The Highgate Cemetery: Myths, Magic and Legends - Part II

(Click Here to read the Part I)

PARANORMAL PHENOMENA IN HIGHGATE

Like all places of power on earth, even the Highgate cemetery was built on a Ley Line, one of these energy lines in fact passes exactly from the center of the cemetery, dividing it in half, reaching an area known for have been a Roman camp in ancient times.

In the fourteenth century Swains Lane already existed, and it was a road used primarily to lead animals to the Smithsfields market, mainly pigs (hence the name of the road itself). By the time it became the epicenter of a cholera outbreak, as a result people preferred to avoid this area unless it was absolutely necessary to go there; it soon became an infamous alley, populated by brigands and cutthroats. The bad reputation of this road lasted until modern times.

Swains Lane

In the period between 1960 and 1975 the cemetery was in a state of total abandonment, vandalism was the order of the day and the so-called "graverobbers" devastated many ancient tombs with the sole intent of stealing objects and precious metals contained in the coffins, leaving the bodies contained in them in the open air.

All this contributed to increase the mystery aura that hovered over the district of Highgate, there were numerous reports of strange events about this place near the cemetery: many people claimed to have seen ethereal figures floating above the tombs, others reported having encountered walking corpses, however, the most frequently recorded paranormal phenomenon was that of the "man in black”.

There are several interviews given to the press by the inhabitants who, once they entered the cemetery near Swains Lane, then came across this male figure, very tall and obscure, who observed them from a distance with bright eyes, and then disappeared.

One of the witnesses released this statement:

“As the light began to fail he decided to leave, but somehow, he became hopelessly lost. Not being a superstitious person or even believing in ghosts, he walked calmly around looking for the gate when he suddenly became aware of the presence of something behind him. Swinging around, less than six feet away, he saw a tall dark spectre hovering just above the ground. He found himself transfixed to the spot, completely unable to move; drained of energy by some powerful “hypnotic force” that in a matter of seconds rendered him unconscious to any sense of time or being able to recognize his surroundings. So great was the intensity of this force, that he remained like this for several minutes (or what seemed like several minutes) before the spectre abruptly vanished and he slowly regained his normal faculties.”

So numerous were reports of this entity that a group of people, members of The British Psychic and Occult Society, decided to investigate.

They discovered that two Ley Lines cross in the western part of the cemetery.

Rest of a Ritual in Highgate Cemetery

According to the theory, when two energy lines cross over a burial site they can influence the residual energies of the dead; this would explain the sightings in the places adjacent to the cemetery.

Moreover, one of the Ley Lines seems to coincide with an underground stream, which would act as an energy catalyst and would favor the emergence of these entities.

Precisely for these reasons, as well as the fact that entering Highgate at night was relatively simple at the time, the cemetery was chosen as a place of ceremony by some necromancers and their rites, who settled there for many years, they continued to attend the cemetery even after the "Friends of the Cemetery of Highgate" began the reclamation and renovation works. It is believed that the increase in paranormal manifestations is also linked to the practice of this type of ritual.

THE WITCH OF HIGHGATE

In the fifteenth century, Margery Jourdemayne resided in Highgate, also known as "The Witch of Ey", She was a wise woman and a great connoisseur of the magical arts, She was famous throughout the district for her extraordinary skills of divination and her skillful abilities to create love filters and fertility potions. Her services were in great demand, especially at the levels of the upper bourgeoisie and even of the clergy, but this elitist acquaintances were the cause of his own downfall.

Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Sir Reginald Cobham, became the maid of Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault in the 1920s, who found refuge in England after having repudiated her husband, the duke of Brabant.

Henry V, the King of England, died in 1422, leaving the young Henry VI to succeed him. The younger brother of Henry V, John, Duke of Bedford, ruled in France while the other brother, Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, was named protector of England during the regency of the little Henry VI.

Jacqueline was a very powerful woman, She had inherited the land of Hainault from her refused husband and she had possessions in Holland; this attracted the attention of Humphrey, who decided to marry her in 1423.

The couple moved to Calais with the servants, but soon her husband, worried about his English possessions, decided to return to England, leaving his wife in France and returning with the maid, Eleanor.

Eleanor, who was very beautiful and ambitious, did not miss the chance and seduced Humphrey, becoming his mistress and later his wife in 1428.

In 1436, Humphrey raised the noble title of Eleanor and made her the Duchess of Gloucester. Meanwhile, Brother John died, as a result Humphrey became the next in the line of succession to become King of England, since Henry VI was still very young and childless; in this way Eleanor was also one step away from becoming Queen.

The Conjuration from Henry VI, John Opie, (1792)

Despite the firm opposition of the entire council in making Humphrey King, Eleanor's ambition grew.

In the medieval courts, the nobles used to rely on expert magicians and astrologers, who consulted for the future to be predicted, and Eleanor was not far behind.

Although she was no longer young and already had two illegitimate children from her current husband, she wanted to have another one, legitimate one, to strengthen her position. She then turned to Margery Jourdemayne for a fertility potion; it is said that the two ladies already knew each other, as Eleanor would have asked the services of the Witch of Ey to obtain Humphrey's love.

Also, to get some clues about his ascent to the throne, she asked two famous local astrologers, Roger Bolingbroke and Thomas Southwell, to make a prediction about the future of the King. They predicted that the King would have suffered from a chronic illness throughout his life. 

This news reached the ears of the King himself who, uneasy, asked his astrologers to refute this prediction, which they promptly did. In this way, the previous prediction appeared not much a way to interpret the future, but as a kind of curse on the King.

Boilingbroke and Southwell were then accused of heresy and practice of necromancy and sentenced to death, during the interrogation they gave the name of Eleanor, in this way she too was arrested with the same accusations. Eleanor, during the trial, only admitted that she had accepted a fertility potion from Margery, who was promptly arrested and accused of witchcraft. In Margery's house were found fetishes in wax, partially burned in the fireplace, which theoretically would serve as a ritual to make Eleanor conceive a child, but it was instead considered further evidence of a targeted attack on the King.

The fact that the duchess herself admitted to having resorted to the "dark arts" was a more unique and rare case and contributed to decreeing her fall.

Margery, condemned to death by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake in Smithfields market square (yes, just the same place that was reached through Swains Lane), Southwell was imprisoned in the Tower of London and, to escape his terrible destiny of suffering, took the poison and died in the cell, while Bolingbroke was hanged and quartered.

‘The Penance of Eleanor’ by Edwin Austin Abbey (1900)

Eleanor was more fortunate, despite the opposition of her husband was forced to divorce him, they would never see each other again, and she was sentenced to "life imprisonment", a condition that, however, thanks to her husband who tried to protect her, she never suffered and was instead imprisoned in a court. Three days after the sentence, she was ordered to make a public apology for her sins: she was forced three times to walk through the streets of London carrying a candle, which she would then light in the main cathedrals of the city. She was then first transferred to Cheshire, then to Kenilworth Castle, then to the Isle of Man and finally to Wales, where she died in 1452.

"There was a Beldame called the wytch of Ey,

Old mother Madge her neyghbours did hir name

Which wrought wonders in countryes by heresaye

Both feendes and fayries her charmyng would obay

And dead corpsis from grave she could uprere

Suche an inchauntresse, as that tyme had no peere."

♄Unornya

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Sources:

http://hidden-highgate.org/