Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General

on August the 27th 1645 the small town of Burris and Edmonds England set a grisly record that Dame eighteen men and women were hanged together as witches it was the single biggest mass execution for witchcraft in English history and it was all the work of one man Matthew Hopkins was many things its have an owner a former lawyer a dedicated Puritan but as the people of Maurice and Edmonds he had only one title worth knowing and that was Witchfinder general the son of a minister Hopkins began plying his gruesome trade in 1645 at the height of the first English Civil War together with his associate John Stern he was personally responsible for the torture and execution of more women than every single English witch finder in the previous century but Hopkins as tale is more than just a catalogue of atrocity it's a tale of what can happen when an entire nation succumbs to fear and mass hysteria today we're going to examine how one zealous man managed to corrupt England's soul [Music] when Matthew Hopkins was born in Wenham Suffolk probably in 1620 it was into a world that was alive with superstition a king was on the throne King James the first who didn't just believe in witches but had literally written the book on them called demonology Britain's fastest growing religious movement Puritanism took it for granted that Satan himself walked the byways and the country lanes of England Hopkins this meant a childhood that was practically drowning in superstition his father John was a Puritan minister who preached fire and brimstone as was his uncle and one of his brothers it's likely they even had a copy of demonology blowing around the house we say likely here because there's a lot we actually don't know about Matthew Hopkins as early life while centuries of legends claim that he did this all that the historical record is actually pretty sparse take his education there's some evidence that he may have gone to Holland to finish his schooling just as the some evidence he may have trained as a lawyer but we're gonna be honest with you and simply say that we just don't know maybe all of that is true but maybe none of it is what is true is that it is harder passed away at some points likely around 1635 come 1640 Matthew moved 10 miles down the roads and Manningtree in Essex local lore has it that he purchased the thorn in in nearby miss Lee but really that's just another gas but it's here that the guesswork are finally ends we know that Hopkins was in Manningtree by the end of 1640 we also know that he was around on 19 or 20 years old and that's important because 1640 was the year that the peaceful England of Hopkins's youth finally fractured into a billion jagged pieces it was time for the first English Civil War if you've watched our video on Oliver Cromwell and modesty aside does make a useful crib sheet for this entire period you'll know that 1640 ended with a Scottish army occupying the north of England and King Charles the first being forced to call the new Parliament's to raise taxes okay now the ins and outs of this don't really matter for today's story but the upshot is that this led to something called the Long Parliament which led to something called the grand remonstrance which in 1642 led to Charles deciding to crush Parliament's in a war and look I I know we're really missing out a lot of stuff here don't have too much of a go at me in the comments this is really just a super condensed timeline in order to give you just some background information now the war was really hard on England as civil wars tend to be local courts were suspended in many regions and law and order it kind of broke down in place of all this came Hammond fuel shortages and biting poverty places like the East of England where Hopkins lived were particularly hard-hit much of the East was staunchly Puritan and pro Parliament which was a huge problem when nearby Oxford was the base of the Kings ante Puritan army to use a crude analogy living in Essex during the dark days of the war would have been like living in Poland shortly after Hitler annex Czechoslovakia you know the hammer is gonna fall you just don't know when and that waiting could send men mad men like Sir Harbottle Grimstone back in 1640 the livestock on sir Grimm's dunes vast a state in a state that included Hopkins's new home had begun to be plagued by mysterious illnesses as the ongoing war worsened a situation the local peasantry turned to superstition in order to explain things before long they were certain that it had to be the work of a witch and in 1645 they finally identified her Elizabeth Clark was an elderly widow living on sir grim stones lands them arts a lynch mob of villagers presented her to Sir grim stone as the source of all his woes like the good Christian he was sir grins didn't recommended Elizabeth Clark for trial [Music] all right so at this point we do need to take a quick leap back in time because I want to give you some background information on which trials in England's because a it's super interesting and B because it will help you understand how terrifyingly unique Hopkins was prior to the era were talking about which hunting hadn't really been a thing in England in the medieval period witches were actually seen as healers and pillars of their communities it wasn't until 1563 under Elizabeth the first that the bill against conjuration and witchcraft and sorcery and enchantments made witchcraft illegal even then it was barely illegal the first major witch trial in 1566 found all three defendants guilty and sentenced them to just a single year in prison that's right no torture no burning at the stake just 12 months in the knick now we need to be clear that English