Elizabeth Craven's Descent from Jacquetta of Luxembourg

       Elizabeth Craven's remarkable novel The Witch and the Maid of Honour is concerned with witch-hunting in the reign of King James I. She obviously felt very strongly about the evils of witch-hunting and superstition. And curiously enough, a genealogical chart shows that she was descended from Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford, who was arraigned for witchcraft in the reign of Edward IV. Jacquetta is one of the most famous "witches" in English history, although it was undoubtedly because of political rivalry that she faced these charges.

         Jacquetta was the daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St Pol, one of the ancient nobility of Burgundy, whose family was related to the Emperor and descended from monarchs of England too. In the reign of Henry VI, his uncle Prince John, Duke of Bedford was sent to act as Regent of France. On the death of his first wife, he married the young Jacquetta, and two years later died childless, leaving her all his possessions. The King ordered Jacquetta to come to England so that he could bestow her hand - and substantial fortune - on some senior noble.

    Jacquetta however had other ideas. She had fallen in love with Richard Woodville, the squire sent to escort her back to England. Yes, this is a tale not unlike Tristan and Isolde. When the King found that they had secretly married, he was furious and fined her a thousand pounds - a colossal sum, equivalent to millions today. 

      Nevertheless, it was a happy and fruitful marriage, and Woodville was eventually made a knight, then ennobled as Lord Rivers. When the Wars of the Roses broke out, the Rivers family supported the Lancastrian side. Sir John Grey, who had married their daughter Elizabeth Woodville, did likewise. So it was very strange that after Grey fell in battle, Elizabeth, Jacquetta's daughter, married Edward IV, of the House of York, and became Queen of England.

      The indignation among Yorkists about this marriage explains a lot about why Jacquetta, who was still known as the Duchess of Bedford, was accused of being a witch. The Yorkists resented the way that Edward IV handed out rewards, favours and positions to the Woodvilles and the Greys, instead of to those who had fought for him on the battlefield. Edward's most powerful supporter, the Earl of Warwick, incensed that Edward had not married a foreign princess as they had agreed, raised a rebellion against him and took him captive. He then took aim at the Duchess of Bedford. One of his followers brought an accusation that she had used devilish spells to enable her daughter to ensnare Edward. Actually, Edward was notoriously apt to succumb to female charms, and even her worst enemies did not deny that Lady Grey was beautiful and alluring. Nevertheless, Jacquetta was convicted, and Warwick had her husband, Lord Rivers, murdered. Shortly afterwards, when Warwick was killed in the next battle, Edward was restored to the throne, and issued her with a royal pardon. 

      That was not the end of the matter. A dozen years later, after Jacquetta's death and that of Edward IV, his brother Richard, who wanted any pretext to seize the crown, raked up the old charge of witchcraft and this time brought it against Elizabeth. He had always hated the Woodvilles and wanted to get rid of them, so he claimed she and her mother had used sorcery to effect the marriage to Edward. He hoped this would invalidate it. Elizabeth had to take sanctuary in Westminster cathedral until Richard was dead. Some of the accusations brought against Elizabeth were preposterous. It was said that she owed her powers of enchantment to Jacquetta's ancestress Melusina, a legendary river deity from whom the Luxembourg family claimed descent. 

    Richard III's animosity towards the Woodvilles followed a consistent pattern, and he was determined to remove Elizabeth's children, along with those of his brother George, Duke of Clarence, from the royal succession, so those who still refuse to believe that Richard ordered the murder of Elizabeth's sons, the Princes in the Tower, are being rather evidence-averse. 

      If Jacquetta was descended from Melusina, then so was Elizabeth Craven. The youngest of the thirteen siblings of Elizabeth Woodville,  Katherine Woodville, married Henry de Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. A son of Margaret de Beaufort, he had a possible claim to the throne, and was executed under Richard III. Their son Edward de Stafford, the 3rd Duke of Buckingham, was convicted of treason against Henry VIII and beheaded at the Tower of London in 1521.

The only contemporary depiction
of Katherine Woodville.

       His daughter Lady Elizabeth Stafford married Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.  One of their sons was Henry Howard Earl of Surrey, the poet, who married Frances de Vere.

       Their daughter, Lady Katherine Howard of Surrey, 1536-1596 (not to be confused with the Catherine Howard who married Henry VIII), married Sir Henry, 7th Lord of Berkeley in 1554. And from there it is easy to follow the descent of Elizabeth Craven, who was born Lady Elizabeth Berkeley.

       His son, Thomas Lord Berkeley, married Elizabeth Carey in 1575, and their son George 8th Lord Berkeley was born on 11th July 1575.  His son George, born 1620, became the first Earl of Berkeley, great-grandfather of Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley, the father of Elizabeth Craven.

https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/genealogie-richard-remme/I225657.php

https://thefreelancehistorywriter.com/2017/05/19/jacquetta-of-luxembourg-duchess-of-bedford-and-countess-rivers/

https://steemit.com/history/@stephmckenzie/badass-women-of-history-jacquetta-of-luxembourg