Jeffrey Hudson: A court dwarf like no other

 

Welcome to my latest blog post. Last week I discussed how witchcraft relates to deformity. This week I will be shifting my focus to the realm of court dwarfs. Perhaps the most famous example of a court dwarf was Jeffrey Hudson. Before I begin to tell his tale, I should probably clarify a few things regarding terminology. While I understand that the term dwarf can be offensive, I am using it because that is what the history books use. You can find out more about that in my post on disability as entertainment in Ancient Rome. You can also find out more about my attitude towards offensive language here.

The Court Dwarf

Jeffrey Hudson was born in 1619, in the county of Rutland, England. Fittingly, Rutland is the smallest county in England. Hudson’s family were poor, and they feared that Jeffrey’s height restriction would result in him being stuck in poverty forever. As strange as it may sound to us today, they were more than happy to release Jeffrey into the care of the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham. George Villiers, the Duke, was keen to gain the favour of the royal family and served Jeffrey in a pie to the queen!

I should probably rephrase that and explain it better. A pie was made 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide and presented to Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I at a 1626 banquet. This next part reminds me of that scene from 'Alien' as 7-year-old Jeffrey poked his hand through the crust and startled the queen. She then realised that it was a small child in a full suit of armour and was greatly entertained by the spectacle. She was delighted to hear that he was hers to keep and took him home with her.

I know it’s strange that he pretty much was her pet, but he and Henrietta Maria became close as he was always in her presence. Jeffrey Hudson was not the only unusual person in the royal court. There was also a Welshman called William Evans who was reportedly 7ft 6in tall. He had an act involving Jeffrey that was a real crowd pleaser. He pulled a loaf of bread out of one of his jacket pockets and from the other produced Jeffrey. I’m sure it was a sight to behold!

The English Civil War

In 1642 the English Civil War broke out between those who supported the crown, the Royalists, and those who opposed it, the Parliamentarians. Unsurprisingly, Henrietta Maria, being the king’s wife, was in favour of the crown. This also meant that Jeffrey Hudson had to support the king. I assume he would have anyway, given that he helped him escape poverty. Hmmm…. how to skip over the dull war bits and get back to Hudson’s role? Basically, it all became very nasty and in 1649 Charles I lost his head, literally. So that’s what happened in the war. I mean, much more happened but that doesn’t really concern me right now. While the war was going on (before the beheading), Hudson was not just sitting idly by. It is possible that he actually fought against the Parliamentarians at one point and was given the title ‘Captain of the horse’. It is clear that he was more than just a court dwarf.

All Downhill from Here

The tide of the war turned against the Royalists forcing Henrietta Maria and her entourage, including Hudson, to flee to France. It was here that Hudson’s life began to fall apart. Has anyone in history ever had a happily ever after, or is that just in fairy tales? Anyway, Jeffrey was fed up with people mocking him because of his height. This came to a head in October 1644, when he challenged Charles Crofts to a duel. Crofts was the brother of the queen’s master of horse, so he was deemed important. Jeffrey mounted his horse, gun in hand and charged towards Crofts who continued to mock him. It probably came as a shock then when the bullet Jeffrey fired lodged in Crofts’ brain, killing him instantly. So, killing someone usually doesn’t go down well, but matters were made worse for Hudson because duelling was illegal in France. Henrietta Maria had no option other than removing him from her court entirely.

Things only got worse from there. During his journey back to England he was captured by Barbary pirates and made a slave in North Africa for 25 years. Not much is known about this period of his life, but it can be assumed that he was harshly treated. We do know that he was back in Rutland when Henrietta Maria died in 1669. Phew! He escaped slavery, at least all his hardships were over. No! Apparently, there was still more to come. Upon returning to London, Hudson discovered that there was strong anti-Catholic sentiment and was thrown in jail after being recognised as the Catholic queen’s dwarf. He was eventually released and died forgotten around 1682.

It is fair to say that Jeffrey Hudson was not a typical court dwarf and his life had many ups and downs.

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Next time I will look at disability and kingship, or something along those lines.

 

                                                                The Wheelchair Historian

 

Further Reading

Dvorsky,George, ‘The true story of Sir Jeffery Hudson, the real-life Tyrion Lannister’, 10/01/13 12:50PM https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-true-story-of-sir-jeffery-hudson-the-real-life-tyr-1434495288 Accessed: 27^th February 2021.

Harris, Marea, ‘Sir Jeffrey Hudson – Swashbuckling Court Dwarf Served in a Pie to a King’, Aug 22, 2018 https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/22/sir-jeffrey-hudson/  Accessed: 27^th February 2021.

National Portrait Gallery, ‘Jeffrey Hudson (1619-1682), Dwarf and favourite of Queen Henrietta Maria’ https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp02305/jeffrey-hudson Accessed: 27^th February 2021.

Woolf, John, ‘The amazing life of Jeffrey Hudson, the queen’s dwarf’, Published: January 3, 2020 at 11:21 am https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/amazing-life-jeffrey-hudson-queen-henrietta-maria-dwarf/ Accessed: 27^th February 2021.