women were executed for witchcraft in this period unlike on the continent though their deaths were closer to lynchings local magistrates would get caught up in a panic and sign a death warrant only to be later punished by their superiors for the incredulous fools executions weren't government policy unless the witch was using her supposed powers to commit other capital crimes like murder now that all changed when James the first ascended to the throne on March the 24th 1603 Elizabeth first breathed her last in the chilly rooms of Richmond Palace barely was she cold before her successor James the first was ramming auntie witch legislation through Parliament's James the first was obsessed with rich crafts in 1589 had been on a boat that nearly sank in a storm that was blamed on witches and the experience sent him just a little cuckoo in 1597 he published demonology the witch finding book that James Hopkins had kept lying around Matthew's childhood home in 1604 James the first turns this personal obsession into legal reality parliament passed the witchcraft statute which made the very act of using witchcraft rather than the spells effects capsule offense if that sounds like splitting hairs the results suggest otherwise eight years after the bill passed ten women were hanged in pendel for witchcraft four years later another nine were sent to the gallows in Leicester by the time you get to Elizabeth Clark's trial in 1645 witch trials had become a fact of life in England only remarkable thing about them was how comparatively restrains they were remember this was the era of the worst burg witch trials went up to 600 witches were burned alive in Germany against such mass slaughter nine or ten being hanged was pretty mild unfortunately though things wouldn't be mild for much longer back in mannington 1645 Matthew Hopkins had gotten wind of Clarks impending trial for whatever reason something about this news lit a fire in his solve burns like the fires of hell despite having no training and no legal standing Hopkins decided it was his duty to get involved with Clark's prosecution it was a decision that would very soon lead to the bloodiest witch panic in English history in a 1647 book the discovery of witches Matthew Hopkins would claim his witch hunting career began in 1644 however all evidence suggests as that was here with Elizabeth Clark in March of 1645 that he really got into witch finding no one is sure of the exact timeline but it seems that Hopkins was approached by a man tenures his senior named John Stern originally from Lowe's in Suffolk how exactly they got talking is unknown but it soon transpired that Stern shared Hopkins's sharply-defined view of good and evil together they agreed to make Clark confess to her sins at this point in English history torture it was illegal to elicit a confession suspected witches would be monitored by Watchers to see if they summoned any familiars or started zooming around on broomsticks or something like that Clark had been watched for several days now and so far nothing it happens that was until Hopkins and stern showed up despite having no legal authority to do so Hopkins and stern convinced the Watchers to turn Clark's interrogation over to them they took her to the faun in and what happens next is shrouded in mystery popkins would later claim that they witnessed Clark call her familiars imps in the animal form to the inn including a demonic bunny rabbit named of sugar hands no we're not making this up more likely Hopkins and stern they tortured the poor old woman either way the result was the same Clark confessed to being a witch and she started naming other witches as well armed with these new names stern and Hopkins approached the Earl of Hardwick who was presiding over Clark's trial impressed by the young men's initiative Hardwick gave Stern an official warrants to finds more witches in mannington Hawkins he was made his assistant it wouldn't be long before their roles were reversed though over the next few weeks Hopkins and stern conducted their inquiries the five women named by Clark were all taken in and interrogated until they too confessed and gave up more names within no time at all the witch finders have jailed 23 women and mannington was in the grip of a full-blown witch panic Puritan writer Nahum Iowa Langton recorded the whole thing including the lurid testimony of Rebecca West who'd been jailed by Hopkins alongside her mother Anne West claims that she had been forced to have sex with the devil and that only a mother's death could save her from sate spell the jury obliged by having an hanged by the end of the Essex trials 18 women had been hanged including Elizabeth clock further four more had died in jail only Rebecca West who'd sacrificed her own mother was finally set free it was the deadliest witch panic to have ever hit England even if Hopkins and Stern had never tried another witch the Essex trials would still be famous buoyed by his success in Manningtree perhaps enjoying the newfound celebrity Hopkins bestowed upon himself the title of which find general armed with Hardwick's warranty and stern headed east following in the wake of the shocking news of Clarke's execution it was this news that became the spark that would turn the East of England into an inferno in December 1643 the provost marshal of the parliamentarian Eastern Association commissioned William dowsing to destroy all non Puritan icons in Suffolk dowsing took to the job like an extremist duck to water way into 1645 he rampaged across the east burning churches vandalizing icons and encouraging Puritan extremism eventually dousing zealotry got so frightening that Oliver Cromwell personally stripped him of his commission by then the damage it was done