Leonora Dori
Encyclopedia
Leonora Dori
Leonora Dori
Leonora Dori , later Galigaï d'Ancre, , was an Italian alleged witch. She was a favourite of Marie de Médicis or Maria de' Medici, queen consort and later regent of France....

 (or Dosi), later Galigaï d'Ancre, (1571 - 8 July 1617), was an Italian alleged witch. She was a favourite of Marie de Médicis or Maria de' Medici, queen consort and later regent of France.

Leonora Dori was married to Concino Concini
Concino Concini
Concino Concini, Count della Penna, Marquis et Maréchal d'Ancre , was an Italian politician, best known for being a minister of Louis XIII of France, as the favourite of his mother.-Life:...

, Maréchal d'Ancre, during the reign of Queen Mother and Regent Marie de Médicis, the wife of King Henri IV and mother of King Louis XIII. Leonora suffered from debilitating depressions and paralyzing spasms, which may have been symptoms of epilepsy, which the Queen and her courtiers believed to be due to demonic possession, but which were resistant to exorcism. She was treated by the Portuguese-born Italian Jewish physician Filotheo Eliau Montalto (died 1616), the court physician of Louis XIII and of Marie de Médicis. In an age when people believed in witchcraft, sorcery, magic and demonic possession, Leonora was hired by the Queen to perform exorcism
Exorcism
Exorcism is the religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place which they are believed to have possessed...

 and white magic to counter black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...

 and curse
Curse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...

s. She earned huge some of money by these tasks, as well as from bribes for giving people access to the Queen. Leonora amassed an enormous fortune, which she invested in banks and in real estate in France and in Italy. In 1610 King Henri IV of France, the husband of Marie de Médicis, was assassinated, and the widowed Marie became the Queen Mother of Louis XIII and the Regent of France. Leonora was arrested after the murder of her husband Concini by his political enemies in 1617, imprisoned in Blois and charged with lèse Majesté through practicing black magic, witchcraft and "Judaizing.". She was judged guilty of having bewitched the regent. She was decapitated and her body subsequently burned at the stake in Place de Grève
Place de Grève
The public square in the 4th arrondissement of Paris that is now the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville was, before 1802, called the Place de Grève. The French word grève refers to a flat area covered with gravel or sand situated on the shores or banks of a body of water...

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.
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