LIFE OF JACQUETTA OF LUXEMBOURG | A real royal witch? The women who fought the Wars of the Roses

hi history lovers and welcome or welcome back to the channel where I bring you new videos every week on all aspects of the past today on History calling we're returning to my series on the women of the wars of the Roses to look at Shakira of Luxembourg most famous as the mother of Queen Elizabeth Woodville chakera had a life which was full of Scandal danger and intrigue stay tuned to hear about her royal Roots her spectacular first marriage to the uncle of a king her incredibly scandalous second Union with a lowly Knight and how she became the mother of the queen and navigated the wars of the Roses perhaps Most Fascinating of all we'll also look at the allegations made against her that she was a real Royal witch who had forced Edward IV to marry her daughter Elizabeth using sorcery make sure you're still here at the end to learn how these witchcraft allegations lingered on even after jacquetta's death and were used to help topple her grandson from his throne before we get to that though I'm thrilled to be able to thank history hit for sponsoring another video on this channel history hit is like Netflix but all history it brings you the stories that have shaped our world through an award-winning podcast Network and an online History Channel they have literally hundreds of programs over a thousand podcast episodes and 5 000 history related travel articles and they launch 15 new podcast episodes and two new programs every week while stance news history hit continues to be the world's leading History Podcast they also have four podcasts covering the Ancients Warfare gone medieval and not just the tutors which is hosted by Susanna Lipscomb in addition to all this there is also patented betwixt the sheets and American history hit I've recently been watching their documentary Hans Hall by the younger painting the Tudor Court in which historians Nikola Talis and Franny Moyle discussed some of this painter's most famous works of art made during his two trips to England among the pictures analyzed are those of Henry VIII his third Queen Jane Seymour and his ministers Thomas Murr and Thomas Cromwell I particularly enjoyed their discussion of who binds the ambassadors which is full of strange symbolism including a bizarre skull which can only be viewed properly from a certain angle if you'd like to hear their theories as to what this and other props in the image including a loot mean and to gain access to history Hits Huge array of other programs click the link in the description box below which will take you to their subscribe page you can also get a fantastic 50 of your first three months when you use the code history calling at checkout once again thank you to history hit for sponsoring this video and now let's hear more about the life of jakera of Luxembourg [Music] thank you jacquetta was born in around 1416 and though we don't know exactly where she came into the world we do know that she came from very impressive stock her father was Pierre de Luxembourg who was among other things kind of Saint Paul conversano and Brienne her mother was Margarita balso or debut who was the daughter of the Duke of Andrea in Italy one of her uncles was Louis of Luxembourg who was the chancellor of France for Henry VI who was then King of England and of France jacquetta was therefore very well connected almost nothing is known of her childhood but she was the eldest of nine children and historian Lucia Diaz Pasquale has mused that she might have lived some of her life in ankien a leaf details of Diaz Pasquale's article about Jakira in the description Box by the way as it was one of the most useful secondary sources for this video it is only in 1433 that we see jakera start to step out of the Shadows in that year she married the recently widowed John Duke of Bedford paternal Uncle of Henry VI we know from the French chronicler Olga Ronde monsterle that this marriage had been organized thanks to the efforts of her uncle Louis who was an advisor to Duke John and who had obtained his French chancellorship thanks to bedford's intercession the wedding took place on the 20th of April in the Cathedral of terawan and demonstroulay provides the following additional information the wedding feasts were celebrated in the Episcopal Palace of terawan and for the joy and happiness the Duke felt in this marriage for the sad woman was Lively beautiful and gracious aged around 17 years and that it might be long hard in remembrance he presented to the Church of terrawan two magnificent bells of Great Value which he had sent with her from England at his own cost this is the primary source which provides us with jakera's rough age and also the only physical description we have of her it was written years later though so do be aware that it may not be strictly accurate a quick disclaimer too about the images in this video we have no portraits or drawings of jakera so I'll be using some generic images of elite women in England and France during this period to give you an idea of the type of clothing she would have worn and the figure she would have cut jacquetta's marriage made her the aunt of Henry VI The Duchess of Bedford and one of the Premier ladies in England such was her value on the marriage Market in fact that when Philip Duke of burgundy who was one of the most powerful political players in Europe at the time heard that it had been solemnized he was angry