1. Contemporary Beliefs of Witchcraft and the Sexualization of Women in Tudor England:
Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn
Amanda Iliadis
B00714773
March 17th
2016
Professor Andrea Shannon
1

2. Early modern Europe saw an escalation in witch-hunts, belief in the supernatural, and the sexualization
of women in society. It was a time of fear among ordinary people due to many misfortunes such as, bad
weather, harvest failure, crime, plague, epidemics, and war. These misfortunes were often blamed on
witchcraft. At the time, witchcraft was a capital offense assigned to females that were unchaste or did
not conform to male ideals of women. During the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), Elizabeth Woodville
ruled as Queen consort to King Edward IV. Throughout their marriage, she was suspected of witchcraft
by others at court, because they believed she would use sorcery to secure her position as Queen.
Similarly, Anne Boleyn, the Queen consort to Henry VIII during the dawn of religious reformation, was
tried and executed on the charge of witchcraft, adultery and incest that were common to the period.
Those at court believed Anne carried dangerous omens with her due to her miscarried child and
masculine behavior. During the Tudor period, church and Parliament held strict beliefs and laws
regarding the danger of witchcraft and diabolism, and the importance of God and virtue. Queen
consorts Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn are principal examples of women that were subject to
contemporary beliefs of witchcraft and the sexualization of women during the Tudor period. Both the
lives of Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn reveal how such beliefs and ideals shaped women's
political involvement in early modern England by limiting their political power and authority.
In Renaissance Europe, witchcraft was a capital offense assigned to females that did not
conform to the male ideal and were sexually promiscuous. The stereotypical witch is an independent
woman who does not conform to male ideals of 'proper' female behavior and qualities.1
These gender
ideals therefore required women, especially aristocrats, to be meek, quiet, passive, chaste, and of course
pious. Females that are assertive, controlling, and do not possess compassion and nurturing are, in the
eyes of men and society, witches. Furthermore, there is also strong hostility towards women who
exhibit characteristics normally viewed as masculine, such as independence, aggression, and ambition.2
Therefore, the witch stereotype is designated by males as a negative standard for women.3
Kramer and
2

3. Sprenger's Malleus Malificarum published in 1487, introduced a misogynistic mindset towards
witchcraft, allowing others to interpret witchcraft as a crime exclusively owned by the female gender.4
In Renaissance England, 80 to 100 per cent of all those accused of witchcraft were female, affirming
the misogynistic beliefs of the period.5
In the Malleus Malificarum, Kramer and Sprenger quote S. John
Chrysostom: “What else is a woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary
evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delectable detriment, and evil of
nature, painted with fair colors!”6
This suggests that women are malice in nature, unvirtuous, and
immoral. Therefore, when women were not clearly within the boundaries of societal male acceptance,
they were seen as threatening to the sexuality of the male populace. The Wars of the Roses occurring in
the mid fifteenth-century, was a time of dynastic battle between the houses of Lancaster and York.
Elizabeth Woodville, a widowed commoner, married King Edward IV who was a Yorkist. Elizabeth
was beautiful, and held herself with skillful wit. However these eloquent charms did not work to her
favor. Women were often suspected as temptresses who ensnared men with their beauty.7
As for
cleverness, contemporaries considered it to be a masculine trait, and therefore threatening in women.8
Having won the heart of a king as a widowed commoner was unheard of and suspicious in itself, which
could have led nobles and other commoners to believe that her beauty and charm lustfully seduced
King Edward. These qualities were connected to witchcraft because it was believed that witches used
their 'charms' to bewitch men. In Medieval England, several noblewomen including Elizabeth were
accused of using sortilege (fortune-telling and sorcery) to entice men into marriage, and allegedly
engaged in sexual relations.9
In the case of Elizabeth Woodville, her character was viewed by many to
be kind, but uncharacteristically assertive and strong for a woman. Considering that she was a mere
commoner, her ambitious attitude could be seen as an attempt to win political favor and secure her title
as Queen of England having lived a rather ordinary and impoverished life prior. Turning to Anne
Boleyn, Queen consort (1533-1536) to Henry VIII, her disposition was even more contrary to
3

