ELIZABETH CRAVEN AND HER WORLD

   The Berkeley family was always notorious for scandal and wild escapades. Elizabeth Craven's elder sister eloped when very young, and one of her aunts had done the same.    The most scandalous episode in the family history took place in 1682 during the Restoration period, when Lady Henrietta Berkeley, daughter of the first Earl of Berkeley, ran away with her sister's husband, Lord Grey. He was prosecuted for abduction by Lord Berkeley, despite the fact that Henrietta had consented to the flight. Lady Henrietta (Harriett) Berkeley From an original picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller, at Strawberry Hill.    This scandal left its mark on the literature of the period, as Aphra Behn borrowed elements of the story for her sensational novel,  Love Letters from a Nobleman to his Sister.    Ford, Lord Grey of Warke, w as a bold, irrepressible rake, mixed up in more than one risky enterprise. He took a leading part in the Monmouth Rebellion, and wherever...

       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...