with her father for having disposed of her and Bedford for having married her without his knowledge or advice it probably didn't help that he was the brother of bedford's first wife Anne who had only died in November 1432. we have no idea what you had a thought of her new husband who had been born in 1389 making him around 27 years her senior and in his mid-40s at the time of the wedding barely two months later she accompanied her husband to England where she obtained citizenship rights in July 1433 her first language was of course French but yes Pasquale suggests that she might have been taught some English in preparation for her marriage and we have a few books which belong to her we know this because she signed them as you see here and which include texts in English further supporting the idea that she must have learned it at some point though her French actually would have been enough for her to manage perfectly well in court circles jacquetta seems to have done well in England and made an excellent impression for in 1434 she was granted the great honor of being given the Rubes of the order of the garter her marriage was to be short-lived however having returned to France also in 1434 and presumably with his wife into Bedford died in Marion Castle on the 15th of September 1435 and was buried in the nearby Cathedral was a widow after only 17 months of marriage and at the age of around 19. two things perhaps help to cushion the blue however one was that Bedford had left her enough money to make her one of the richest women in England the other was that she soon fell in love with someone else given her wealth and status jakera was not supposed to remarry without Royal permission something she was made to swear an oath to in February 1436 just five months after bedford's death however by the 23rd of March 1437 that is exactly what she had done marrying thee by Royal standards penniless night Sir Richard Woodville who had served in her first husband's Court it was an absolute Scandal for the king's Aunt to behave in such a way and the reason we know that the marriage had to have occurred before the 23rd of March 1437 is that Henry VI find the pair the enormous sum of 1 000 pounds on that day for wedding without his permission again we have a contemporary description of this marriage and its effects from demonstrate who wrote that the Duchess of Bedford sister to the count to sin Paul her father had died in 1433 so her brother and I held this title married from inclination an English Knight called Sir Richard Woodville I young man very handsome and well mirrored but in regard to birth inferior to her first husband the Regent this is a reference to Bedford having been reaching to France and to herself Louis de Luxembourg Archbishop of Rion and her other relations were very angry at this match but they could not prevent it fortunately jakera's great wealth meant that she could afford the fine and the King doesn't seem to have punished her in any other way for her Dara money from Bedford was still granted to her later that year she had achieved that rare feat for a woman of her Rank and time period She had married for love though she continued to use the Duchess of Bedford title for the rest of her life as was normal practice for women whose later marriages were less prestigious than their earlier ones her grand background and her marriages also allowed her to have a complex coat of arms with 12 sections which you see here and which contain references to Luxembourg Brienne and Andrea among others though jakara had had no children by her first husband it soon became apparent that this must have been an issue on the part of Bedford for with Richard Woodville she was extremely productive the couple had 14 children that we knew of between about 1437 and 1458 and remarkably almost all of them survived to adulthood their eldest was a daughter named Elizabeth about whom I already have two videos which I'll leave linked below for you and as we'll see she would in time dramatically alter the family's fortunes though not always for the better the Woodville spot the Grafton reaches the state in northamptonshire in 1440. though Richard's military career meant that the couple spent considerable time in France during this decade and in September 1444 jakera stood as godmother to the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York at rouon Cathedral this couple were already the parents of a young son named Edward and this little boy would eventually marry jakeda's daughter in a union which was even more scandalous than Richard and jacquela's own had been but we'll get to that in a few minutes first let's deal with another famous marriage for also in late 1444 and acting in her capacity as a member of the royal family and therefore one of the most senior Noble women of England jakera was one of those who escorted the young Margaret evangelo whose aunt was also jiquetta's sister on her fairly slow progress to England before Margaret's marriage to Henry VI in April 1445. the two women would go on to have cordial relations for years to come with records showing that Margaret gave Jakarta expensive New Year's gifts when the Duchess of Bedford was at court her husband Richard was doing well for himself too being elevated to the rank of Baron rivers in 1448 and becoming a knight of the Garter in 1450. this elevation and jakarta's European connections and relationship to the king were not enough to secure dazzling marriages for