4. the male ideal than Elizabeth. She was a woman that did not wish to be governed, following her own
impulses and desires, even to her own downfall.10
Anne craved power, control, and authority and was
not afraid to speak her mind or offer opinions. Perhaps it was the expression of unfemalistic
characteristics that initially earned her the title of witch. There were those at court that believed Anne
was an adulteress, thus she would have acquired sexual affections and passions for other men than her
own husband.11
In the Tudor period, witchcraft was a justification for all of the above qualities and
actions, and they were not uncommon. According to early modern society, there were two types of
women: virtuous and evil. The 'evil' type were so called because they were wanton, foolish, evil-
tongued, careless, rash, proud, and dainty.12
Thus, both Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn could fit
into this 'evil' category, according to contemporaries. Witchcraft was a severe and common crime
designated to the female gender, in which women were sexualized, non conformists of male ideals.
During her marriage to King Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville was frequently accused of
performing witchcraft and sorcery to secure her political position as Queen of England. When the
couples' secret marriage was declared at court, it was immediately viewed as a rash and irresponsible
political move. Contemporaries regarded queens as a potential political threat, especially those that
searched for power and influence, due to their intimate relationships with the rulers of a nation.13
Marrying a commoner from an opposing house (in this case Lancaster) was a dangerous act for a
monarch. Because of this, people believed Elizabeth has bewitched Edward into the secret marriage as
a witch, wanting to become Queen.14
The fact that Elizabeth was a widow, and therefore no longer a
virgin may have also added suspicion against her as a witch due to being sexually active. Moreover,
Elizabeth was hostile towards George, King Edward's brother, because in 1469 George and the Earl of
Warwick instigated the deaths of Elizabeth's father and brother, John. Elizabeth's outspoken contempt
for George was a direct opposite of the traditional conduct of aristocratic women, and therefore the
feminine social norm of patience and tolerance.15
This vindictive nature towards her brother-in-law, was
4

5. followed by convincing the King to commit fratricide.16
Although justified, the hatred Elizabeth felt for
George emphasized for contemporaries, the need to fear powerful women, especially during a time of
war. Regarding witchcraft, legends circulated during Elizabeth's time at court, that her mother Jacquetta
was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance. Reputed as the descendant of the water goddess Melusine,
Jacquetta allegedly used magic to make Edward IV fall in love with her daughter so that Elizabeth
could be Queen and her family could secure wealth and position.17
Furthermore, in 1470, one of
Warwick's men, Thomas Wake, formally accused Jacquetta of practicing witchcraft by having made
lead images of Warwick and others with which harm or influence could be bestowed.18
Jacquetta faced
trial, but Warwick's propoganda did not succeed. This accusation was likely a strategy to further
destroy the Woodville family's power and influence over the Kingdom. The fifteenth-century saw
frequent witchcraft accusations that were used as a means for political advancement or power.19
As for
Elizabeth, she was accused of witchcraft on more than one account. Thomas More wrote in his History
of King Richard III that Richard accused Elizabeth of using witchcraft to deteriorate his left fighting
arm.20
This was probably a ploy by Richard to illustrate that Elizabeth Woodville was a violent,
vindictive woman. He also asserted that Parliament declare the marriage of Elizabeth and Edward to be
invalid on the grounds that she enchanted him, so that their sons could be removed from succession.21
There was frequent anti-Woodville propoganda at court that attempted to rid the Kingdom of Elizabeth
as their Queen, stemming from the fact that she was not born of nobility, but rather a widowed
commoner. According to contemporaries, Elizabeth had a cunning influence over political matters that
was dangerous in the hands of a woman and queen who could sooner concoct a diplomatic intrigue
rather than create a national solution.22
Although they was never described as adulteresses or sexually
promiscuous, Elizabeth and her mother faced numerous accusations and threats regarding witchcraft
and their political involvement, in an attempt to restrain their control.
In 1536, Anne Boleyn was tried and executed on the common charges of witchcraft, adultery
5

