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6 Episodes 2024 - 2024
Episode 1
Sun, Sep 29, 2024
The most-famous witch trials of them all: Salem, Massachusetts.
Episode 2
Sun, Sep 29, 2024
Why are witches mainly women and why were they hunted and tried for an impossible crime? The story of Europe's early witch trials in Trier.
Episode 3
Sun, Sep 29, 2024
In 16th century Scotland too, it took just some misunderstandings to charge someone with witchcraft, exposing her (rarely him) to an investigation by torture and disorientating sleep deprivation, often resulting in confessions and naming 'coven accomplices' risking the stake, but usually only posthumously burnt. A local magistrate prosecuting his maid thus started the North Berwick trials, with denunciations attracting royal attention. King James VI Stuart, a serious candidate to succeed Elisabeth I Tudor on the English throne, needed a protestant bride, so betrothed Anne of Denmark, but attempts to send or bring her were repeatedly frustrated by storms, which were ascribed to witchcraft. The Danes conducted trials in the Trier fashion, with denunciations reaching out to Scotland. There the king abused his right to prosecute juries for a 'false' sentence, to obtain severe verdicts, also against middle class and nobles, even his own cousin the earl of Bothwell. The king wrote a Demonology -inventing that word as its title- and imposed stricter laws against witches, in Scotland and later in England, which used to be more lenient.
Episode 4
Sun, Oct 6, 2024
During the English Civil War (1642-1651), the Parliamentary rebels disrupted the royal government and justice, crating a quasi-void until the Cromwellian Republic and later Restoration established new order. Ambitious men seized the opportunity to declare themselves -illegally- witch-finders to question and arrest suspects instead of regular magistrates. Ambulant champions were 'witchfinder general' Matthew Hopkins and his associate John Stearne, in and around East Anglia. Their often illegal methods, torture in all but name, including sleep deprivation and floating tests, sent dozens of women to assizes court, risking the noose, even a respected vicar. A parliamentary special commission would start cracking down on their illegal methods, ultimately in favor of regular justice, which continued to prosecute 'witches'.
Episode 5
Sun, Oct 13, 2024
An event in Sweden in the 17th Century creates a hysteria driven by terrified parents convinced witches are abducting their children.
Episode 6
Sun, Oct 13, 2024
From 1710, the mainly Scottish-expat Presbyterian community of IslandMagee in northern Ireland is the scene of alleged demonic possessions of women, firstly old mistress Ann Hathrod in Knowlhead house, who indicate supposed female witches as the black magic cause of their convulsions and other symptoms, ultimately leading to death. After local reverend Sinclair's tests confirm some accusations, the local mayor Clements starts witch prosecution under English law by arrests. Two judges preside the jury trial is a nearby town. No female confesses, torture being omitted as illegal, yet William Sellor, husband and kin of two suspects, is condemned to hanging. It was the last British isle witch trial.