Elizabeth Frauncis

Elizabeth Frauncis (also recorded as Francis, Francys, Frances, or Fraunces; c. 1529 – 1579) was an English woman who was tried for witchcraft three times, ending with her execution.

Frauncis' initial trial was the first to attract a witch trial pamphlet, which recounted the events of witchcraft cases for general readers, and the first to popularise the concept of a witch's familiar during the witch trials in England.

Biography Elizabeth Frauncis was raised in Hatfield Peverel. She had a grandmother named Eve, also of Hatfield.

At some point before her first trial, she married Christopher Frauncis, a yeoman, with whom she had a daughter. She would later claim she was initially more interested in a man named Andrew Byles, known locally to be of "some wealth." Frauncis, who had come under suspicion first, for subsequently accused her neighbours, the Waterhouses, of being her accomplices. Later, Frauncis would describe Agnes as her sister, though it is unclear whether Frauncis meant they were siblings, sisters-in-law, or merely 'sister witches.'

The women were charged under the 1562 Act against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts, introduced by the second Parliament of Queen Elizabeth I to criminalise acts seen as venerating the Devil. The act was less punitive than laws which came later. When Frauncis' attempt to secure a wealthy husband, Andrew Byles, ended with Byles impregnating and leaving her, she enlisted Sathan to kill both Byles and her unborn child. Agnes also confessed to sorcery, though she likely did so to save her daughter Joan's life.

Proceedings were attended by several prominent members of the royal court, including John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Gilbert Gerard, Attorney General.

First English witch trial pamphlet The 1566 trial of Elizabeth Frauncis and Agnes Waterhouse is recognised to be the first entry into a literary body of pamphlets reporting on witch trials,''' Indeed, much of what is known about the trial derives from a pamphlet published in London a month after the case concluded. As historian Notestein warns, witch trial pamphlets were often exaggerated; it was also not uncommon for these publications to contain invented details. It is possible that the prosecution dismissed her testimony, as no records suggest the court attempted to verify the existence of an Andrew Byles and whether he had died as Frauncis described. Commentators including Rossell Robins and Rosemay Guiley believe that the absence of Frauncis' supposed interactions with Auger were omitted from the pamphlet, despite their apparent greater importance to the court, because its writer deemed them insufficiently salacious.

Analysis of Frauncis' motivations Academic Marianne Hester and magician Walter B. Gibson suggest that Frauncis' detailed testimony implies she truly believed she was capable of sorcery. Hester contrasts Frauncis' grandiose claims with the later trials of the St Osyth witches, wherein one accused, Elizabeth Bennett, attempted to provide a rational alternative theory of her alleged magical crime. Folklorist Winifred Finlay theorises that her arrest may have been the result of speculation about her husband Christopher's condition, as he was implied to have a limp.

Frauncis' choice to admit to witchcraft while accusing other women may have therefore been a strategic attempt to share the blame and reduce her own sentence. As a possible self-preservation tactic, this was one Frauncis employed in the face of later accusations. with a second offence of alleged witchcraft. Frauncis gave evidence against Agnes Francys; both were found guilty.

Sentencing Despite this being Frauncis' second conviction under the 1562 act, she received the same sentence as a first-time offender: a year's imprisonment, and pillorying.

Frauncis was accused of conspiring with evil spirits in order to kill her neighbour, Alice Poole, after Poole denied Frauncis' request to borrow some yeast during Lent. Court records do not suggest that either woman was investigated following Frauncis' claims.