Predictions have always interested humanity, but in ordinary people, the gift of a predictor invariably evoked conflicting feelings: admiration and fear, sometimes turning into hatred. This cup also did not pass Mother Shipton, the legendary prophetess from England.
The Troubled Calm
Life in the small Yorkshire village of Nersborough was peaceful and measured. Only one of its inhabitants - the widow Agatha Southale - embarrassed and disturbed the peace of the local inhabitants. For a long time, the glory of a wicked woman has been entrenched for her, who did not shy away from seducing someone else's husband or quarreling with a neighbor over a trifle. But that was not so bad: Agatha was engaged in fortune-telling, in fact, she lived on it.
But throughout the autumn and winter of 1487, fellow villagers, already accustomed to many things, were more alarmed than usual.
Rumors spread around Nersborough that at night a goat-footed man with cloven hooves, a goat's beard and horns was visiting the lively widow.
This strange creature was first noticed by a late hunter. And then the widow herself told the companion about her happiness: they say, her night visitor gives her such pleasure that no man could deliver. At the same time, Agatha herself looked also strange: a consumptive blush on her cheeks, circles under her eyes, an unhealthy gleam in her eyes. And a few months later it became clear that Agatha was in the process of demolition.
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July 1488 was rainy and thunderous in England. Every day there were severe thunderstorms, and the villagers did not have time to hide from them in their houses. In the forest, hurricanes knocked down many trees, and one lightning hit the mill and burned it to the ground. The miller and his family barely managed to escape. Many began to talk about the end of the world, and some talked about seeing ghosts and other evil spirits.
Unkind, in a word, it was a month. And it must happen that Agatha Southale was relieved of her burden at such a bad time. The midwives gossiped that the child did not utter any cry at birth, but only grinned viciously and laughed mockingly, so that the frost passed through their skin.
According to another version, Agatha herself uttered a terrible scream, and the baby screamed, as befits all newborns. But both versions agreed on one thing: with the birth of a child, the terrible thunderstorms stopped, and peace and grace reigned in nature.
YORKSHIRE WITCH
Like Agatha Southeil, her daughter Ursula has attracted the attention of her fellow villagers since birth. The girl was unusually ugly, both in childhood and adolescence. Imagine a large frog mouth, bulging eyes, a long hooked nose, covered in pimples, a waddling duck gait, a bent and twisted figure. In addition, the girl was head and shoulders above the villagers, including the men.
Directly some kind of watchtower. One could also feel sorry for the plain woman because she grew up an orphan. Her mother Agatha died shortly after giving birth, and the girl was raised by a guardian.
For the first time she distinguished herself at the age of one. Her guardian went to the village fair, and left the sleeping girl alone in the cradle, reasonably judging that nothing would happen to the baby in an hour. How she miscalculated! The men of her family were firmly glued to the poker, and the women started dancing in a circle and circled around the house, unable to stop.
All these wild events so struck the guardian that she was speechless. The madness stopped by itself, the exhausted people fell to the floor. And only then they discovered the loss of the cradle with the baby. The search gave an unexpected result: a bed with a peacefully sleeping girl was found on the street. How she got there is a mystery.
Never before Ursula appeared in the guardian's house, nothing fantastic had happened, but then it started. Now the furniture moved by itself, then the dishes were shaking on the shelves, then things disappeared, then the stairs and shutters creaked. The members of the family that sheltered the girl began to be afraid of her, and deep down, everyone dreamed that she would disappear once and for all.
But the girl grew and caused more and more worries.
In the end, as soon as Ursula turned 16, she left the guardian's house and settled in an abandoned forester's house. She rarely left her refuge, led an ascetic lifestyle, almost did not communicate with anyone. They say that she made her first predictions just then.
An unusual gift was discovered in Ursula - she began to write poetry. Against her will, the hand itself reached for the paper. So there were collections of short poems that turned out to be prophetic. But people understood this later.
In the meantime, everyone was perplexed: why did Tobias Shipton, a very good-looking young carpenter, visit the hut of the scary Ursula? Did the plain woman manage to lure such a profitable gentleman into her nets? Not otherwise she bewitches, like her mother? Indeed, Shipton married Ursula, and she was called Mother Shipton. But behind the back they were still whispering: "The witch, she is a witch …"
In the end, Ursula's patience snapped, and she decided to take revenge on all ill-wishers. She gathered her fellow villagers for dinner. During the meal, all the guests were suddenly seized by a fit of laughter, they laughed until colic, until they lost consciousness. The victims filed a complaint with the magistrate, and Ursula was brought to trial. This did not bode well for her: the times were harsh, any suspicion of divination could lead to the fire.
Mother Shipton's prospect was nowhere worse. However, the lively Mrs. in paints described to the judges the misfortunes that threaten them if they do not leave her alone. According to one of the English chronicles of that time, after her statement, Mother Shipton shouted: "Updraxi, I call Stignician Halway!"
Immediately a terrible wind blew, lifted the prophetess into the air and carried her out of the courtroom. The shocked judges prudently decided not to mess with the witch.
THE PROPHECY COMES TRUE
Many English historians now say that Mother Shipton was largely a myth, and that most of her prophecies were composed by others after her death. At best, this is a collective type of clairvoyants and prophetesses of the time. Nevertheless, there is a fair amount of physical evidence of the existence of this woman.
According to Richard Head, who penned the book The Life and Death of Mother Shipton, this woman was a very real historical person. Head researched all the biographical details about Shipton and came to the conclusion that she prophesied throughout her life.
The book of her poetic prophecies first appeared in print after her death. In addition, in Knersborough (now a small town), Shipton's house and crypt are preserved. Both of these attractions are one of the significant income items of the town, where crowds of tourists flock to see the habitat of the famous witch.
Of course, the crypt is the most popular: according to the prophecy of the witch, the destroyed grave would represent a direct indication of the subsequent terrible events. As long as Mother Shipton's grave is intact, and it is carefully guarded.
As for the prophecies, many of them came true. Most of her predictions came after the famous trial. Mother Shipton gave birth to three children to her carpenter and managed to write down the prophecies one after another due to family concerns. She wrote them in blank verse, sometimes in a very confusing and vague way. So her biographers had to work hard to figure out their meaning.
In addition, the prophecies did not contain an exact date. Nevertheless, when London was engulfed in a terrible fire in 1666, Prince Rupert exclaimed: "Shipton's prophecy has come true!" She predicted the great plague of 1665, the invasion of the Spanish armada ("The wooden horses that come from the West, Drake's forces will smash to pieces"), the attack of Henry VIII's troops on Normandy, and much more.
"When a house of crystal is built … a war will unleash between Turks and pagans" - this was clearly said about the Russian-Turkish war, which happened just after the steel and glass pavilion was built in London for the World Exhibition in 1851, called Crystal palace.
She also predicted more prosaic things: the discovery of tobacco and potatoes for Europeans in the New World, the women's liberation movement at the beginning of the 20th century, and much more. The famous 17th-century astrologer, William Lilly, in his Book of Prophecies, argued that 16 of the 18 predictions attributed to Mother Shipton had already come true by the time he wrote the book.
One of her poems said that in the first half of the 20th century in Europe "… major wars will begin to be conceived." Who can deny that it was?
Oksana VOLKOVA