I recently wrote about some of the common misconceptions around the history of the witch trials. Some of those are only minor errors, such as the fact witches were not burnt in England or America, but they stem from the way the "witch" has been portrayed in TV, film, video games and literature over the past century or more. These misunderstandings are often as a result of the conflation with fantasy and the belief that many stories about witches are rooted in historical fact. As with all fiction writing, everything has to be taken with a pinch of (witch's) salt.
One of the ways we know about what really happened throughout the 1500s onwards in relation to belief around witches and witchcraft, is through the laws that were made. These laws reflected belief at the time, some on a national level and others more personal to the lawmaker responsible. They also reflect the increasing paranoia and subsequent scepticism that marks this history. So to try and make sense of what those attitudes and beliefs were, here is a brief summary of the history of the law around witchcraft in England.
Pre 1500s
Before the first Witchcraft Act of 1541, there weren't really any laws in England that related to witchcraft specifically. People were still accused of causing harm, and even death, by magic, but the cases were often treated like any other similar crime. This could perhaps be used to argue that there was indeed a belief at the time by the general population (or at least those practicing law) that magic was real and therefore as valid a tool for crime as any other weapon.
Other accusations were against those in positions of power and were likely as a means of defamation. They were often met with charges of heresy, acting or believing contrary to the state religion at the time. Margery Jourdemayne was one such person, who found herself detained at the Tower of London and eventually executed having been accused of witchcraft. As such, and here is where the confusion comes again, she was burnt at the stake at Smithfield Market in 1441. Being burnt at the stake was the punishment for heretics, which is what witches were seen as in those countries where they did burn victims. However, when the laws around witchcraft were finally written, they would be seen as felons, the punishment for which was hanging.
The Witchcraft Act 1541
"An Act against Conjurations, Witchcrafts, Sorcery and Inchantments."
The first person in England to create a law specifically relating to witchcraft was...unsurprisingly...Henry VIII. The man who accused his second wife, Anne Boleyn, of being a witch and who was notoriously misogynistic. Within this law there were a few specific actions that a person wasn't allowed to do; such as find treasure, trick someone to fall in love with you or summon spirits. The Act also stopped the "benefit of clergy" which had been written into previous laws meaning that, if you could prove you were a member of the clergy, you would be let off. Originally proof was based on your clothing, but later became a test of reading from the Latin Bible. I guess too many people had stolen monks' habits or nuns' wimples to try and get out of their crimes...
This particular law was in place for less than 6 years and was repealed after Henry VIII died and his son Edward VI took to the throne. No one was actually executed under Henry's law, perhaps due to the difficulty of proving whether someone had conducted witchcraft.
The Witchcraft Act 1562
"An act against conjurations, enchantments and witchcrafts."
Elizabeth I created the next Witchcraft Act, though this was marginally less severe than Henry VIII's. The only people who could be executed for witchcraft were those proven to have caused harm or death through magic. however, other acts of witchcraft were punished by imprisonment, which in some institutions was as much as a death sentence anyway.
One other common misconception around the witch trials is over who was the first person to be executed under this Act. Most places online will say Agnes Waterhouse was the first, a woman from Hatfield Peverel in Essex who was accused of being a witch and having a cat familiar called Sathan (a bit on the nose really). However, over a year earlier, a woman named Elizabeth Lowys, from Great Waltham in Essex, was executed having been accused of using magic to make several people ill and even cause the death of a baby. The reason Agnes gets more attention is because a pamphlet including her image was circulated at the time. That pamphlet is now widely available online and so seems to be the first account of a trial under the Witchcraft Act 1562.
Whilst this Act was in place, over 100 people were accused of murder by witchcraft. However, due to the difficulty of providing conclusive evidence for these crimes, only half of them were actually found guilty. The vast majority of these were women, though some men were among them. In many cases, men who found themselves at court charged under the Witchcraft Act were people who had sought the services of witches, rather than being practitioners themselves.
The Witchcraft Act 1603
"An act against conjuration, witchcraft and dealing with evil and WICKED SPIRITS"
It is this law that inspired the title of the exhibition I curated in 2023 at Colchester Castle in partnership with the internationally renowned Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. The "Wicked Spirits" in the long title of the law refers to what the general population more commonly know as "familiars". These are creatures, either the devil in animal form or messengers to the devil, that assisted the witch in doing their evil deeds. It was under this law that the death penalty was no longer just for those who caused harm or death caused by magic, but also for anyone believed to be in communication with these spirits.
Unlike the more recognised black cat familiar of modern witchcraft fiction, familiars took many forms. Although they could sometimes be cats, as had been the case of trials under the previous Act, anything from toads to ferrets could be included in this law. In fact anything that you might find naturally living near rural settlements could be considered a familiar...funny that.
This law came at a time when fear of witchcraft and witches was at its height. The monarch who initiated this law was particularly terrified of them, King James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was so afraid of witches, having been involved in the North Berwick witch trials, that he wrote an entire book on the subject called "daemonologie". The book takes the form of an extended conversation regarding witches and ends with an account of the Berwick trials. The reasons James was so fearful was also due to a perceived threat on his own life and that of his Queen, Anne of Denmark. It was believed that witches had summoned a storm to prevent Anne from arriving in Scotland after a proxy marriage (a marriage where the two aren't present in the same room) with the king. This was one of the subjects of the North Berwick trials, which involved over 100 victims accused of witchcraft, and why James had got involved himself.
It was also under this law where the notorious Matthew Hopkins led his campaign across East Anglia. Without this law and it's general broadness of definition, he would not have been able to imprison, torture and kill as many women as he was able to. All of this was under the guise of the law, with a title he had given himself.
The Witchcraft Act 1735
An act to repeal...(look up the full title, it's long!).
The act of 1735, much like it's predecessor, was really a product of its time. Unlike its predecessor, it tells us that the belief in witchcraft and the persecution of magical practitioners had taken a nose dive. Whether the fear had disappeared or the absurdity of the previous laws had been recognised, it was under the reign of Queen Anne that the previous law was repealed and an oppositional law was put into effect. The law of 1735 suggests to us that the majority now believed witches did not exist and those claiming to be witches (and indeed those claiming others were witches) were con artists and liars.
As a result of this change in attitude, we see far fewer cases come to court from this point onwards. The few exceptions are instances where acute hysteria has worked up on a local level or they are a case of national security, as is the case with Helen Duncan. Helen was the last person to be accused and put to trial under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. Somewhat shockingly, this all happened less than a century ago in the 1940s. She was first accused in November 1941 where she claimed at a seance to be talking to the spirit of a soldier who had died during the sinking of the HMS Barham. Being the height of World War Two, that information was confidential and only those close to the families of the deceased had been notified of the ship's sinking.
She was subsequently imprisoned for 9 months under claims of falsely professing to have magical powers, under the Witchcraft Act 1735. Helen Duncan would then be brought to court twice more after this, both times charged under the Witchcraft Act 1735, but died in 1956 before he final court hearing. It is widely regarded that her trials are what led to the final repeal of the Witchcraft Act 1735, replaced by the "Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951" which was only finally ended in 2008.
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