Margery Jourdemayne

Margery Jourdemayne, "the Witch of Eye Next Westminster" (before 1415 – 27 October 1441) was an English woman who was accused of "false belief and witchcraft".

In 1432 her fellow prisoners at Windsor Castle included friars and clerics, one of whom, Ashwell, was proficient in astronomy and would in June 1433 successfully forecast an eclipse.

She told him that he would be defeated and slain at a castle: but as long as he arrayed his forces and fought in the open field, he would be victorious and safe from harm.

[9] During the course of the 1441 trial, it was disclosed that Margery had been held for some months at Windsor Castle ten years previously for an unspecified offence concerning sorcery.

In 1430, seven witches had been arrested in London and accused of plotting the young King Henry's death and were then imprisoned in the Fleet; it is possible that Margery was one of these seven.

In any event, on 22 November of that year one of the king's serjeants-at-arms was paid to escort 'a certain woman' from the city of London to Windsor, and six days later another serjeant was reimbursed for taking friar John Ashwell on the same journey.

There was a Beldame [old woman] called the wytch of Ey, Old mother Madge her neyghbours did hir name Which wrought wonders in countryes by heresaye Both feendes [fiends] and fayries her charmyng would obay And dead corpsis from grave she could uprere Suche an inchauntresse, as that tyme had no peere.

Deborah Hyde, editor-in-chief to the UK magazine The Skeptic blogs and lectures about belief in the supernatural and other elements of folklore that involve superstition under the name "Jourdemayne".