It is her husband Richard’s dearest wish that his wife be safely delivered of an heir and, God-willing, a spare. Mistress Fleetwood Shuttleworth is pregnant for the fourth time: her previous three pregnancies ended in miscarriages. That and a young wife’s desperate wish to bring a healthy baby to term. There is great religious tension in England because “demonstrations of loyalty” to the Crown do not easily co-exist with the “old ways of faith.” That struggle is at the core of The Familiars. England is ruled by King James I, a Protestant monarch. The Familiars is set in Pendle Hill, Lancashire, a site famous for the witch trials of 1612. But when Alice is accused of practicing witchcraft, Fleetwood must decide whether she can trust her for the sake of her unborn child. After three previous miscarriages and with a baby on the way, Fleetwood Shuttleworth leaps on the opportunity for assistance from a midwife, Alice. Stacey Halls’s The Familiars is set against the backdrop of the Pendle Witch Trials of 1612.
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