dozens of towns across Suffolk had been reduced to wrecks their populations either cowed or swept up in religious fervor it was these people who two years later would call upon the Witchfinder general as they left behind the dead of Manningtree and ventured into Suffolk in 1645 Hopkins and Stern charted a course that took them to many of the town's dowsing had previously swept through it's a move straight from the modern extremist playbook identify a person or community already damaged by extremism like dowsing smashing of icons and pushed them even further into madness just as Isis did on the war-torn plains of Iraq Hopkins and Stern soon found an audience in dowsing was ruined villages the PEZ modus operandi it was simple as they traveled the witch finders would let villagers know that they were in the area the villagers responded by inviting them in yep they really didn't like them like a pair of misogynistic vampires Hopkins and Stern never entered a victim's home without an invite in normal times this would have ensured their crackpot adventure and as soon as it began but well these were not normal times people were afraid afraid that the Kings army would kill them that their children would starve and that they would freeze to death in the winter in another historical context that fear might have been turned on Jews or illegal immigrants or any other outside a group in England's of 1645 it was turned on women once invited into a village Hopkins and Stern set to work on suspected witches unlikely thumbscrew happy sadists in Europe Hopkins as interrogation methods wouldn't serve looked out of place in a CIA handbook victims were made to sit absolutely still without sleep for days on end others were locked in isolation and denied food or anything but water yell others were made to exercise for hours and hours every day until they were ready to at the end of all this psychological torture the accused they nearly always confessed Hopkins then force them to name more witches in the village who would in turn confess and so on and so forth that's not to say that the stories you've heard about Hopkins aren't true he really did test if some women were witches by tying them up and throwing them into rivers those that drowns they were innocent and those that floated had magic powers and they were executed for all this bloodshed Hopkins and stone and anywhere between six pounds and 23 pounds per village at the high ends that's roughly equivalent to 5,000 pounds or $6,500 today it said that Hopkins made a thousand pounds during his career as a witch finder at a time when the average laborers wage was a mere six pence per day death in short it made Matthew Hopkins filthy rich not that he in Stern actually hung around for the death part that confession elicited the Witchfinder general and his assistant would vanish into the night leaving the accused to their fates and what fates these were in August of 1645 an 80 year old minister called John Lau's was forced to run on the spot without sleep until he collapsed from exhaustion on the 27th of that month 18 women and men were hanged together outside barrese and Edmunds the worst mass execution of any English witch scat and yet that's right men were killed as witches too Hopkins was responsible for the execution of between 17 and 20 men for witchcraft during his career including three husbands who were killed alongside their wives but let's not kid ourselves gender was an important factor in determining if you survived a meeting with Matthew Hopkins in that same space of time when he killed 20 men Hopkins sent an estimated 200 women to the gallows in September of 1645 the Witchfinder general committed his most notorious act as the dark night drew in Hopkins and Stern arrived in Ipswich there they tried and convicted Mary Lakeland in a shocking break with tradition rather than hanging her they decided to burn her alive as the black smoke coiled into the sky over rush Muir Heath Hopkins pocketed his fee and left perhaps he heard Mary Lakeland screams and felt sorry for her but perhaps they made him feel good this was the foul this day in the history of English witch hunting thankfully it would also be one of the last so it's something you might not have expected during this whole gynae side thing Hopkins and Stern hadn't exactly been hiding from the authorities the new UC has reported the Hopkins may have been paid for his work by official government sources whether that's true or not there's no denying the Witchfinder general soon came to the attention of parliament back in August of 1945 Hopkins s conviction of John Lowe's that old guy that he forced to run up and down until he collapsed had resulted in a witch panic in barrese and Edmunds that eventually saw a hundred people jailed at Hopkins had his way all 100 of them would have been executed but word of the gigantic witch trial at leak to Parliament it was simply too big to be credible so Parliament send their own people out to retry everyone convicted by Hopkins this time the trials would be more careful they would be less tainted by bias which is why on August the 27th only 18 witches were hanged at Maurice and Edmonds rather than the 100 that Hopkins had hoped for of course hanging 18 people for made-up magic is still deranged but here's the thing Parliament's witch hunters were a model of sanity compared to Hopkins and Stern in light of the near miss of Maurice and Edmunds many MPs began to wonder if Hopkins was actually a bigger danger than the witches that he was finding it helps that by fall of 1645 the conditions that had allowed mass hysteria to flourish they were on the wane the Battle of Naseby in June that year had seen the remaining royalist forces mostly crushed the war