their children however and instead the younger woodvilles began in the 1450s to make very respectable but middle of the road unions with members of the English Gentry the first of these was their daughter Elizabeth who married John Gray later Sir John Gray we can't be sure exactly when this wedding occurred but based on later estimates given for the age of their eldest son it was somewhere between 1450 and 1454 though Michael Hicks writing in the Oxford dictionary of national biography puts it as late as 1456 when Elizabeth was about 19. meanwhile Jakarta was still producing more children as we've seen and was helping to manage the family lands signing receipts for the estate when her husband was unavailable here you can see another example of her signature before long though the wars of the Roses began to affect the family the wars of the Roses were a multi-generational conflict rooted in the fact that several branches of the ruling family of the time the plantagenets had claims on the English throne to understand it properly we need to start with King Edward III who had five surviving Sons the oldest was another Edward commonly known as the black prince he predeceased his father and so after King Edward's Death the throne went to the Black Prince's son Richard II in 1399 the childless Richard was deposed by his first cousin Henry Bolingbrook who was the son of King Edward's third son John of gaunt Duke of Lancaster Henry bullingbrook became Henry IV and Richard died or was killed soon afterwards Henry IV then passed his throne to his eldest son Henry V who passed it to his only child Henry VI who was jakarta's nephew thanks to her marriage to John Duke of Bedford the conflict arose because of the fact that Joan of gaunt was King Edward's third son meaning that the descendants of his big brother Lionel eventorg of Clarence had a superior blood claim on the throne by the 1440s and 1450s these descendants were headed up by Richard Duke of York who we've already met and who was actually descended from Edward III twice over once on his mother's side from Lionel and once on his father's side from another of King Edward's Sons Edmund of Langley Duke of York The Descent from Lionel is the reason he had a better blood claim on the throne than the descendants of John of gaunt but the descent from Edmund is why his title was Duke of York this is where the two opposing factions in the wars of the Roses come from we have the descendants of John of gaunt who were known as the lancastrians because he was the Duke of Lancaster and we have the descendants of Lionel of Antwerp and Edmund of Langley who were known as the Yorks because of the title Duke of York the idea of roses comes from the fact that one of the badges sometimes used by the House of Lancaster was a red rose while one of the badges sometimes used by the house of York was a white rose having married the Duke of Bedford jacquetta was at this point in her life firmly in Camp lancastrian and had her nephew Henry VI been a strong Monarch with a clutch of sons coming up behind him the Duke of York's claim on the throne might have gone nowhere but by 1460 that was not the situation the country was in before I go on if you're enjoying this content please consider giving the video a thumbs up and subscribing to the channel if you switch on the little notification Bell after you hit the Subscribe button YouTube will also let you know each time I upload you can follow me on social media too which is linked in the description box King Henry and Margaret avonjour had weighed in 1445 but it wasn't until 1453 that their only child Edward Prince of Wales was born Jakarta was invited to and presumably attended Margaret's churching which marked her return to public life a few weeks after the birth but what should have been a joyous time was anything but as the king had by now had a complete mental breakdown and was in a catatonic state he recovered but his evident weakness led to poor struggles between his wife and the Duke of York who is heir to the throne after Prince Edward as they fought to control the country through him York was twice named protector of the realm over Margaret and relations between the pair deteriorated over the remainder of the decade by the 1450s things had descended into violence the lancastrians won the Battle of Blora Heath on the 23rd of September 1459 only to be defeated on the 12th of October at ludford bridge near Ludlow Castle after this York and his second son fled Ireland while his eldest boy Edward who was then the Earl of March went to Calais along with York's brother-in-law the Earl of Salisbury and his nephew the Earl of Warwick this is the point at which the wars of the Roses came to jakera's door King Henry ordered jiquetta's husband Baron rivers and their son Anthony Lord scales to gather up a force to take on the York's at Calais but on the 15th of January 1460 while they were preparing at Sandwich they were surprised by yorkist forces in the middle of the night and taken prisoner from their beds Gregory's Chronicle says that jakera was there too reporting that quote the Earl of Warwick came onto sandwich and there he took the Lord rivers with his lady the lady and Duchess of Bedford and brought him to Calais a letter written by a man named William botner later that month however which also describes these events says that Shakira returned to Kent suggesting that she wasn't taken to France when her husband and son arrived there they were