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Key Topic 1: The North Berwick witches in Scotland, 1590-91, and the…

- - - - She began visiting the sick and disabled to try help them
      - Miracuolous recoveries
    - - She had been stealing from him
      - He was curious how she had acquired healing abilities
      - She had been disappearing from the house for days at a time
    - - Duncan remained silent
      - Torture began
        
        Cords around her neck
        
        'Thumbscrews'
    - - Why?
        
        Witches mark was found on her throat
      - What?
        
        Her cures had been the work of the devil
        
        To making a pact with the devil
        
        Being in a coven
      - King's attention
        
        She confessed to being in league with the witches from Copenhagen
    - - Wives of respectable Edinburgh gentlemen
      - She accused 8 others
      - Over 100 would be hunted down and tortured
      - Agnes Sampson
    - - Named other witches in her confession
      - Admitted to a pact with the devil
    - - Only one amongst many women
      - Involvement of the nobility is probably the only reason James took notice
      - Without the link to James' voyage, it wouldn't have been so significant
  - - - Change in his views
        
        No evidence of his interest in witchcraft before 1590
        
        Even the wording of the Witchcraft Act 1563 treated witchcraft with a degree of scepticism
        
        Before his voyage, the Witchcraft Act 1563 had rarely been enforced strictly
      - Lack of change in his views
        
        A trial from 1552, which James would have been aware of, made reference to a diabolic pact
        
        Historian, Thomas Riis argued witchcraft accusations in Denmark were based on localised cases of malificarium rather than diabolism, so the voyage would have had limited impact on him
    - - Anne of Denmark
        
        Had tried to sail to Scotland 3 times
        
        1st attempt: 1st September 1589
        
        Admiral: Peter Munk
        
        Bothwell suggested James go and collect her
        
        Storms
      - James VI
        
        Departed for Denmark October 1589
        
        James and Anne departed from Denmark 21st April 1590
    - - Niels Hemmingson
        
        Avoiding Magic and Superstition (1575)
    - - Weather/storms blamed on witchcraft
      - Influence on James during his time in Denmark (eg. Niels Hemmingson)
    - - It was only through Duncan's confession that the Danish witches were connected with those in Scotland
      - Pre-existing belief in witchcraft among the Scottish people and James which created the climate for the hunt
  - - - Denmark shared Scotland's religious prejudices
      - Danish authorities pursued the woman alleged to have caused the storms
        
        Anna Koldings
    - - 12 women executed
      - Danish admiral demanded 5 or 6 women be taken to Copenhagen
      - Women met at Karen the Weaver's house
      - Anna Koldings main suspect
    - - Suspected witches in Denmark had some state protection
        
        Fair trials
        
        Torture prohibited
      - Lack of belief in diabolism/ pact with the devil
  - - - More widespread and intense
      - Extensive use of torture
      - Large number of executions
    - - Less complex system of government, so local officials could pursue witches without interference
      - James VI
      - Monarchy was weak, so local judges allowed torture
      - Only a majority of the jury was needed to find a defendant guilty
      - Stronger anti-Catholic feeling
      - Poorer
      - Belief in folk magic and witchcraft was more common
- - - - Implicated by Gilly Duncan
      - Most profound affect on James VI
      - Confession
        
        Torture
        
        Interrogation
        
        Calm and logical answers given, despite pressure
        
        Witches' bridle
        
        Cords tied around her limbs
        
        Sleep deprivation
        
        Confessed to plotting to kill James VI
        
        What convinced James she was not lying?
        
        She repeated conversation between James and his wife from their wedding night
        
        James accusing her of lying made her unique among suspected witches
      - Why may she have gone to lengths to prove she was guilty
        
        Torture
      - Executed 28th January 1591
      - King James VI's involvement gave witch-hunting the stamp of royal approval
      - Relatively well-educated
      - Accusations
        
        Healing the sick
        
        Discovering personal information on behalf of others
        
        Sailing the sea in a sieve
        
        Familiar
      - Individuals accused
        
        Barbara Napier
        
        Effie McCalyan
    - - Schoolmaster
      - Interrogation
        
        Torture
        
        Twisting his head with a rope
        
        Needles under his fingernails
        
        'Boots'
        
        Refused to confess
      - Accusations
        
        Involvememt in the same events Sampson had described
      - Confession
        
        Refused to confess
      - Why may Fian have been a target?
        
        Affairs with local women
        
        Knew Greek and Latin
  - - - His childhood and young adulthood were marked by political crisis
        
        Eg. Mary Queen of Scots was his mother
      - Grew up in a religiously charged environment
        
        Concern about his mother's Catholicism was countered by the Calvinism of his tutors
        
        Struggle to define his religious identity
        
        Attracted to ideas of the Catholic anti-Christ at work in Scotland
    - - Approved of torture
        
        Interviewed many suspects himself
        
        Advised legal authorities on methods of interrogation
        
        James ensured torture was used widely, despite the law that torture had to be approved by the Privy Council
      - Used trials to assist his political cause
        
        Could promote himself in England, where he wished to inherit the throne
        
        Newes from Scotland presented him as a godly protestant concerned with defending his people from the same threats faced by the English
  - - - Francis Stewart
      - Cousin to James VI
      - Lord High Admiral of Scotland
      - How did he become implicated in the North Berwick witch hunt?
        
