Eleanor Davies (formerly Eleanor Tuchet) (1590–1652) was a prolific English writer publishing almost seventy pamphlets during her lifetime.

Biography

The fifth daughter of George Tuchet, 11th Baron Audley, she was learned in Latin, theology and law. In 1609, she married

Sir John Davies Sir John Davies (16 April 1569 (baptised)8 December 1626) was an English poet, lawyer, and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1597 and 1621. He became Attorney General for Ireland and formulated many of the legal ...

, by whom she had three children, including their heiress, Lucy Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. In 1625, she began caring for George Carr, a 13-year-old Scottish boy who was

deaf-mute Deaf-mute is a term which was used historically to identify a person who was either deaf and used sign language or both hearing impairment, deaf and muteness, could not speak. The term continues to be used to refer to deaf people who cannot speak ...

. While living with Davies, he began to utter prophecies and on 28 July 1625, Davies herself began prophesying. The same year she published her first pamphlet, ''A Warning to the Dragon and All his Angels'', which related the

Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th-century BC setting. It is ostensibly a narrative detailing the experiences and Prophecy, prophetic visions of Daniel, a Jewish Babylonian captivity, exile in Babylon ...

to contemporary political events. Davies's husband disliked her prophesying and burned at least one of her manuscripts. Scholar Diane Watt recounts that she responded "by dressing in widow's weeds and predicting that he would die in less than three years. One day in December of the following year, she began to weep uncontrollably during dinner, and three days later her husband died." In 1627, Davies married Sir Archibald Douglas, a professional soldier. He also destroyed her manuscripts. Many of Davies's prophecies were based on

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

s. For instance, she read her own name Eleanor Audelie as "Reveale O Daniel".

Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria of France (French language, French: ''Henriette Marie''; 25 November 1609 – 10 September 1669) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland from her marriage to K ...

consulted her during her first pregnancy, although her relationship with the royal family was rocky. (She had foretold the death of the Duke of Buckingham, to the king's displeasure.) Davies was involved in several legal disputes during her life. After her first husband's death, she lost possession of her home at Englefield for a time, as well as her estate at Pirton. In 1634, after smuggling her illegally printed prophecies back into England from Amsterdam, she was arrested and fined £3000 and imprisoned. After her release, she was arrested again and sent to Bedlam for pouring tar over the altar at

Lichfield Cathedral Lichfield Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Chad in Lichfield, is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Lichfield, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Lichfield and the principal church of the diocese ...

. Later in 1638 she was moved to the

Tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

, from which she was released in 1640. She was arrested twice more for debt and infringement of publishing laws.

References

Bibliography

* ''A Warning to the Dragon and All His Angels'' (1625) * ''The Word of God'' (1644) * ''The Everlasting Gospel'' (1649) * ''Bethlehem Signifying the House of Bread'' (1652) * ''Prophetic Writings of Lady Eleanor Davies''. Ed. Esther S. Cope. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Biography

References

Bibliography

Further reading