The King Who Hunted Witches | The Witch Trials | Absolute History

this is the British Isles 400 years ago by the neck until you are dead mass trials and executions erupted across the country and the reason for this chaos and violence was witches people were convinced these sanctions brought famine and disease murdered and maimed because witches worked for Satan hundreds of innocent people were persecuted by which tortured and put to death in a hysterical effort to stamp out the scourge of witchcraft imagine living in that world you could be accused tortured and executed on the basis of nothing more than gossip and superstition how could such a deadly and violent idea have got so out of control in Britain or drove the persecutors to such awful ends and what was it like for the victims who were tortured and executed for crimes they couldn't possibly have committed this is the extraordinary story of how the terror of satanic witchcraft infected the British Isles and plunged it into chaos [Music] [Music] Queen Anne's ships had been battered by a violent storm one ship sank Anne's almost capsized the badly damaged convoy had limped back to Scandinavia King James decided he would have to go and fetch his new wife himself but James would bring back far more than just a new Queen from Denmark [Music] James arrived here at kronborg castle near Copenhagen in January 1590 his crossing had been equally violent the world James walked into was very different to his native Scotland which hysteria was infecting mainland Europe hundreds had already been executed as witches tens of thousands would follow the violence fear and hysteria spreading across Europe were largely the result of one in century book here at the Royal Danish library is one of the very few original copies this is the malleus Maleficarum or the hammer of the witches it was principally written by one German Dominican monk called heinrich rama and he wrote it to argue that witches existed and that they worked for the devil it was a legal manual for the hunting and executing of witches the malleus Maleficarum pushed Cranmer's terrifying belief that witches were obsessed with poisoning maiming and killing and they were doing it for Satan their aim was to harm to murder and to destroy and if witches were the problem the malleus was the answer it was a hugely influential book and one of the reasons it was so eventual is printed at the front this is a papal bull the Pope's equivalent of a royal proclamation it was issued in 1484 just before the malleus was published and it stated that witches were heretics who had made an alliance with the devil crown were reprinted the ball to prove that the church stood behind his book because it appeared to have the church's backing the malleus Maleficarum led to the wholesale torture and murder of thousands of people suspected of being in league with the devil [Applause] this idea that witches were the devil's handmaidens hell-bent on death and chaos hadn't yet reached James's Kingdom but in Denmark he came face-to-face with the reality of Satan's witches in April 1590 while James was Stewart kronborg castle two witches were arrested in Copenhagen and what was truly shocking was that they confessed to conjuring up the violent storms that had hit James and Anne's ships they had attempted to murder the Scottish king and queen because Satan wanted them dead at least five more witches were later convicted of the same crime all were burned at the stake [Music] but if James thought he'd left the scourge of witchcraft behind him when he returned to Scotland he was wrong with the Danish which is dead the whole thing might have become nothing more than a historical footnote and James might have lived out his reign untroubled by the devil if it were not for one man his name was David Seaton and he was the deputy bailiff here in the small town of Trent nine miles east of Edinburgh what Seaton did in November 1590 proved to James that the devil and his witches were alive and well in Scotland he claimed his young housemaid Gilles Duncan had suddenly acquired healing powers and he'd seen her slipping out at night according to a contemporary source Seaton believed only one thing could explain her furtive behavior witchcraft and he was going to prove it [Music] where have you been I was tending to the garden sir lied to me [Music] about which the story of Seaton and Gillis is recorded than this pamphlet first published in 1591 is called news from Scotland and it tells us exactly what Seton did next her master did with the help of others torment her with the torture of the pili Winx pili Winx are thumbscrews they crushed the flesh and bones of the fingers victims were often left permanently crippled are you a witch where'd you get a power to heal it's not magic Gillis must have endured unbearable pain but she would not confess to something that she had not done Seton didn't stop at summer screws where'd you go tell me the truth understand anymore your lies he turned instead to wrenching [Music] as the rope was pulled tight it crushed the head it could fracture the skull and facial burns Gilles would not yield but the more she resisted confessing the harder Seton tried to break her confess I don't think Seaton's actions had much to do with witch hunting I think his motives were sexual perhaps he'd lusted after her for a long time and felt that as master he had a right to have her doesn't take a huge leap imagine a young woman sneaking out at night might have been having a sexual liaison with someone other than Seaton whatever was driving him I don't think that CT could possibly have appreciated the death and suffering that would result from his obsession in Europe King James the sixth had seen that which is working for the devil had been hell-bent on killing him he was about to receive proof that this dangerous belief was infecting Scotland to the truth the man responsible was bailiff davidseaton he was systematically brutalizing and torturing his housemaid Gilles Duncan to make a confess to being a witch but Gilles would not yield seaton began to search her body because people believe the devil always left a mark on the bodies of his disciples it could be anything a mole a birthmark Seaton's found what he was looking for on Gillis's neck and for some reason this is what broke her