        Agnes Sampson claimed Bothwell had encouraged her to send a familiar to kill James VI
        
        Richard Graham confessed Bothwell was part of the conspiracy
        
        Bothwell had suggested James make the journey to collect Anne of Denmark
      - Arrested 15th April 1591
    - - 15th April 1591
      - Held at Edinburgh Castle to await trial
      - Summoned before Privy Council to explain himself
      - Escaped in June
        
        Believed the accusations were a plot to diminish his political influence
        
        He entered Hollyrood castle a few days later to reconcile with James
      - Royal proclamation issued: publicly accused Bothwell of being in league with the Devil
      - Spent next few months in hidnig
    - - Plead with the King at Hollyrood castle 24th July 1593
        
        James was shaken, but convinced by Bothwell's innocence
      - Received official pardon in August
      - Trial held to clear him of witchcraft charges
    - - The month after his trial
        
        James was fearful of Bothwell's growing political influence
        
        Withdrew his pardon
        
        Proclaimed Bothwell had to go into exile and was forbidden to approach the King again
      - Bothwell attempted a last uprising March 1594
        
        Unsuccessful
      - James again proclaimed Bothwell guilty of treason 1595
      - Bothwell departed for mainland Europe
        
        Died in Naples 1612
  - - - Gilly Duncan: hanged
      - John Fian: strangulation
      - Agnes Sampson: strangulation
      - Effie McCalyan: strangled and burned
    - - Eg.
        
        Margaret Acheson (accused by Napier and Sampson)
        
        Bessie Broune (accused by Sampson)
  - - - James VI
      - Gilly Duncan
    - - Most victims were poor
      - Weather magic responsible for harvest failures
- - - - 1590-91 The North Berwick hunt
      - 1595 Three suspected witches were sent to Edinburgh from Caithness after apparently
      - fraternising with the Earl of Bothwell
      - 1595 A number of witches were reported to have been burned in the Scottish border region
      - of Merse
      - 1596 The trial of Alison Jollie was held in Edinburgh. She had been accused of hiring a witch
      - to kill her neighbour and was found not guilty
      - 1596 James appeared in person at the trial of Cristian Stewart, who was accused of murder
      - through witchcraft.
      - 1597 A national witch-hunt
    - - Christina Larner
        
        Established in the closing stages of the North Berwick panic
        
        Eventually miscarriages of justice caused it to be revoked
      - Jenny Wormald
        
        Began later, around 1592
      - Julian Goodare
        
        Questioned whether one happened at all between 1591-97
    - - 1591 October: Five judges were named on a commission and were given commission to torture at will.
      - Mid-1592 Commissions given by the king to nobles and magistrates for the investigation and trial of witches
      - 1595 Authorities in Edinburgh tortured a suspected witch, Alison Balfour, for 2 days, without a warrant from the king. She was accused of being hired by Patrick Stewart to poison his brother. Her husband was tortured by having iron bars pressed on his body, her son was tortured with ‘the boots’ and her seven-year-old daughter was tortured with thumbscrews. She was executed despite the fact that she recanted the confession that was made under torture.
      - 1596 James proclaimed that all requests for commissions into cases of witchcraft should be submitted to the Privy Council for discussions, rather than to the king personally.
      - 1596 The Privy Council gave a commission to Sir William Steward to investigate accusations of sorcery and witchcraft, as well as other crimes such as murder and theft, in the Highlands and Islands region.
    - - Aberdeen
      - Janet Wishart
        
        Accused of raising storms
        
        Accused of causing injury and death
        
        Executed
      - HUnt over by October
        
        BUT had spread beyond Aberdeen
        
        Lead to 400 accusations
      - Margaret Aitken
        
        Arrested in April
        
        Agreed to assist authorities in identifying other witches
        
        Authorities grew suspicious in August
      - Carried out at a local level
      - At a time of poor harvest and plague/disease
  - - - James was growing dissatisfied with the Kirk for not doing enough to deal with witchcraft
      - Kirk had a vested interest in James' failure
      - Peaceful relations broke down after 1592
      - Friction caused by James' unwillingness to take action against Scottish Catholics
    - - Trials often carried out by local officials
      - No guidance from central government
      - Difficult for government to maintain control over judicial proceedings far from Edinburgh, the Highlands, and the Islands
        
        Most trials in these places took place on landowners' estates
        
        Reports back to the Privy Council were limited
    - - Became a threat when there was limited central control
      - Bothwell had claim to Scottish throne as long as James was without an heir
      - Sampson confessed Bothwell had told her to construct a wax image of James VI
  - - - Daemonologie (1597) may have been a reaction to the trials of the year
      - Some see the only mechanisms for dealing with cases were commissions issued by the Crown
      - Took an active interest in Stirlingshire in 1597, ordering magistrates to send an unnamed witch to him on September 16th
    - - In 1592, James passed on much responsibility for dealing with witchcraft to the Church
      - Some see him more as a sceptic, rather than someone who encouraged accusations
      - Miscarriages of justice in 1597 affected him and he became sceptical of witchcraft by the turn of the next decade
    - - Why?
        
        Response to Reginald Scot's scepticism
        
        Prove such 'devilish acts have been and are'
        
        Illustrate what punishments they merit
      - General points made
        
        Reality of witchcraft
        
        Practices witches engage in
        
        Covens and inverted Protestant rituals
        
        Witches and the devil only have certain powers
        
        Power and danger of the devil on Earth
      - Advice for identifying witchcraft
        
        Devil's mark
        
        Swimming test
        
        Cure for demonic possession was fasting and prayer
        
        Vulnerability of women to the deception of the devil