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Matthew Hopkins and the East Anglian Witch Craze, 1645-47 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - 1625: Charles I became King
        
        Parliament gradually became a more important instutution, able to make laws without monarch approval
        
        Late 1620s: Charles and Parliament disputed over finance and military expeditions
        
        1629: 11 year period of Personal Rule
        
        1640: Parliament recalled to fund fight with Scots, but during personal rule resentment of Charles grew
        
        Many MPs were Puritan, and Charles' religious policy was Catholic in appearance
    - - Assize courts unable to function normally during the war, justice had to be served by those with limited legal experience
        
        Developments regarding the strength of the New Model Army occurred, and assize circuits were disrupted because it was considered too dangerous for the judges to make the journey from London
        
        The absence of senior judges meant that the witch-hunt was able to spread quickly - Mayors were thankful for Hopkins and Stearne because they provided what appeared to be legitimate legal knowledge, who were able to interrogate suspects - 42% conviction rate
    - - By 1645, East Anglia had been through 3 years of civil war.
        
        At a time with high mortality rates, deaths from the war added strain - witches claimed that they had been left alone and vulnerable when husbands went to fight in the war
        
        Shift in traditional power relationships - radical Puritan sects that were associated with witches believed that men and women were equal, chaos of war allowed for suspicions against these sects to be brought to the surface
        
        Authority of the Church of England undermined, in areas controlled by Parliament, undesirable ministers were ejected and replaced by Puritans
        
        Those with Royalist sympathies faced arrest and confiscation of their estates
        Allowed for fears to grow that manifest into a witch-hunt, fear of enemy in the war developed to fear of 'enemies within'
  - - - Wet summers + freezing winters = crop failures
        
        Staple food items such as wheat and rye were inedible
        
        Price of meat and cheese rose dramatically, price of wheat rose by 20%
        
        Contemporaries viewed this as the most extreme wet weather in living memory
        
        Puritan preachers viewed this as a punishment from God, Charles should not be returned to the throne
        
        Easy to blame witches for people's misfortunes
    - - The livelihoods of tenants and peasants threatened by inflation and inequality that came with common land
        
        Increased begging from the poor, charity that was once provided by wealthy inhabitants was rare
        
        Landlords tempted by evicting tenants and enclosing land to focus on a particular agricultural product
        
        Wealthy residents expected to pay poor rates
        
        Those who needed to receive donations viewed with suspicion, when poor and older, the wealthy began to fear that they would take their revenge for not receiving enough
    - - Price of livestock increased by 12%, price of grain by 15%, because of the huge resources required by both sides of the war
        
        Horses regularly confiscated, soldiers consumed food in large quantities when they marched through the countryside
        
        If prices rose, wages did not rise with them
        
        1643: Parliament devised a new tax to meet the increasing cost of war, that was 12x higher than Ship Tax