all I've done is by witchcraft and with the enticements of the devil himself I wrote to the town where a wedge was received in service of the devil I danced in the rock with the others we'll never know why gelus confessed now after she'd resisted thumb screws and wrenching perhaps the mark was from a sexual liaison and in this highly religious time she felt too much shame and guilt delicious confession had a seismic impact it was the first recorded incident of a Scottish witch admitting to working for the devil it's set in train a sequence of events that would kill hundreds of people the repercussions would last a hundred years [Applause] in November 1590 geillis duncan was brought here to the old toll booth prison one of edinburgh smurfs notorious jails the old prison no longer stands but what does remain is the stone heart of midlothian there was at the doorway gilles would have walked over this heart as she entered her period of incarceration Gilles admitted to being part of a coven she gave up the names of eight other witches they in turn named more in total over a hundred people were hunted down and tortured this raised the stakes enormous Li it was no longer an isolated case of witchcraft it was now a conspiracy of witches under torture Gilles said that her coven had been in league with witches from Copenhagen the ones had been executed for attempting to murder King James and his queen this was dynamite it changed everything it got the Kings full attention and he did something almost unheard of he became directly involved in the case the person who had the most profound effect on King James was one of those named by Gilles Duncan a woman called Agnes Sampson Agnes was a midwife from Edinburgh she was accused of being the most senior witch in the coven and under torture she too confessed to the attempted murder of King James Agnes Sampson was taken down there to Holyrood house James's six official residence not once but twice to be directly interrogated by the king himself Agnes repeated the confession that had been beaten out of her in jail that her coven had met with the devil we met in the kick at north barrack the plan was to raise a storm for stayin of the Queens coming home he told me other McComas storm and they did great damage book that see inland they said it should be hard to for the King to come home the Queen should never come James saw himself as a highly intellectual King he read widely and was fascinated by both natural philosophy and the new ideas of rational investigation Agnes's confession did not convince him she's not what a liar [Music] according to James Agnes repeated pillow talk between the king and his new bride on their wedding night when they were alone this was enough to convince him that Agnes must be a witch it certainly sounded like magic but whatever James may have believed in reality there was little privacy for a 16th century King even embed possibly a juicy piece of gossip escaped the palace or maybe the experienced Midwife simply made an educated guess but that leaves one big question why did Agnes go to such great lengths in order to seal her own fate possibly the slowly woman enjoyed her moment in the limelight she had a chance to meet the king and maybe even scare him but I think there may be a simpler explanation it ended her torture Agnes had been imprisoned in one of the worst jails in Scotland she had been tortured and she probably knew that this marked effectively the end of her life so the best that she could hope for was to ease her suffering and in that at least she was successful James ordered that her torture should cease in James's mind there was now clear evidence that an international satanic conspiracy was out to kill him and there was only one way to stop them kill them first on the 28th of January 1591 Agnes Sampson was brought here to Castle Hill in Edinburgh to be executed we don't know how many other convicted witches were with her that day we do know that she wasn't alone these were innocent confused and terrified people people who had been imprisoned and tortured people who have been prepared to say anything to stop the pain [Music] all the victims were probably garroted before the fires were lit it was considered mercy and compared to burning to death it would be worse [Music] as the convicted witches burned the air would have been thick with a stench of burning human fat it would have seeped into the crowds hair their clothes even the poorest fools of the surrounding buildings 200 people who'd been accused around 70 had been found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to death [Music] Gilles Duncan the young housemaid who started or rotted in prison for a further year before she too was burnt at the stake these events became known as the North barrack witch trials they convinced James that satanic witchcraft threatened his land and his life and the King's personal involvement in the trials gave witch-hunting the stamp of royal approval over the next few years the infections spread across Scotland in East Lothian 62 people were accused 33 and 586 in Aberdeen and 11 in Ross few doubted that the devil and his handmaiden stalked the earth at least in Scotland until now England had largely escaped the curse of mass Witchcraft Trials but on the 24th of March 1603 Queen Elizabeth the first died and her cousin James claimed the throne James carried the witchcraft infection south to England but how it happened was totally unexpected the English had high hopes for their new king he was young male and already had a couple of sons as heirs after 45 years of childless Queen Elizabeth the first it seemed too good to be true but James was an unknown quantity a foreign King in an alien land his new subjects wanted to know what their new ruler was like what were his interests what were his beliefs from which way was the wind blowing in this new regime well they had one big clue a book published in London written by James himself it was called demonology this is the only book ever written by a reigning monarch on the subject of witchcraft and the devil James sets out his reason for writing in the preface he says the fearful abounding at this time in this country of these detestable slaves of the devil the witches or enchanters has moved me beloved reader to dispatch in post this