Lady Eleanor Davies (1590–1652)

Eleanor Davies, née Touchet, was a daughter of George Touchet, 11th Baron Audley and 1st Earl of Castlehaven, and his wife Lucy Mervyn. She grew up on her family's estates in England and Ireland. She was well educated and had an intense interest in religion as a young woman. In 1609, she married Sir John Davies, Attorney-General of Ireland, 20 years her senior, with whom she had three children. In 1625, she began prophesying the future, often using anagrams, and published her first religious pamphlet, A Warning to the Dragon and All his Angels. It was followed by some 70 more. She criticized government officials, bishops, Parliament, and even the King, though she was consulted by Queen Henrietta Maria. Her husband disliked her prophesying and burned at least one of her manuscripts. She angrily predicted that he would die within three years; the next year, he was dead. She remarried to Sir Archibald Douglas, a soldier. He also burnt her manuscripts. By 1633, she was banned by the English authorities from publishing her works and traveled to Amsterdam to have them printed. After being caught smuggling these pamphlets back into England, she was arrested, brought before the Court of High Commission in London, fined £3000, and imprisoned for several months. After her release, she was arrested again in 1636 for defacing the altar at Lichfield Cathedral. She was sent to the Bedlam mental asylum in London and later moved to the Tower, from which she was released in 1640. She continued to publish, issuing works such as Amend, Amend (1643), Great Brittains Visitation (1645), and Day of Judgement (1646). She was arrested again in 1646 and placed in the custody of her daughter and son-in-law for the rest of her life.