6. and incest that was most probably due to her miscarriage of a deformed male heir and her masculine
character. Throughout her time at court and as Queen, Anne frequently used her skillful wit and
ambition to obtain what she desired. She used these masculine qualities in the years leading up to her
marriage to convince Henry VIII to remove Catherine of Aragon as Queen using any means necessary.
Henry urged Pope Clement VII to annul his marriage with Catherine on the grounds of illegitimacy, but
the Pope did not annul the marriage, on the grounds that the previous Pope had accepted their marriage
regardless that Catherine was his brother Arthur's widow. Historians believe that this failure may have
led Anne to push her Lutheran-like religious ideals on Henry so that he would break with Rome, and
therefore be capable of annulling the marriage himself. In 1531 Henry declared himself the supreme
head of the English church, and in 1533 Anne and Henry were married and Thomas Cranmer declared
Henry's previous marriage null and void. Throughout this process, Anne resisted Henry's sexual
attempts multiple times, a wise tactic used to frustrate him into speeding up the wedding process Some
historians have suggested that Anne used her charms and teasing behavior to entice Henry into
marrying her. In January of 1536 Queen Anne was delivered prematurely of a deformed male child.23
A
Queen's miscarriage, especially of a deformed male heir was not an event that could go unnoticed or
evoked much sympathy. In the early modern period, miscarriage and deformities both directly led to
assumptions of witchcraft and diabolism. One interpretation was that of sodomy; in which a woman has
immoral or unnatural sexual intercourse such as adultery, incest, or demonic relations.24
Sodomy and
witchcraft were naturally interrelated on the basis of female sexual promiscuity and temptation. Illicit
sexual acts were commonly blamed for deformed children, including those that were miscarried.
Fetuses were thought to be completely formed at approximately three weeks from the time of
conception, therefore even minor irregularities were described as monstrous.25
Infant deformities was
seen as God's way of punishing mothers for committing sexual sins, and were viewed as bad omens.26
At this point, it is very likely that Henry assumed that he was granted this misfortune because his
6

7. marriage was once again, illegitimate. He believed that he was seduced into his second marriage by
means of magic and charms, therefore insinuating that Anne must be a witch.27
Thus charges of
adultery and incest began from the existence of Anne's deformed fetus, indicating to contemporaries
that she had engaged in illicit sex and was unfaithful to her husband.28
Furthermore, the men involved
in this carnal act needed to be seeked out to confirm this belief. Soon after, Anne was charged with
enticing five men to have sexual relations with her, in a witch-like fashion, including her brother,
George.29
It can be suggested that contemporaries identified Anne as an adulteress in order to prove that
she was a witch and therefore an evil woman. At the time, the belief was that witches were demonic
women, that had a pact with the devil in order to gain advantages of wealth or power in life.30
One of
the conditions of the pact was often to perform the carnal act with the devil himself, to confirm the
witches' allegiance to him. The involvement of the devil was a common belief for many reasons, one
being that the devil tempted Eve to sin in the Garden of Eden. Eve easily submitted to temptation, and
this sin arising from women, destroyed their souls by depriving them of grace.31
In regards to incest, the
act was closely associated to sodomy and witchcraft, and is relevant to the analysis of Anne's fall.
Having incestuous relations violated the Buggery Statute that was passed in February 1534, and
therefore, was declared a felony.32
Incest was not always a crime; the ancients were frequently
incestuous, homosexual, and polygamous. However as time passed, unnatural sexual acts were
restrained in accordance to Catholicism. Anne Boleyn's bleak fate pronounced the frightful calamities
faced by noble and aristocratic women should they surrender to temptation or even come under the
suspicion of temptation.33
Anne Boleyn's disposition was domineering, assertive, clever, and cunning,
which were all designated as male characteristics, according to the social norm of the period. It is
suggested that she used this wit and control to gain power and authority before and during her
queenship. Moreover, some contemporaries believed that she gave in to her female sexual temptations,
committing adultery and incest. The belief that she was a witch began with the miscarriage of 1536 and
7