following treatise of mine and the purpose of it he says is to resolve the doubting hearts of many this is pretty unequivocal stuff what he's saying is that there are witches everywhere in Scotland that they are Satan's minions and that everyone better believe it Jamis sets the book out in the form of a dialogue between two characters so we have Philo Mathis and a pistol on a paestum on is the thoroughly knowledgeable one the rational man who knows all about witchcraft he's undoubtedly James himself and over the course of the book a pestilent convinces Philo Matthews that actually witches are real that they should be prosecuted by the correct authorities and that anyone who doubts their existence is at best fooling himself and at worst in league with the devil the book was very popular with the English it was republished in London at least twice demonology gave English people an insight into their new King and what they saw was a man hell-bent on hunting down satan's witches [Music] and in 1605 James once again became involved in a case of witchcraft but this time in England here at Exeter College Oxford the country finally saw their new witch-hunting King taking on the satanic scourge [Music] in August a wealthy and well-connected man gained an audience with King James his name was Brian Gunther Gunther had a problem a problem with a witch now I think it's quite likely that Gunther had read James's book demonology and this was enough to convince him that the king would share his hatred of witches Gunther presented his daughter and to the king and claimed that she had been cursed by three witches the affection first bisetta around midsummer if it's a violent and her body contorts and when she's in the throes she vomits pins or poison from her nose my daughter is bewitched sire and has seen her tormentas in her fits the first is Good Wife Gregory the second is Mary people and the third is mother PAP well [Music] is this - yes Gunther wanted the King to bring the witches to justice but James did something completely unexpected James ordered that and be examined by the Archbishop of Canterbury a noted skeptic and it didn't take the Archbishop's team of investigators long to figure out that Anne was faking the symptoms on the 10th of October King James wrote to his chief minister about the case for your better satisfaction touching and Gunther we find by her confession that she was never possessed with any devil but the practice of the pins grew at first from a pin that she put in her mouth affirmed by her father [Music] Bryan Gunter was the brains behind the deception he was seeking revenge against one of the accused and he tried using James to get it he was fined for wasting the king's time and thrown into jail for three years he'd got off comparatively lightly if he'd succeeded the women would have been executed Gunther had entirely misread the new King King James's actions in the counter case seemed completely at odds with his reputation as a rabid witch hunter so what was really going on I think the answer lies in his book demonology if you read it you're left in no doubt at all that James wholeheartedly believed in Satan and witches but demonology is no malleus Maleficarum it's not trying to use fear to whip people up into a frenzy of witch hatred it's an opportunity to make a case by rational argument rather than by mere superstition it's designed as much to make sure the wrong people aren't convicted as the right people are James was a philosopher or at least that's how he saw himself but the subtleties of his bookish ideas were almost certainly lost on most of his subjects like Bryan Gunter they probably took demonology at face value a license from the king to hunt witches and kill them this misunderstanding of James's ideas would light a touchpaper that over the next hundred years would lead to the worst excesses of witch hunting in English history seven years after the Gunter incident the era of mass witch trials exploded in the English courts it began here in pendel Lancashire on the 18th of March 1612 a girl could Allison device was near the town of corn in pendel when she spied an elderly peddler could John law Allison didn't like being ignored she cursed the peddler [Music] from the description of John Laws condition paralysis down the left side loss of speech it seems likely that he'd suffered a stroke but from Allison's terrified point of view it was her curse that had struck him down Alison came from a family of cunning folk local healers who used herbes and sometimes magic to cure people so it would have been natural for her to believe in the power of her curse horrified by what she'd done Allison device confessed she was horde up in front of local magistrate Roger Nome [Music] Allison admitted to cursing the peddler but according to a report made at the time she went much further I demanded that the Kettner let me buy some beans the peddler refused to open his pack as I polish it from him there appeared a black dog black dog said unto me what wouldst thou have me do one to yonder man I said what canst thou do you want him and the black dog said I can lame him and I said [Music] [Music] Allisyn accused her grandmother and two neighbors of being witches as well Noll began arresting the suspects named by Alison on the 2nd of April Allisyn device her grandmother all dem Dyke their neighbor or tatics and her daughter Ann Redfern were brought here to Lancaster Castle prison and they were kept in the bottom of this tower it's still known as the witch's Tower to this day all the accused were interrogated eight further suspects including all of Alison's family joined them in the tower [Music] this is the very cell where they were kept and along with the 12 suspected which is there are another eight we know prisoners who were unrelated to the witch trial so that's 20 people in this space it must be 12 foot by 17 18 foot quite something to imagine that the suspected witches just ordinary people were kept in here for four months I mean some of them are very old they're in the 80s others people like Alison or as a teenager and they were in here in the dark for all that time awaiting their death [Music] nor probably couldn't believe his luck a rural magistrate lived a humdrum life with few opportunities now no found himself heading up a