This was a period in which the ideas of witchcraft had caught fast
hold of the minds of mankind; and those accusations, which by the
enlightened part of the species would now be regarded as worthy only
of contempt, were then considered as charges of the most flatigious
[Errata: _read_ flagitious] nature. While John, duke of Bedford,
the eldest uncle of king Henry VI, was regent of France, Humphrey of
Gloucester, next brother to Bedford, was lord protector of the realm
of England. Though Henry was now nineteen years of age, yet, as he was
a prince of slender capacity, Humphrey still continued to discharge
the functions of sovereignty. He was eminently endowed with popular
qualities, and was a favourite with the majority of the nation. He had
however many enemies, one of the chief of whom was Henry Beaufort,
great-uncle to the king, and cardinal of Winchester. One of the means
employed by this prelate to undermine the power of Humphrey, consisted
in a charge of witchcraft brought against Eleanor Cobham, his wife.
This woman had probably yielded to the delusions, which artful persons,
who saw into the weakness of her character, sought to practise upon
her. She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to have
indulged in undue familiarity with her, before he was a widower. His
present duchess was reported to have had recourse to witchcraft in the
first instance, by way of securing his wayward inclinations. The duke
of Bedford had died in 1435; and Humphrey now, in addition to the
actual exercise of the powers of sovereigny, was next heir to the
crown in case of the king's decease. This weak and licentious woman,
being now duchess of Gloucester, and wife to the lord protector,
directed her ambition to the higher title and prerogatives of a queen,
and by way of feeding her evil passions, called to her counsels
Margery Jourdain, commonly called the witch of Eye, Roger Bolingbroke,
an astrologer and supposed magician, Thomas Southwel, canon of St.
Stephen's, and one John Hume, or Hun, a priest. These persons
frequently met the duchess in secret cabal. They were accused of
calling up spirits from the infernal world; and they made an image of
wax, which they slowly consumed before a fire, expecting that, as the
image gradually wasted away, so the constitution and life of the poor
king would decay and finally perish.
Hume, or Hun, is supposed to have turned informer, and upon his
information several of these persons were taken into custody. After
previous examination, on the twenty-fifth of July, 1441, Bolingbroke
was placed upon a scaffold before the cross of St. Paul's, with a
chair curiously painted, which was supposed to be one of his
implements of necromancy, and dressed in mystical attire, and there,
before the archbishop of Canterbury, the cardinal of Winchester, and
several other bishops, made abjuration of all his unlawful arts.
A short time after, the duchess of Gloucester, having fled to the
sanctuary at Westminster, her case was referred to the same high
persons, and Bolingbroke was brought forth to give evidence against
her. She was of consequence committed to custody in the castle of
Leeds near Maidstone, to take her trial in the month of October. A
commission was directed to the lord treasurer, several noblemen, and
certain judges of both benches, to enquire into all manner of treasons,
sorceries, and other things that might be hurtful to the king's person,
and Bolingbroke and Southwel as principals, and the duchess of
Gloucester as accessory, were brought before them. Margery Jourdain
was arraigned at the same time; and she, as a witch and relapsed
heretic, was condemned to be burned in Smithfield. The duchess of
Gloucester was sentenced to do penance on three several days, walking
through the streets of London, with a lighted taper in her hand,
attended by the lord mayor, the sheriffs, and a select body of the
livery, and then to be banished for life to the isle of Man. Thomas
Southwel died in prison; and Bolingbroke was hanged at Tyburn on the
eighteenth of November.