Royal Witches

Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England

By: Gemma Hollman

Narrated by: Heather Wilds

Until the mass hysteria of the 17th century, accusations of witchcraft in England were rare. However, four royal women, related in family and in court ties - Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and Elizabeth Woodville - were accused of practicing witchcraft in order to kill or influence the king.

Some of these women may have turned to the “dark arts” in order to divine the future or obtain healing potions, but the purpose of the accusations was purely political. Despite their status, these women were vulnerable because of their gender, as the men around them moved them like pawns for political gains.

In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of 15th-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer tantalizing insight into how malicious magic would be used and would later cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come.

©2020 Gemma Hollman (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Story is great

I’m having trouble finishing this because of the narrator. I find her speech pattern distracting and it’s unfortunate because this is one of my favorite topics. I’ll buy the paperback.

Good story horrible performer

The narrator did not understand the material. Horrible performance. Almost couldn’t listen to it. Every sentence was ab unexplainable dramatic declaration

Decent performance

Overall decent performance and has a lot of interesting history from almost a span of 100+years and how women are always labeled as “witches” even in royal circles.

If you like Historical Biographies, try it

The name of this book is misleading, but I enjoyed it anyway. While this book did an amazing job of adding life and context to the histories of four royal women who were accused of witchcraft, very little of the book actually talks about the witchcraft itself. It goes more into who the women were, how they rose to power, and what their lives were like before the charges against them impacted them.

If I had been trying to read this rather than listen to it, I'm not sure I could have gotten through it. As other reviews mentioned, there is a heavy use of "However" and "Moreover" that makes the information a bit cringe-worthy. The "shopping list" style of describing who got what gifts from whom is also a bit clunky.

Despite the clunkiness and misleading title, I still enjoyed this. The book is clearly well researched, well organized, and it was nice to learn more about women's history. The narrator's engaging tones saved the book for me; but as other readers mention, it is a bit sing song. I recommend listening to a sample first to see if you enjoy it or not. If you like historical biographies regarding royalty, especially queens and duchesses, this book is worth a try if only for the rarity of information surrounding women in history.

No witches, but women with stories to tell

A fun bit of history, well-told! I was aware of some of the key figures before starting the book and it was fascinating to hear the whole story laid out from one end to the other. Fans of Phillippa Gregory's Plantagenet novels may enjoy this closer look into the lives of Jacquetta and Elizabeth Woodville and the noble and equally interesting ladies who preceded them.
As with the overwhelming majority of historical witch trials in England, the are no actual witches here - just whispers and plots. The book is no less interesting for this, although if one is looking for royal scandals involving more concrete evidence of malefic goings-on, I highly recommend looking into the Affair of the Poisons in 17th-century France.
The narrator speaks slowly but upping the speed to 1.15x solves the problem neatly.