Martial Maids and Murdering Mothers: Women, Witchcraft and Motherly Transgression in Henry VI and Richard III

Abstract

“Martial Maids and Murdering Mothers” discusses how Shakespeare's first tetralogy aligns the language of witchcraft and curse with degenerate feminine political power. Joan la Pucelle in 1 Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou in Richard Duke of York and Richard III initiate the entrance of the language of witchcraft and curse into English politics, corrupting the masculine venue of politics and creating a space for the arrival of Richard III, the embodiment of their subversive language. Shakespeare shows that it is only with the introduction of appropriate masculinity in the Earl of Richmond and the elimination of Joan's and Margaret's corrupt femininity as present in the body of Richard III that the Tudor myth may be fulfilled and England redeemed.