jeered by Lord's March Salisbury and Warwick who marked their relatively lowly birth fortunately they were unharmed however and after the Yorks had regripped back in England won the Battle of Northampton in July 1460 and captured King Henry the Woodville men were forgiven released and Allied to swear loyalty to the York cause in October 1460 the Duke of York managed to get Parliament to pass an active Accord which said that he would inherit the throne after King Henry's death instead of Prince Edward but as so often happened in the wars of the Roses he soon suffered the worst possible reversal of Fortune Queen Margaret obtained Scottish support for her cause and at the Battle of Wakefield on the 30th of December 1460 the Duke was killed his son Lord March succeeded him as head of the House of York and on the 17th of February 1461 yet another battle called the Second Battle of Sindh Albans occurred it was on this day that the Woodville family suffered their first loss for Elizabeth's husband Sir John Gray with whom she and I had two young Sons fought for the lancastrian side and was killed the lancastrians did win the battle however and Margaret then marched on London to retake the capital the city closed its Gates against her though fearful of the pillaging her Army might indulge in and the mayor Richard Lee instead sent a delegation out to negotiate with her who should be one of the members of this group but Shakira of Luxembourg a woman who knew Margaret personally was related to her and was still one of the greatest ladies in the land in the end with Edward approaching Margaret abandoned her plans to enter the city and retreated North a fortnight leader the 18 year old former Earl of March was proclaimed King Edward IV the Battle of Titan followed on the 29th of March and was a disaster for the lancastrian Royals as well as jacquetta's family the oystered King Henry Queen Margaret and the prince of Wales had to flee into Scotland and she cut his husband and son despite having apparently come to an accommodation with the Yorks after their incarceration in Calais were captured fighting for the lancastrians and imprisoned again this time in the Tower of London fortunately they escaped with their lives once more being released and pardoned in July Diaz Pasquale reading in the Oxford dictionary of national biography wonders if this might have been because of jakarta's Continental ties to the burgundy family who were Edward IV's allies his sister Margaret would actually later become the Duchess of burgundy but we can be sure of this one way or the other depending on who you believe it might also have been at around this time that Edward first saw and became enamored of jakarta's eldest daughter Elizabeth gray who had moved back into her parents home at Grafton with her sons I'm not going to get into the details of the origins of their romance here but if you see my first video on Elizabeth's life I discuss what the sources have to say about it in more detail there what matters is that in 1464 the traditional date given is the 1st of May though a date later in the summer actually seems more likely these two entered into a marriage which was even more shocking than that of jakera and Richard Woodville and which pool the mother of the bride into the drama as well though Elizabeth and Edward's marriage was held in secret something which is generally agreed upon in the sources is that one of the few people who was there was jakera the chronicler Robert Fabian tells us that after this wedding in front of only five witnesses Jakira included the couple consummated the marriage before Edward had to leave he continued to visit his new wife in the months afterwards though anjaquera helped to smuggle Elizabeth to his bed without anyone else finding out Fabian of course was writing decades later his book the new Chronicles of England and France was originally published in 1516 three years after his death so some of the details may be wrong the marriage was announced in September March to the horror of Edward's advisors who had wanted him to make a strategic foreign Alliance not marry a lancastrian widow seven years his senior with new royal diary and a huge family to support and the Woodville however it must have been a time of great rejoicing The darwisher Duchess of Bedford was now the mother of the yorkist queen and there would be no more favor shown to the lancastrian side the union would ultimately bring great disasters upon the family however including accusations of Witchcraft against jakera at first though it seemed there was no stopping the woodville's ascent Decatur was granted some long overdue Dara money her husband was made Earl rivers in 1466 and their other children began to make some very advantageous marriages perhaps the most eyebrow raising of these was the union between her teenage son John and the wealthy Catherine Neville Dowager Duchess of Norfolk who was Edward IV's maternal aunt and well in her 60s at that point jakera stayed close to her royal daughter too attending key events in the Queen's life such as her coronation and churching after the birth of her first child princess Elizabeth of York in 1466 and we have records of her dining with the king and queen at the mayor of London's house in 1466 or 67. the lancastrians hadn't gone away of course but Henry VI was captured and imprisoned in 1465 and it didn't look like Margaret Evancho and her son were gaining any serious support during their Exile on the