The North Berwick Witch Hunt was one of the deadliest witch trials in British history, spawned from one interrogation and implicating people from every strata of society; the poor, the wealthy, peasants, nobles, farmers, and teachers. It led to around seventy executions, and was the backdrop of multiple rebellions, religious schism, and a military intervention by the English. And yet James the Sixth emerged afterwards with a unified country, his most powerful rivals subjugated or exiled, and in a prime position to inherit the throne of England.
This episode primarily made use of the following texts:
Newes From Scotland London, 1591
Lawrence Normand, Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James VI's Demonology and the North Berwick Witches, Exeter, 2000
Victoria Carr, 'The Countess of Angus's Escape from the North Berwick Witch-Hunt', in Julian Goodare (ed.) Scottish Witches and Witch-Hunters, Basingstoke, 2013
Alan Stewart, The Cradle King: A Life of James VI and I, London, 2003
Julian Gooare, The Government of Scotland 1560-1625, Oxford, 2004
For a full show bibliography, please see the website.
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