The Third Plantagenet: George, Duke of Clarence, Richard III's Brother by Ashdown-Hill John

Author:Ashdown-Hill, John [Ashdown-Hill, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Some historians have chosen to interpret all this as proof positive that the Duchess of Bedford had never been guilty of sorcery. Such an interpretation is extremely naïve. It has also been suggested that the only outcome of all the legal proceedings against her was that the duchess was found innocent. That is also naïve. It is, of course, true that we have no surviving record of the proceedings initially undertaken against Jacquette by Warwick and Clarence. However, it is almost as certain that they would have had her found guilty as that Edward IV (once he was at liberty) would ensure that she was declared innocent. In fact, Jacquette’s concern to have herself exonerated by her son-in-law strongly suggests that she had previously been judged guilty by those employed by Warwick and Clarence. The recorded verdict of both sides will inevitably have depended not on the truth of the matter, but on their political objectives.

Nevertheless, certain facts do emerge from a careful examination of the surviving record of the evidence. As one might expect, the Duchess of Bedford denied the charge of witchcraft and asserted her Christian faith. As for the evidence presented for the royal review of the case, that was all taken from Daunger and Wake. The extant recorded testimony of these two witnesses must be understood and interpreted in the context in which it was given.

The first fact that emerges, even from this revised evidence, is that John Daunger was evidently acquainted with the Duchess of Bedford, whose manor of Grafton Regis was less than 2 miles from his home in Shutlanger. The second fact is that Daunger had been handed a lead figurine which resembled the kind used for magic purposes, and which he was later instructed by Thomas Kymbell to send to Thomas Wake. Wake confirmed that he received this figurine from Daunger, via Kymbell. Although Daunger’s recorded testimony for Edward IV’s judges stated that the lead figurine had simply been left at Harry Kyngeston’s house in Stoke Bruerne by a passing troop of anonymous soldiers, the original version of the story may well have been different.

Perhaps not surprisingly, under the new circumstances in which he found himself, Daunger now declared that he had never heard the Duchess of Bedford casting spells. However, the making of such a statement suggests that the opposite might previously have been said. Daunger also now claimed that he had never mentioned other figurines representing the king and queen, though he had been told to do so by Thomas Wake. He claimed that Wake, who seems to have been targeted by Edward IV’s court as the scapegoat in this case, had invented the story of these other figurines.

However, Wake’s testimony did not accord with Daunger’s on this point. From the record of Wake’s testimony it emerges that he did not actually know Daunger personally. Moreover, Wake denied that he had any prior knowledge of the broken lead figurine before it was sent to him by his bailiff, Thomas Kymbell.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.