continent they weren't the main problem as the decade progressed instead it was King Edward's brother George Duke of Clarence and their cousin Richard Earl of Warwick who would become the greatest thorn in the side of the Monarch and by extension his wife and mother-in-law by 1469 the king's relationship with Clarence and Warwick had deteriorated badly with one of the main issues being Edward's refusal to allow Duke George to marry Warwick's daughter Isabelle if you see my videos linked Below on the lives of Cecily Neville Duchess of York and Elizabeth Woodville they have more details on this the pair took Isabel to France in July 1469 and married her to Clarence against his brother's orders then came back and took part in a rebellion against Edward's rule in the north of England just before the Battle of edgecoat on the 24th of July some sources said occurred on the 26th they published a Manifesto in which The Dowager Duchess of Bedford was named as one of the bad influences on the king and a woman of great greed alongside her husband and their son John this was bad news for jakara but things rapidly became much worse Edward Was Defeated at edgecoat and taken prisoner ending up here at Warwick Castle for a time where his brother and cousin hope to use him as a puppet King then Jake had his husband and son John were hunted down by Clarence and Warwick's men captured at cheap stew taken to Kenilworth Castle near Coventry and executed there on the 12th of August without trial Nye attention turned to jakera herself that same month she was brought to Warwick Castle and accused of witchcraft the accusation was leveled at her by one Thomas week a man described in original sources as a squire and who was one of Warwick's men in a later document from the rules of parliament addressed to King Edward and written in some slightly tricky Old English we hear what happened next when we quote caused her to be brought in a common noise and disclaundera of Witchcraft throughout a great part of this your realm submitting that she should have used Witchcraft and sorcery in so much as the SED week caused to be brought to Warwick at your last being their Sovereign Lord to divers of the Lords then being their present an image of lead made like a man of arms this has been presumed by some historians to be a reference to Lord Warwick containing the length of a man's finger and broken in mid-airs that's the middle and made fast with a wire saying that it was made by your said oratrice that's jakera to use with the sad Witchcraft and sorcery where she ninun for her nibi her ever saw it God knoweth and over this the third week for the Performing of his malicious intent above said entreated one John dongio our Parish Clerk of stoke brewing in the county of Northampton to have said that there were two other images made by your said oratrice one for you Sovereign Lord and another for our Sovereign lady the queen the use of images of her daughter and son-in-law would have implied that she had had a hand in their scandalous and in many quarters highly unpopular marriage but there is no evidence that this accusation was anything more than a political smear campaign orchestrated by Warwick and Clarence using weak as a kind of Goo between so that their hands wouldn't get dirty both had already made their hatred of The Duchess and her family clear and jakera as a rich well-connected woman who had influence with the king and queen was an enemy worth riding themselves of they'd already shown that they had no problem having members of the Queen's family killed and we cannot underestimate the danger her mother was in for witchcraft was firmly believed in at this time and could lead to burnings indeed the rules of parliament clearly stated that wake wanted to endanger not just jakarta's reputation but also destroy her person though whether a woman of her rank would ever have been executed is debutable you can watch my video in the first witch burning in Ireland however which took place in the previous Century to see just how badly accusations of sorcery could end it's linked on screen and below for you jakara despite the extremely stressful situation she found herself in and the fact that she had just lost her husband and one of her sons under the most terrible of circumstances defended herself evenly she called on Richard Lee a man who had been mayor of London when she had negotiated with Margaret of Angie in 1461 for assistance and she received it she was really saved however by the fact that the country was falling apart without Edward at the helm and Warwick and Clarence ended up having to release him in the Autumn once he was free the charges against his mother-in-law were of course dropped and she was formally fined not guilty in January 1470 when wake tried to backtrack on his evidence and the supporting statement he had asked for from John donger really not sure how to pronounce that it looks like danger was not forthcoming as we'll see in a minute though this wasn't the end of the Witchcraft allegations and in fact they would continue to haunt jacquetta's family and her memory for many years to come Edward may have been back in control in the spring of 1470 but thanks to the continuing machinations of Warwick and Clarence who he publicly forgive for their treachery worse was still to come still determined to ice the king the pair made another attempt on the throne and when that field they went to France once there Warwick joined forces with Margaret