 

Disability and Witchcraft

 

Welcome to my latest blog post. Last week I discussed the idea of maternal impression and how women were blamed if their child was born with a deformity. This week I will be looking at something else women were blamed for, witchcraft. Specifically, I will try to see if there is a connection between disability and witches. It is a disability history blog after all!

Who Was Accused of Witchcraft?

I don’t know about you, but when I picture a witch in my head, I usually see an elderly woman that is ugly or perhaps deformed in some way. I therefore assumed that making a connection between disability and witches would be simple. However, this has not been the case. For starters, not everyone who was accused of witchcraft was a woman. Also, middle aged, rather than elderly women were the biggest demographic. Women past a childbearing age were a popular target.

When I typed disability and witches/ witchcraft into the search engine beginning with g and ending in oogle, I didn’t find what I wanted. Most results related to the 2020 movie, ‘The Witches’, which I will discuss later, but not much on actual witch trials and disability. All is not lost as there are small clues that link the two together. Historically, on the surface, accused witches and disabled people were similar (and I don’t mean they were both ugly!). Both groups were different from the rest of their community and were usually outcast as a result. Accused witches and in some cases, disabled people, were persecuted due to their differences.

Deformed Witches

The best example I can find connecting disability to witchcraft is from England, during the Lancashire Witch Trials of 1612. It turns out that one of the accused witches actually was deformed. One of the accused was a woman called Elizabeth Device. The court clerk Thomas Potts recorded the trials in a book called The vvonderfull discouerie of witches in the countie of Lancaster. A fascinating work if you ever get a chance to read it. It was published in 1613 though, so can sometimes be tricky to understand. Anyway. Where was I? Ah yes… the deformed witch! Sorry. I mean woman wrongfully accused of witchcraft. Potts describes Elizabeth’s appearance as follows:

    ‘This odious Witch was branded with a preposterous marke in Nature, euen from her birth, which was her left eye, standing lower then the other; the one loo∣king downe, the other looking vp, so strangely defor∣med, as the best that were present in that Honorable As∣sembly, and great Audience, did affirme, they had not often seene the like’.

This deformity may help to explain why she was accused of witchcraft. Witches were believed to be in cahoots with the Devil. The Devil would leave a mark on the witch which proved she worshipped him. Therefore, any unusual mark on the woman’s body could be used against her in the trial. Elizabeth’s deformity was a clear indication that she was involved with the Devil.

The fact that she had the deformity since birth may explain why some of the others were accused. You see, Elizabeth’s mother, Elizabeth Southern, alias “Old Demdike”, as well as two of Elizabeth’s children, Alison and James Device were also accused of witchcraft. I didn’t read this anywhere, but maybe the fact “Old Demdike” gave birth to a deformed child, who in turn had children, condemned them all. That is just my own theory though. Who needs concrete evidence anyway? I know people in charge of witch trials certainly didn’t!

 

Are All Disabled People Inherently Evil?

This is part of a much larger topic that I will cover at some point in the future. For now, let’s just focus on witches. Throughout history there has been a connection made between being evil and being disabled in some way. Thank goodness that is all in the past, right? RIGHT?? WRONG!!! The 2020 movie ‘The Witches’ has brought the topic back into the public’s imagination. In the film, the Grand High Witch has deformed hands and feet and is designed to be scary. This has rightfully annoyed people with limb differences as it is basically saying that they should be feared. This is the exact attitude that we should be moving away from, not putting in movies.

As you can see, some accused witches were disabled which most likely drew attention to them.

To keep up to date with my latest blog posts, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter. You can find them by clicking the relevant icons in the sidebar.

Next time, I will move away from monsters to examine the court dwarf Jeffrey Hudson.

                                                            The Wheelchair Historian

Further Reading

Hardy, Tim, ‘The Discovery of the Lancashire Witches 1612’, https://www.invisibleworks.co.uk/the-discovery-of-the-lancashire-witches-1612/ Accessed: 19^th February 2021.

Howlett, Daniel, George Mason University, ‘"Being Something Hard of Hearing": Disability during the Salem Witch Trials’, Stevens C Prefunction (Hilton Chicago), Saturday, January 5, 2019 https://aha.confex.com/aha/2019/webprogram/Paper26924.html Accessed: 19^th February 2021.

Kranking, Emily, ‘The History Behind the Ableist Themes in 'The Witches'’, November 17, 2020 https://themighty.com/2020/11/the-witches-limb-differences-disability/ Accessed: 19^th February 2021.

Metzler, Irina, ‘Disability, Witches and the Middle Ages: Some Mythbusting’, Thursday 10 Oct 2013 https://irinametzler.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/disability-witches-and-the-middle-ages-some-mythbusting/ Accessed: 19^th February 2021.

Potts, Thomas, The vvonderfull discouerie of witches in the countie of Lancaster (London, 1613), http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18253/18253-h/18253-h.htm Accessed: 19^th February 2021.

Sparks, Doug, ‘5 Facts You Didn’t Know About The Salem Witch Trials’, Published October 30, 2017 https://www.mvmag.net/2017/10/30/salem-witch/ Accessed: 19^th February 2021.