8. resulted in her execution that spring. Anne Boleyn faced many tribulations during her marriage to
Henry VIII due to the strong contemporary beliefs of witchcraft, diabolism, and the desire to sexualize
women.
In early modern England the church and government held strict beliefs and laws regarding
witchcraft, diabolism, and sexual heresy that affected society and specifically targeted females.
According to contemporary sources, most early modern Europeans believed in the existence of witches,
evil spirits and Satan.34
For them, Satan was a demon who worked continuously to lure mortals into
becoming his followers. Witches were acclaimed devil-worshipers, corrupting society, and bringing
fear among ordinary people. In 1542, less than six years after the execution of Anne Boleyn, Parliament
enacted a statute that forbade the use of witchcraft to arouse a person to illicit sexual behavior or love.35
Furthermore, the act of buggery (unnatural sexual activity) was condemned as a sing against God
Himself because it was immoral, unethical, and sinful.36
According to the Judea-Christian tradition,
sodomy of any kind was treated as idolatry and heresy against the church, because the Old Testament
God of the Hebrews had forbidden the practice.37
In Tudor England, sodomites were regarded to as
devil-worshipers. This is why in 1534, the Buggery Statute was enacted by Henry VIII's Reformation
Parliament.38
The King created the Reformation Parliament in 1529 as a means to attack the church and
question the Pope's power and authority in England. Furthermore, the men that were accused of
partaking in sodomy with Anne Boleyn, would have violated the Buggery Statute.39
All of these terms
that describe unnatural sexual behavior were considered severe crimes, especially for a woman,
because of their relation to witchcraft. The crime of witchcraft was ecclesiastically controlled,
dominated by sexual behavior due to its relation to demonisation.40
In the time of religious reformation,
naming the opposing religion (Catholic or Protestant) 'witches' would help to vent their anger, hatred,
and the offense they took to the opossing religion, in an attempt to distance from each other.41
Until the
mid seventeenth-century, the common folk of villages feared witchcraft, not only as a
8

9. demonic conspiracy, but as a threat to their harvests, lands, and families. Witches were thought to be
solitary sorcerers that practiced maleficium (harmful magic) through the use of tablets, charms,
ointments, and lead dolls. The poisons and curses the witches would produce, were believed to cause
frosts, impotence, sickness, miscarriages, and death, among other terrible misfortunes.42
Witches
appeared far more threatening to Christians than any advocates of heresy or wrong-doing.43
This is in
large, the reason why common folk feared witches, and therefore the evil women that corrupted society.
There was frequent upheaval among villages due to these named misfortunes, which is why the term
'social order' indicated more than just 'law and order', but the following of norms, ideologies, and
appropriate virtuous social behavior.44
Women in general caused much distress and fear of the
breakdown of social order that was so important to contemporaries, thus justifying the amount of
hanged witches in the period.45
During the Wars of the Roses, the need to eliminate sexual immorality
was great, probably due to the amount of combat and corruption during those thirty years.46
This could
explain why during the fifteenth and sixteenth-centuries there was such strict behavior towards the
wantonness and authoritative qualities women possessed; because these characteristics could all be
traced to the source of witchcraft. Being as assertive, clever, and powerful as she was, Elizabeth
Woodville was seen as a threat to political endeavors at the time. Any means to destroy her reputation,
was a chance to save the King and Kingdom from corruption. Contemporaries believed that women,
especially aristocrats should always remain passive, silent, and chaste, to replicate the qualities of the
highest queen, Virgin Mary.47
Rather than following the qualities of temptation and deception like Eve,
a woman should follow the virtuous and pious Mary; this was a constant requirement of the times due
to the wholesome belief in the Catholic (and later Protestant) faiths. In the early modern period, the
church and Parliament held strong beliefs and statutes regarding witchcraft, sexual promiscuity, and
demonisation that impacted society and specifically attacked women.
Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn are cardinal examples of women that were subject to
9

10. strict contemporary beliefs of witchcraft, diabolism, and the sexualization of women during the Tudor
period. Their lives reveal how the mentioned beliefs shaped women's political involvement in early
modern England by restricting their influence and control in matters of state and policy. Both queen
consorts were assertive, ambitious, and clever. To contemporaries, these masculine qualities were
viewed as opposite to the male and overall societal ideals of feminine behavior. Elizabeth Woodville
and her mother were frequently accused by members of court of using witchcraft for the betterment of
their family's position and wealth. Anne Boleyn was tried and executed on the charge of witchcraft,
adultery, and incest due to her deformed miscarried child, and her dominant behavior. Both the church
and Parliament sought to restrain witchcraft and sexual heresy in an attempt to purify society and rid it
of evil. Overall, Elizabeth Woodville and Anne Boleyn were both accused of the mentioned severe
crimes to limit their political involvement and control
10

