Roger Bolingbroke (died 18 November 1441) was a 15th-century English cleric, astronomer, astrologer, magister and alleged necromancer.
He was described as a ‘gret and konnyng man in astronomye’ and ‘renowned in all the world’,[1] In October 1440 he and Thomas Southwell produced a horoscope for Eleanor Cobham which predicted the death of King Henry, an event, which, if it were to have happened, would have meant the Duke of Gloucester would have become King and Eleanor his Queen.
On 23 July 1441 Bolingbroke was brought before the Church authorities, and at St. Paul's Cross, London, he made a very public confession that his actions were not compatible with Christianity and he foreswore his diabolic activities.
His head was displayed on London Bridge and his quartered body was distributed around the country.
[3] Bolingbroke appears in William Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2 as a conjurer.