The Witches of Belvoir were a mother and her two daughters accused of witchcraft in England and the deaths of two young brothers, Henry (died 1613) and Francis Manners (died 1620), the heirs to Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, whose seat was at Belvoir Castle. The mother, Joan Flower, died on the way to her trial after apprehension 'around Christmas' of 1618, while Philippa and Margaret were executed by hanging on 11 March 1619. [1]
Joan, Margaret and Philippa Flower were "known to be herbal healers" and came from a local family that "had fallen on hard times". [2] They accepted employment as servants with Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland and his wife Cecily at Belvoir Castle near Grantham, Lincolnshire, when additional staff were needed for an upcoming visit by King James I [2] but the sisters, and their mother, were unpopular with the other staff, and there were suggestions of theft, and misdemeanors. [2] All three were dismissed and only Joan was given a payment of severance amounting to "40 shillings, a bolster (pillow), and a mattress of wool". [3]
After the Flowers' were dismissed, the Earl and Countess fell ill, suffering from "vomiting and convulsions". [3] Their son and heir, Henry, Baron de Ros, [4] died, and was buried on 26 September 1613. [5] Their younger children, Francis, and daughter Katherine, suffered similarly [6] and Francis died 7 March 1620. The deaths of the two boys left the Earl without a male heir and Earldom passed to his brother after his own death in 1632. [7]
Three years after Henry's death, on 16 July 1616, nine women were hanged as witches in Leicestershire for having bewitched a young boy and, in charges similar to those in the Flowers' case, were said to have kept cats as familiars. [8] However it was to be five years after the Flowers' were dismissed from Belvoir Castle, and following the death of their second son, Francis, [9] that the Rutlands had them arrested, before Christmas of 1618. [6] After initial examinations, in February 1619, [9] by the Earl of Rutland, Hon. Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby, Sir George Manners, Sir William Pelham, Sir Henry Hastings, clergyman Samuel Fleming and others, [5] the women were to be taken to Lincoln gaol. [10]
When arrested Joan Flower professed her innocence. She was not known to be a Church-goer, but at Ancaster, en route to the prison at Lincoln, [6] she asked for bread as a substitute for the Eucharist. [11] She claimed that something so blessed could not be consumed by a witch. She choked and died after the first bite. [11]
At Lincoln, Margaret accused her mother of witchcraft, while Phillipa admitted to witchcraft on behalf of herself, Margaret and Joan. [5] The sisters said they had entered into communion with familiar spirits that had assisted them with their schemes. The mother's familiar was a cat named Rutterkin. [10] The women admitted that they stole the glove of Lord Ros and gave it to their mother, who had dipped it in boiling water, stroked it along Rutterkin's back, and pricked it. [10] Combined with some incantations this supposedly caused Lord Ros to become ill and die. An attempt to harm Lady Katherine, the Earl's daughter, had failed when it was found that Rutterkin had no power over her. The women had also taken some feathers from the quilt of Rutland's bed and a pair of gloves. By boiling these in water mixed with blood they cast spells to prevent the Earl and Countess from having any more children. [12] Both women admitted to experiencing visions of devils and that their familiar spirits visited them and sucked at their bodies. [10]
During the examination, they revealed the names of other women who had aided them: Anne Baker of Bottesford; Joan Willimot of Goadby; and Ellen Greene of Stathern. [13]
All three women were taken for examination and revealed that they too had visions and consorted with familiar spirits. [13] Willimot said her familiar was called Pretty and had been blown into her mouth by her former master in the form of a fairy, later reappearing in the form of a woman who asked her to give up her soul. Willimot testified more as a cunning woman than a witch, and insisted Pretty only helped her to inquire about the health of people she had attempted to heal:
She never hurt any body, but did help divers persons that were stricken or fore-spoken (bewitched): and that her Spirit came weekly to her, and would tell of divers persons that were stricken and fore-spoken: and she saith that the use which she had of the Spirit, was to know those did which she had undertaken to amend and she did help them by certain prayers which she used. [13]
Greene claimed that she had accompanied Willimot into a wood where she said Willimot had conjured up two spirits in the form of a kitten and a "moldewarp" (mole) which had climbed on her shoulders and sucked at her ears. Greene sent these familiars to kill a man and woman with whom she had argued and both died within a fortnight. Baker also confessed to possessing a familiar in the form of a white dog, but most of her testimony concerned the visions she had witnessed.
