Jacquetta of Luxembourg - Witchcraft Accusations

Witchcraft Accusations

In 1469, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, took Edward IV into custody and executed Jacquetta's husband. Shortly thereafter, Thomas Wake, a follower of the Earl of Warwick’s, accused Jacquetta of witchcraft. Wake brought to Warwick Castle a lead image “made like a man of arms . . . broken in the middle and made fast with a wire,“ and alleged that Jacquetta had fashioned it to use for witchcraft and sorcery. He claimed that John Daunger, a parish clerk in Northampton, could attest that Jacquetta had made two other images, one for the king and one for the queen. The case fell apart when Warwick released Edward IV from custody, and Jacquetta was cleared by the king’s great council of the charges on January 19, 1470. In 1484 Richard III in the act known as Titulus Regius revived the allegations of witchcraft against Jacquetta when he claimed that she and Elizabeth had procured Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV through witchcraft; however, Richard never offered any proof to support his assertions.

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