a Manju and helped to affect the restoration of the imprisoned Henry VI Edward who had been in the north of England when Warwick's forces took London was forced to flee to Mainland Europe in October and his heavily pregnant Queen their three daughters and his mother-in-law jakera had to take refuge in sanctuary in Westminster Abbey there on or around the first of November different sources give slightly different dates Jakarta must have witnessed the birth of Elizabeth's first Royal son another Edward later to become known as one of the princes in the tar Ry VI second rule didn't last long Clarence decided that perhaps he was better off with his brother after all and defected back to Edward in April 1471 the York King retook his throne and Warwick was killed in battle jakera her daughter and grandchildren were released from Sanctuary Margaret Evangel and her son were defeated and the lancastrian prince of Wales killed and Henry VI died soon afterwards in the tar under decidedly fishy circumstances see my videos on the princess and the tar the life of Queen Margaret and the suspicious death of Henry VI for more details all are linked below for you there were many more ups and downs in the wars of the Roses still to come but jakara would not live to see them on the 30th of May 1472 the director Duchess of Bedford died aged about 56. the evidence suggests that she did leave a will but this has not survived to us and we don't know where she was buried either ordinarily this would be where I would end a biography video however in jakheta's case there was still one last twist left for 11 years later in 1483 King Edward IV died and his youngest brother Richard Duke of Gloucester seized the throne from his nephew Edward V the grandson Jakarta had seen born in sanctuary back in 1470. Edward V and his younger brother disappeared into the Tower of London never to be seen again and the new Richard III explained his actions by claiming that the marriage between Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville was invalid and their children illegitimate making him the legal Heir his brother George dick of Clarence had been executed in 1478 and his children barred from inheriting this invalidity was explained partly because the marriage was supposedly bigamist and partly by resurrecting the sorcery claims against jakara and extending them to her daughter too to assert that Edward had not entered into the union of his own free will an act of parliament made in 1484 for the purpose of settling the crime upon the new king put the accusations into writing saying the said pretended marriage between the above named King Edward and Elizabeth gray was made of great presumption without the knowledge and Ascent of the Lords of this land and also by sorcery and Witchcraft committed by the said Elizabeth and her mother jakera Duchess of Bedford as the common opinion of the people and the public voice and theme is through all this land now there was no more evidence of sorcery in 1483 than there had been in 1469 and I doubt that Richard or his Parliament took a poll before they claimed that it was the common opinion of the people that magic had been used by The Duchess and her daughter but the Ian here wasn't to be truthful the accusations were made once more in order to help secure Richard's hold on the throne by whatever means possible would have been horrified at the posthumous slander directed against her as well as at her daughter and I can't imagine she would be any happier with 21st century depictions of her life such as that provided by the book and TV show The White Queen in which she is shown as being an actual witch with actual magical powers who does indeed bring about her daughter's second marriage using sorcery she might though be happy to know that although her royal grandsons were lost to history her granddaughter Elizabeth of York ultimately became the queen consort of Henry VII and through her jacquetta's descendants still sit upon the throne of England or rather the United Kingdom to this very day I hope you've enjoyed this journey back to the wars of the Roses as always a big thank you to my wonderful patrons whose support helps to make these videos possible if you'd like to become a patron and get some history calling perks see the patreon link in the description box below I've also had questions from some of you about making a one-off donation if this is something you would prefer to do for any reason YouTube also have a thanks button below videos with preset amounts which will enable you to do so this allows you to post a customizable and brightly colored comment and get a one-time animation over the top of the video and I'd like to take this chance to thank you once more for your support that's all from me for this week but do let me know in the comments below what you think of the Witchcraft allegations made against Jakira and if you'd like to hear more about the words of the Roses try one of these videos next whatever you choose please enjoy and until next time keep learning

Channel: History Calling

Views: 400,604

Keywords: JACQUETTA OF LUXEMBOURG, A real royal witch, a real witch, The women who fought the Wars of the Roses, English royal history documentary, the most scandalous couple, History Calling, Elizabeth Woodville, Elizabeth Wydville, Halloween special video, are witches real, Halloween 2022

Id: 6S9IlEW4w8U

Length: 33min 50sec (2030 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2022