook at times, is focused on historical accuracy rather than the scandalous nature of the accusations leveraged against these women. "The reality is that these women were real, living, breathing human beings whose lives some 600 years ago we can touch through surviving documents," writes Hollman. "It is overwhelmingly certain that these women were not the wicked schemers they have been portrayed as across the centuries, and almost certainly, they were all overwhelmingly good people." Most readers will be convinced of the veracity of that statement. A meticulous historical analysis that will appeal most to students of British royal history. (b/w images, family trees)

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June 26, 2020

In her first book, historian Hollman reveals how allegations of witchcraft were used as political weapons against powerful women in late medieval England. Exploring the cases of queens and high-ranking nobles, Hollman demonstrates the effectiveness of such unprovable accusations in stripping women of their wealth and damaging the fortunes of their families. The life of Joan of Navarre, wife of Henry IV, is particularly illustrative, as Hollman describes how Henry V allowed accusations of the use of malevolent magic to be leveled against his stepmother in order to seize Joan's property to finance his war for the French crown. In the case of Eleanor of Cobham, similar accusations succeeded in destroying the influence of her husband, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. Rank and nobility of blood offered little protection against allegations of witchcraft, and Hollman notes how a foreign birth and widowhood made women yet more vulnerable to such plots. VERDICT Gaps in the historical record prompt Hollman to make some questionable speculations about the women's attributes and relationships, but for the most part this is a well-researched and enlightening look at how cultural fear was used to justify acts of misogynistic vengeance and greed.--Sara Shreve, Newton, KS

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