high-profile witch-hunt if he secured convictions this could make his career but that was easier said than done of all the cases that made it to court 3/4 failed due to lack of evidence all know had were accusations and counter-accusations what he needed was proof and it was King James who inadvertently gave it to him the era of mass witch hunting in England led to the torture and murder of hundreds of people it all began here on the 17th of August 1612 with the prosecution of the pendel witches one of the most infamous witch trials in English history this is the site of the original court room in lancaster castle where the pendel witches were tried although it's now a library the court room has only shifted a few feet the courtroom was a hive of activity [Music] people packed the public gallery to see the sensational trial the judge was Edward brahminy Rajan nor was the prosecuting magistrate the guilty verdict could be a huge boost to his career Thomas Potts was the court clerk and we know the detail of this trial because he later published his records in this book over the next two days 19 suspect stood trial accused of using witchcraft to harm or kill this should have been 20 the person's grandmother all dem dyke had already died in that cramped and stinking cell in the witches talent I demanded that the peddler let me buy a pill off him but the peddler refused unfortunately Allisyn device felt such remorse for cursing the peddler that she didn't even try to defend herself she repeated her confession and was quickly found guilty the next take the stand was Alison's mother Elizabeth device you are refused but good friday past you've dined a mocking tower we persons umyou to be whichis at your meeting together you talked about killing the constable and blowing up Lancaster Castle deny any such meeting Otto your spirits ball did appear to you were in the form of a black dog apples in spirit bid you to make a picture in clay after the said John Robinson which you then D burn with fire and cruel the case was deadlocked between accusation and denial but Roger no had a secret weapon Elizabeth devices own daughter nine-year-old Janet my mother is rich you stupid goat you don't know what you do shut up shut up silence no demon will come for them and ravaged I mind my own ticker Anya the testa me of a child would not normally be allowed under English law but King James's book demonology promoted its youths in witch trials and because of that Janet's confession was accepted and the fate of the witches was sealed my mother is a wish and that I know to be true I've seen a spirit many times in the likeness for brown dog that she called ball and at one time I did she will ask mother what she would having to do mother acid that she would have bought to help her kill [Music] little Janet named names the wife a few hard ways Christopher holidays Elizabeth his wife dick miles and his wife fist for iyx of the thorny home and his wife and my brother James device has been a which the Swedes we'll never know why Janet testified against her own family maybe she thought they really were witches maybe she liked being the center of attention or maybe given the way that her mother shouted at her and threatened her in court she was badly treated and she thought that this was an escape but I suspect the nine-year-old didn't understand the full consequences of what she said and maybe no bullied and brainwashed her into saying what she did just as Brian Gunther had done at the end of a two-day trial ten of the 19 accused were found guilty of witchcraft Janet's entire family was convicted he will be taken to the execution grounds for this country where you will be hanged by the neck until you are dead musical nuisance [Applause] on the 20th of August the day after the trial the 10 convicted witches were brought here to a place still known as gallows Hill to be hanged perhaps under similarly grim skies the crowds would have gathered to see the spectacle to see the old Anna love despise witches meet their fate and maybe amongst them there would have been the young girl who had condemned her family her own mother to meet the rough rope and the short drop [Applause] [Music] it was a gruesome form of execution the drop wasn't high enough to break their necks instead they died by agonizingly slow strangulation [Music] Genet disappears from the historical records after the trial but the name Jeannette device is listed as one of a group of 20 witches tried in Lancaster 22 years later it appears that she was convicted and probably died in jail we can't be sure if it was the same girl but it would be a cruel form of poetic justice if it was [Music] the pendel trials were a watershed they triggered a hundred years of institutionalized murder in England and the blame for that must lie at least partly with King James his book demonology sanctioned forms of evidence and torture that drove the worst excesses of witch-hunt him he would have been mortified pendel was everything the rationale James disliked a case based on hearsay manipulation and petty jealousies rather than based on Scripture evidence and due process of law James news is terrible a thing to condemn the innocent as to let the guilty go unpunished and he'd written demonology as a manual to prevent precisely that but James failed to grasp how other people would see a book written by the King on the prosecution of witches and over the next fifty years or so this misjudgment would lead to hundreds of innocent people being sentenced to death next time witch hunting brings terror to England not just of witches but of the man who was hunting him down welcome to the world of the Witchfinder general [Music]

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 342,446

Rating: 4.8965931 out of 5

Keywords: history history documentary funny history fun history school, timeline, witch trials, salem witch trials, salem village, full length documentaries, history documentary, pendle witch child, pendle witches bbc, pendle witches documentary, witchcraft, witchcraft for beginners, witchcraft documentary bbc, suzannah lipscomb, suzannah lipscomb documentary, suzannah lipscomb hidden killers, witch trials documentary, witch trials of salem

Id: 4s9Hd8onAKQ

Length: 44min 40sec (2680 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 03 2019