What if the Sorcerer Is a Woman? Gender Transformations and French Demonology of the 15th–16th Centuries

The article deals with the analysis of political pamphlets, which numerously appeared in France in 1589. Their authors criticized the actions of King Henry III, on whose direct orders the leaders of the Catholic League, Henry I, Duke of Guise, and his brother Louis, Archbishop of Reims and Cardinal of Lorraine, were killed. The monarch was accused of a wide variety of crimes, including practicing witchcraft, which, according to the king’s opponents, was directly related to the spread of Protestantism in France. In most cases, witchcraft was described in pamphlets within the framework of yet medieval European demonology. However, the author of the article draws attention to the new motives that got a very special development at the end of the 16th century. The pamphlets of 1589 clearly show the gradual transformation of Henry III into a witch, who was characterized exclusively by female witchcraft practices and tricks. According to the author of the article, such gender transformations were connected both with the general direction of the development of European demonology, and with the personal qualities of the monarch himself, rumors about whose intimate life agitated French society throughout his reign

Archbishop · Brother · Demonology · Middle Ages · Politics · Protestantism · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Medieval and Early Modern Justice · Renaissance Literature and Culture