Margaret and Philippa Flower were tried before Henry Hobart, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Edward Bromley, a Baron of the Exchequer, and found guilty. [5] Margaret and Philippa were hung at Lincoln castle on 11 March 1619. [2]
Later that year a ballad, Damnable Practises of Three Lincolnshire Witches Joane Flower and Her Two Daughters, printed by 'G. Eld for John Barnes' appeared. [5]
The Earl and Countess remained so convinced that their sons had been killed by the effects of witchcraft that they had it inscribed on their monument at Bottesford church. It reads, in part:
In 1608 he married ye lady Cecila Hungerford, daughter to ye Honorable Knight Sir John Tufton, by whom he had two sons, both of which died in their infancy by wicked practises and sorcerye [4]
In 1953, Hilda Lewis published a historical romance, The Witch and the Priest, which consists of a series of conversations between Samuel Fleming, the clergyman who oversaw the Flowers' examinations, and the ghost of Joan Flower. [5]
In 2013, historian Tracy Borman suggested that the Flower women may have been framed by a favourite of King James I, the Leicestershire born George Villiers, who was created Duke of Buckingham in 1623. [2] Borman's theory is that Villiers had plans to marry the Rutland's daughter Katherine and, with her two brothers dead, inherit the title. [2] Borman argues 'he had them poisoned – then framed Joan Flower and her two daughters as witches to create a smokescreen to cover up his own guilt'. [2] After the execution of the Flower sisters, Villiers went on to marry the Rutland's sole heir Katherine on 16 May 1620. [14]
Belvoir Castle is a faux historic castle and stately home in Leicestershire, England, situated 6 mi (10 km) west of the town of Grantham and 10 mi (16 km) northeast of Melton Mowbray. A castle was first built on the site immediately after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and has since been rebuilt at least three times. The final building is a grade I listed mock castle, dating from the early 19th century. It is the seat of David Manners, 11th Duke of Rutland, whose direct male ancestor inherited it in 1508. The traditional burial place of the Manners family was in the parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Bottesford, situated 3 mi (5 km) to the north of the Castle, but since 1825 they have been buried in the ducal mausoleum built next to the Castle in that year, to which their ancient monuments were moved. It remains the private property of the Duke of Rutland but is open to the general public.
Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in whose family's line the title continues. The heir apparent to the dukedom has the privilege of using the courtesy title of Marquess of Granby.
Bottesford is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Melton in the ceremonial county of Leicestershire, England. It lies close to the borders of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland, 12th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire, was created Earl of Rutland by King Henry VIII in 1525.
Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, 13th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG was an English nobleman.
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland, 14th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG was the son of Henry Manners, 2nd Earl of Rutland, whose titles he inherited in 1563.
Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, KG (1578–1632) was an English nobleman. Despite a brief imprisonment for his involvement in the Essex Rebellion of 1601, he became prominent at the court of James I. He lived at Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. In 1618 three women, the "Witches of Belvoir", were accused of witchcraft for having allegedly caused the deaths of his two young sons.
Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham, Marchioness of Antrim, 18th Baroness de Ros of Helmsley was an English aristocrat. The daughter and heiress of Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland, she was known as the richest woman in Britain outside of the royal family. She married first George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, the favourite, and possibly lover, of King James I of England; and secondly, she married the Irish peer Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim.
Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland was the eldest surviving son of John Manners, 4th Earl of Rutland and his wife, Elizabeth nee Charleton. He travelled across Europe, took part in military campaigns led by the Earl of Essex, and was a participant of Essex's rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. He was favoured by James I, and honoured by his contemporaries as a man of great intelligence and talent. He enjoyed the friendship of some of the most prominent writers and artists of the Elizabethan age and Jacobean age. In 1603 he led an Embassy to Denmark, homeland of James' Queen Anne of Denmark.
John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he inherited the title Earl of Rutland on the death of his second cousin George Manners, 7th Earl of Rutland.
John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland and 9th Earl of Rutland was a British MP, and Whig politician. His divorce from his first wife caused much comment, partly because it was thought to have political implications.
Charles John Robert Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland,, styled Marquess of Granby until 1940, was a British peer and landowner.
Marion Margaret Violet Manners, Dowager Duchess of Rutland was a British artist and noblewoman. A granddaughter of the 24th Earl of Crawford, she married Henry Manners in 1882. She was styled the Marchioness of Granby from 1888 to 1906, when Manners succeeded as Duke of Rutland. She had five children, including John Manners, the 9th Duke of Rutland and the socialite Lady Diana Cooper.
Belvoir Priory was a Benedictine priory near to Belvoir Castle. Although once described as within Lincolnshire, it is currently located in Leicestershire, near the present Belvoir Lodge.
St Mary the Virgin's Church is in the village of Bottesford, Leicestershire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Framland, the archdeaconry of Leicester and the diocese of Leicester. Its benefice is united with those of eight local parishes. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building.
Elizabeth Manners, Duchess of Rutland was an English aristocrat.
Witch trials and witch related accusations were at a high during the early modern period in Britain, a time that spanned from the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 18th century.
Frances Helen Manners, Duchess of Rutland was a British peeress and socialite. The wife of Charles Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland, following his death in 1999, she was known as the Dowager Duchess of Rutland.
Frances Knyvet or Knyvett (1583–1605) was an English courtier who performed in masques.
Cecily Manners, Countess of Rutland was an English aristocrat.
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