11. 1. Larner, Christina, “Was Witch-Hunting Woman-Hunting?”, in The Witchcraft Reader: Second
Edition ed. Darren Oldridge (Routledge, 2008), 253.
2. Larner, Christina, “The Crime of Witchcraft in Europe”, in The Witchcraft Reader: Second
Edition, ed. Darren Oldridge (Routledge, 2008), 176.
3. Ibid, 176.
4. Midelfort, Erik, “Heartland of the Witchcraze”, in The Witchcraft Reader: Second Edition,ed.
Darren Oldridge (Routledge, 2008), 102.
5. Ibid, 102.
6. Kramer Heinrich and Sprenger Jacob ed., “The Malleus Malificarum”, in Witchcraft in Europe
400-1700, a documentary history, second edition, (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Press, 2001),
183.
7. Bump, Heather E, A Queen's Legacy: The Lives and Sorcery of Elizabeth Woodville and
Jacqetta of Luxembourg, (ProQuest, 2015), 15.
8. Ibid, 15.
9. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, (New York: Cambridge UP, 1989), 192.
10. Kramer Heinrich and Sprenger Jacob, The Malleus Maleficarum, 186.
11. Ibid, 186.
12. Thomas, Paul, Authority and Disorder in Tudor Times: 1485-1603, (Cambridge University
Press, 1999), 35.
13. Larson, Candice H, Victims and Viragos: Contemporary Perceptions of Aristocratic Women
during the Wars of the Roses, (ProQuest, 2015), 8.
14. Laynesmith, J.L, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503, (Oxford
University Press, 2004), 88.
15. Larson, Candice H, Victims and Viragos: Contemporary Perceptions of Aristocratic Women
during the Wars of the Roses, 94.
16. Ibid, 94.
17. Hughes, Jonathan, Alchemy and the Exploration of Late Medieval Sexuality, (Medieval
Virginities, 2003) 9.
18. Bump, Heather E, A Queen's Legacy: The Lives and Sorcery of Elizabeth Woodville and
Jacqetta of Luxembourg, 20.
19. Ibid, 21.
20. Larson, Candice H, Victims and Viragos: Contemporary Perceptions of Aristocratic Women
during the Wars of the Roses, 68.
21. Jone Johnson Lewis, “Elizabeth Woodville: Queen of England During the Wars of the Roses,”
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/medbritishqueens/a/elizabeth_woodv.htm, accessed
February 28, 2016.
22. Laynesmith, J.L, The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503, 17.
23. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 191.
24. Ibid, 192.
25. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 195.
26. Ibid, 195.
27. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 197.
28. G.W. Bernard, “The Fall of Anne Boleyn,” English Historical Review 106:420 (1991), 587.
29. Bucholz Robert and Key Newton, Early Modern England 1485-1714, second edition, (Wiley-
Blackwell Publishing), 96.

12. 30. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 203.
31. Kramer Heinrich and Sprenger Jacob ed., The Malleus Malificarum, 188.
32. Warnicke, Retha M, he Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 193.
33. Thomas, Paul, Authority and Disorder in Tudor Times: 1485-1603, 34.
34. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 192.
35. Ibid, 192.
36. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 193.
37. Ibid, 193.
38. Ibid, 193.
39. Warnicke, Retha M, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family politics at the court of Henry
VIII, 214.
40. Larner, Christina, The Crime of Witchcraft in Europe, 177.
41. Clark, Stuart, “Protestant Witchcraft, Protestant Witchcraft”, in The Witchcraft Reader, second
edition, ed. Darren Oldridge, (Routledge, 2008), 139.
42. Midelfort, Erik, Heartland of the Witchcraze, 100-101.
43. Bailey, Michael D, “Witchcraft and Reform in the Late Middle Ages”, in The Witchcraft
Reader, second edition, ed. Darren Oldridge, (Routledge, 2008), 41.
44. Larner, Christina, The Crime of Witchcraft in Europe, 177.
45. Thomas, Paul, Authority and Disorder in Tudor Times: 1485-1603, 35.
46. Ibid, 38.
47. Larson, Candice H, Victims and Viragos: Contemporary Perceptions of Aristocratic Women
during the Wars of the Roses, 42.

13. Bibliography
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