Trials of elizabethan witches

Queen Elizabeth and the Punishment of Elizabethan Witches The hysteria and paranoia regarding witches which was experienced in Europe did not fully extend to England during the Elizabethan era. Queen Elizabeth I passed a new and harsher witchcraft Law in but it did not define sorcery as heresy. They usually involve potions bubbling in cauldrons, witches flying on broomsticks or on the backs of goats and sometimes worshipping the Devil.

Witches might have a familiar — a pet, or a toad, or a bird — which was supposed to be a demon advisor. Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The Description of England: During Elizabethan times physical punishment for crimes was common throughout Europe and other parts of the world.

In case anyone curious about the subject of Elizabethan witch trials wants to dig into the data, just click on the pointers in the interactive version of the map of pardons embedded below. And let me know if you find anything interesting! Feature image comes from A rehearsall both straung and true, of hainous and horrible actes committed by Elizabeth Stile, alias Rockingham, Mother Dutten, Mother Deuell, Mother Margaret, fower i.

We do have some records of felony witchcraft from courts other than the assizes: records from the Palatinate Court of Great Sessions at Chester also survive, with 69 accusations of witchcraft from , and Middlesex Sessions records include some 63 indictments between and Sharpe, Instruments , pp.

Church courts also heard accusations of witchcraft but did not hear them as felony cases subject to the death penalty.

For trial records and the incidence of felony witchcraft cases, see also C. For the pamphlet accounts of trials, see, e. The literature on early modern English witchcraft is voluminous, but in addition to the works cited above, see, e. Like Like. I live very close to pendle Hill where the Pendle witches once lived and have read so much about the injustice that they endured. Like Liked by 1 person. During the hysteria that preceded the Salem Witch Trials, the slave Tituba famously helped prepare a witch cake to identify the person responsible for bewitching young Betty Parris and others.

Witch-hunters often had their suspects stripped and publically examined for signs of an unsightly blemish that witches were said to receive upon making their pact with Satan. In both cases, it was easy for even the most minor physical imperfections to be labeled as the work of the devil himself. Moles, scars, birthmarks, sores, supernumerary nipples and tattoos could all qualify, so examiners rarely came up empty-handed. In the midst of witch hunts, desperate villagers would sometimes even burn or cut off any offending marks on their bodies, only to have their wounds labeled as proof of a covenant with the devil.

This test was based on the notion that possessed people found relief by scratching the person responsible with their fingernails until they drew blood.

Charges were famously used in the 16th century witch trial of Alice Samuel and her husband and daughter, who were accused of bewitching five girls from the wealthy Throckmorton family. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

In the Elizabethan period , a witch was believed to be an old warped woman who, by her evil powers could cause damage. It was also believed that a witch used to keep pets like birds, black cats, wolves, ferociuos dogs, bats, and frogs. In the Elizabethan era, there were cases of witch trials on record, of which cases were of women and only 23 cases involved men.

It was thus a common notion that if anything bad or unfortunate happens, then it was because of the witches and primarily only women could be witches.