Not The Shadow Of A Man

Jacquetta Wydeville (or Woodville) was the matriarch behind a dynasty. Her daughter’s marriage to Edward IV took the family to the highest point in the land and all of her thirteen children were given titles and honours and high ranking marriages were arranged for them, something which outraged the court and led to the family being referred to as upstarts and popinjays.

With her daughter crowned Queen of England, Jacquetta could have been forgiven for thinking all was good in her world, but her beloved husband Richard and her son John were caught up in the fighting between Edward IV and his cousin Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, and both men were executed after the battle of Edgecote.

Jacquetta was charged with witchcraft but was found not guilty after the king intervened on her behalf. It had been a narrow escape, so many believed that she had cast spells so that the king would fall for the charms of her daughter and so elevate the Woodvilles in the land.

This powerful woman left a lasting legacy with the children she bore - her grand daughter Elizabeth of York married Henry VII, thus ending the Lancastrian/York rivalry for all time.

Historians see Jacquetta Woodville from different viewpoints. Dorothy Davies is a medium and can only write what is given to her. This is Jacquetta's story, as told by herself...