An event occurred not very long after this, which deserves to be
mentioned, as being well calculated to shew how deep an impression
ideas of witchcraft had made on the public mind even in the gravest
affairs and the counsels of a nation. Richard duke of Gloucester,
afterwards Richard III, shortly before his usurpation of the crown in
1483, had recourse to this expedient for disarming the power of his
enemies, which he feared as an obstacle to his project. Being lord
protector, he came abruptly into the assembly of the council that he
had left but just before, and suddenly asked, what punishment they
deserved who should be found to have plotted against his life, being
the person, as nearest akin to the young king, intrusted in chief with
the affairs of the nation? And, a suitable answer being returned, he
said the persons he accused were the queen-dowager, and Jane Shore,
the favourite concubine of the late king, who by witchcraft and
forbidden arts had sought to destroy him. And, while he spoke, he laid
bare his left arm up to the elbow, which appeared shrivelled and
wasted in a pitiable manner. "To this condition," said he, "have these
abandoned women reduced me."--The historian adds, that it was well
known that his arm had been thus wasted from his birth.
In January 1484, the parliament met which recognised the title of
Richard, and pronounced the marriage of Edward IV null, and its issue
illegitimate. [188] The same parliament passed an act of attainder
against Henry earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII, the countess of
Richmond, his mother, and a great number of other persons, many of
them the most considerable adherents of the house of Lancaster. Among
these persons are enumerated Thomas Nandick and William Knivet,
necromancers. In the first parliament of Henry VII this attainder was
reversed, and Thomas Nandick of Cambridge, conjurer, is specially
nominated as an object of free pardon. [189]