Tag: Scotland

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The 1640s were a tumultuous time in Britain. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1642-1651) pitted England’s Royalists against the Parliamentarians, while also involving the Scots Covenanters and Irish Confederates. It ended with the beheading of King Charles I, the exile of Charles II, and the rise of Oliver Cromwell. And with war came great hardship, including food shortages, supply chain issues, the breakdown of church and government functions, and people accusing their neighbors of witchcraft.

Marion Gibson, professor at Exeter University and renowned author on the history of witchcraft and magic, traveled from the Scottish Lowlands to Essex, Suffolk, East Anglia, the Midlands, and northern England, following the witchcraft accusations and the trials during that tumultuous decade. Her travels provide Witchland readers with a sense of past and present, which old buildings and industries survived, how social and economic dynamics changed, how people lived in the 17th century and today. Gibson visited the shops and markets, the churches and graveyards. She walked the paths where convicted witches went from the prison to the gallows.

In Witchland, Gibson explains how the court functioned normally and how the wars changed that, from having less qualified men on the bench to towns hiring the self-styled Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne. (In part, the witch hunts slowed because towns realized the witchfinders were motivated by greed, not actual skills.)

The author explains the cruel methods of getting confessions, from sleep deprivation and constant movement (known as watching and walking) to using torture devices like thumb screws and leg crushers. One accused witch, Margaret Thomsone, stood on a stool intermittently for 26 days and nights. Not surprisingly, the mental and physical exhaustion caused some to confess to having imps, signing demonic pacts, or having sex with Satan. After confessing to being a witch, Margaret Wyard actually thanked her torturers. Vicar John Lowes confessed of his pride and boasted that his devilish powers caused him to sink a ship, causing 14 women to become widows. Before he was “turned off” the ladder, however, the vicar recited the Christian burial service to absolve himself.

From the remnants of records that exist, Gibson describes some of the accused, the charges, the confessions, the trials, and the verdicts, if known. In several towns, she discovered parish registers with a list of those “executed for witchcraft” who were buried in the churchyard.

Gibson says it is important to memorialize the witch hunts in Britain, not just to remember the victims but to recognize the causes—from economic uncertainties, corruption, and divisiveness to misogyny, culture wars, and politics—are lessons for us today.

Highly recommend. See also my review of Marion Gibson’s Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials.

    Note for Towne descendants: Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, is included.

    Thanks to Scribner for the ARC.

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    In Scotland, at least 3,837 people were tried for witchcraft. Yet in England, with a population four to five times larger, only 500 were. What caused such different outcomes between the two countries? After reading A History of Scottish Witches: The Devil’s Handmaidens by Mary W. Craig, the answer could be religions and rulers.

    Basically, when the Catholic Church denied King Henry VIII a divorce, he declared himself the head of England’s church and state. In comparison, people in the Scottish Highlands tended to be Catholic, Central and Western Scots were Calvinist/Presbyterian, and the Lowlands leaned toward Episcopal. In addition, Scotland was ruled by a succession of squabbling regents until their young monarchs were of an age to rule.

    And Auld Clooty was everywhere!

    When King James VI of Scotland’s ships survived treacherous winds in 1589 on their voyage to bring home his new bride, Anne of Denmark, he claimed it was witchcraft. In Denmark, Anna Koldings and 12 others were burned at the stake for the crime. In Scotland, 70 suspected witches were rounded up in North Berwick, tortured until they confessed, and tried. Those found guilty were strangled and their bodies burned so the devil could not resurrect their bodies. King James participated in the trials, and in 1597 he published his treatise on witchcraft, called Daemonologie.

    After Queen Elizabeth I’s death in 1603, James was crowned king of England and abandoned his country, returning only once in 22 years. His successors continued that trend, leaving Scotland in religious and political turmoil. Five major witch trials occurred, with the worst ones in 1628-1631 and 1661-1662. In 1736, the Scottish Witchcraft Act was repealed, which abolished the crime of witchcraft, stating the crime does not exist. However, a new crime of “pretended witchcraft” was put on the books, which carried a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment.

    A History of Scottish Witches does not use a chronological or thematic sequence, causing repetition and making the narrative difficult to follow at times. Sections on fairies and folk beliefs don’t seem to tie into the surrounding witchcraft storylines. However, Craig succeeds in explaining how closely entwined Scotland’s courts and churches were involved in witchcraft accusations and executions. She also demonstrates how wars, epidemics, crop failures, and lack of royal oversight shaped Scottish history.

    Thanks to Pen & Sword Books for the ARC.

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    How to Kill a Witch: The Patriarchy's Guide to Silencing Women by by Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell

    A lawyer and an educator meet at a mutual friend’s wedding. They’re both “quarrelsome dames” looking for a cause. They discover thousands of Scottish women have not received justice for being accused of witchcraft from the early 16th century to the mid-18th century. The two campaign for (1) apologies for the accused; (2) pardons for those convicted; and (3) a national memorial for the victims. in 2020, they create a podcast called Witches of Scotland, to interview experts on the Scottish witch-hunts. Their book, How to Kill a Witch, highlights much of what they learned through profiles of accused witches at different times and places throughout Scotland.

    For me, Zoe Venditozzi and Claire Mitchell’s book revealed why the British witch trials were different from continental Europe’s. German cleric Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum (1486) was published years before the Witchcraft Act of 1563 became law in the British Isles and its colonies. England and Scotland each had separate rulers, laws, churches, and beliefs. The English hanged their witches, while the Scots typically strangled them and burned their bodies so the evil forces wouldn’t rise again.

    In 1590, James VI of Scotland (1566-1625) attended the first major witch trials in Scotland, where Agnes Sampson and others were executed for using witchcraft against the king’s own ship. In 1597, James published his own treatise, Daemonologie, on witches, enchanters, and demons. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), James also became king of England. His book was reprinted for the occasion.

    How to Kill a Witch explains the ways God and the Devil interacted, what courts considered a confession or proof of witchcraft, which torture methods were used, and how many of the victims’ names and stories were lost. It also recognizes how sexism and abuse of power erase people and history.

    With humor and anger at the betrayal, condemnation, and execution of these Scottish women, Claire and Zoe help us envision the accused and the world they lived in while also recognizing the dangers of misogyny in our lives today.

    Thanks to Sourcebooks for the ARC.