The Court's Failings

In the annulment seedings for francis and essex's marriage, there had been a basic misstep. They agreed that to save essex's blushes, it should be asserted that essex was impotent only with francis howard. The stain of evil spread to her lover somerset. Witchcraft could be linked to an inversion of the proper sexual order. Again, again transgressing the patriarchal norms of female obedience, subjection and propriety.