was now winding down and with it the famine hunger and fear that had driven the witch panics was as well as 1646 dawns the tide of public opinion had decisively turned against the witch finders the Puritan minister John gall published a pamphlet that attacked Hopkins in no uncertain terms for the slaughter that he was inflicting on the countryside ghoul was someone who actually believed in witches but even he could see that the Witchfinder general was XANA control Hopkins tried to fight back he wrote all the chilling note threatening to come look for witches in his area if gahl ever criticized him again he and stern they stepped up their visits to villages but the game it was already up on April the 27th 1646 Charles the first was forced to flee Oxford after to parliamentary forces although the king would escape being taken into custody for some weeks the first English Civil War it was over not long after Parliament summoned Hopkins and stern accusing them of the illegal use of torture Hopkins was now famous but not as a savior over the Puritan faith rather has say likely charlatans who'd sent countless women to their deaths by August 16 46 Hopkins has credibility with the public it was shot villagers no longer sought him out the powerful no longer defended his work possibly scared Parliament's might try them in turn the Witchfinder general discarded his phony title and retired back to Manningtree his entire witch hunting career had lasted less than 18 months still Hopkins had his blood money and he was respected by some of the most zealous Puritans thanks to his reputation he was able to publish his book the discovery of witches in 1647 when the first editions reach New England's they sparked off a series of witch panics that would culminate in the infamous 1692 Salem witch trials what the Hopkins would live to see the last grisly fulfilment of his legacy in August of 16 47 at the age of just 26 or 27 Matthew Hopkins keeled over in Manningtree and died while legend says that he was tried as a witch using his own methods and executed the mundane reality appears to be that tuberculosis carried him off yes even as Hopkins died the world he helped create was already fading [Music] by the end of 1648 the vast majority of English women accused of witchcraft weren't being acquitted even when the second and third English Civil Wars blew up followed by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship nothing like the witch panics of 1645 took hold again 40 years later in March of 1680 for Elisha Mullins became the last person to be put to death for witchcraft in English history there would be more trials including an infamous one in 1717 but never again with the results in a verdict of execution now let's flash forward to 1735 a full 90 years after Matthew Hopkins as ghoulish Spectre last roams the English countryside the creator Robert Walpole was the Prime Minister and these superstitions of the 17th century had given way to the scientific curiosity of the 18th that year Parliament passed the witchcraft act it repealed all previous witch laws and all punishments for witchcraft instead it penalized pretending to be a witch for profit or to influence others think about that for a second within living memory Matthew Hopkins had slaughtered more than 200 women for being witches now the law stated that such a thing was impossible the witchcraft was nothing more than a pretense a humbug we like to think that that news sent Matthew Hopkins rolling in his grave finally on June the 13th 1782 Swiss executioner's dragged and a Goldie out to a field and lopped off her head the Bloods that patted down onto the grass would be the last blood that would ever be spilled in Europe's witch hunts over the previous three centuries over 200,000 women had perished at the hands of the continents inquisitors 300 years of misogynistic murder had finally come to an end but the story it doesn't quite stop there in 1921 gardeners were doing some work on a house in the villages and OSA thin Essex when they found a pair of female skeletons dating from the era of the English witch trials the two unknown women had iron rivets driven through their joints to stop them rising from the grave it was a chilling visceral reminder of Hopkins and his methods transported forward to the 20th century even now traces of his superstitious well if you still linger over the countryside in local Hills and forgotten Heath's named for the tortures that he inflicted there or the helpless women who died under them Hopkins may be gone but his legacy lives on the next time you hear spooky tales of growls or maybe someone dressed as a witch for Halloween remember to spare a thought for all of the women who died at the hands of England's Witchfinder general so I hope you found the video interesting if you did please do give us a thumbs up below and don't forget to subscribe we got brand new videos just like this several times a week and if you're looking for something else to watch right now why not check out one of our other videos linked to on the screen now I've also got another channel top 10s find that linked in the description below and as always thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 449,240

Keywords: matthew hopkins, witchfinder general, witchfinder, general, matthew, matthew hopkins witchfinder general, the witchfinder general, witch-finder general, matthew hopkins (author), hopkins, el general witchfinder, witch finder general, cathedral, witches, vincent price witch finder general, witchcraft, matthew hopkins music, witch, atthew hopkins, witch-finder, mathew hopkins, horror, history, witch trials

Id: ZsXo5oY1m7g

Length: 21min 39sec (1299 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 07 2019