Witches: Truth Behind the Trials (2024) s01e03 Episode Script

1
- The 16th century picture
of what was happening
on Halloween night in
the North Berwick Kirk.
You've got this huge
meeting of people
coming in all different ways.
There are people being
magically transported
through the air by the devil.
- This is very clearly
demonic witchcraft.
- They're in the graveyard.
Doors fly open.
Blows again, suddenly
boom, candles.
And there is the devil.
So the devil
climbs into the pulpit
in the fashion of a
Christian minister.
- And then the horror,
the devil points out graves.
They go, they open the
graves, they get the corpses,
they get out their knives,
and they start cutting
off all the fingers,
and all the toes, and
the noses of the corpses.
And the devil says,
"Grind them into a powder
"and you're gonna go
and do bad magic with it."
"Because this is what I
command you as the devil,
"to go and do all
the evil you can."
And that is a 16th
century picture
of what's going on
at a witches meeting
in North Berwick Kirk.
In a matter of months,
these suspected witches
will have to fight
for their lives
in Scotland's first
ever mass witch trial,
presided over by
the king himself.
- The story first begins
when we get a servant
called Geillis Duncan.
Geillis was questioned
by her master,
a man called David Seaton.
David Seaton is a bailey
of the borough of Tranent,
so this means he's sort of
a Scottish local government
official, but he
also runs the court.
So he's an important guy,
he's part of the legal machinery
of this little
patch of Scotland.
He became suspicious
of his servant,
Geillis, because she had a
tendency to sneak out at night.
So he grabs poor Geillis,
and he tortures her.
He sort of practically
strangles her with a rope.
He keeps her awake.
So he thinks, I bet she is
going to witches meetings,
and he thinks she's
maybe been trying out
some of that magical healing.
Women like Geillis
would potentially provide
healing services to their
community, often using herbs,
perhaps with some kind
of incantation spoken
at the time of application.
- Healers don't really
have any training.
There are a few herbs that
they use that are recognized
as having medicinal powers
today, such as foxglove.
Most of, even the
herbs, are probably
what we would call placebos.
Imagine she's
getting threatened and
terrorized, and so Geillis
Duncan starts saying whatever
she thinks will make David
Seaton leave her alone.
What we see in
so many witch trials
is that she starts
to name names.
One of the names
that then comes up
is the name of Agnes Sampson.
Agnes Sampson seems to have
been an older woman than Geillis,
probably fairly established
in her community,
had seemingly worked
for some time as a healer.
Now, Agnes is versatile.
Agnes heals animals
as well as people.
Something you see
with a lot of these healers
is that they would recite
charms that were often
a strange mixture of
different influences.
A bit of Latin, a bit
of familiar prayers
that they had probably
heard at church.
Agnes is your sort
of all-round spiritual,
magical healing consultant.
She's got a big reputation.
Mostly what she's
healing through
are these sort of Latin,
Catholic, Christian charms.
The church doesn't
like that elements of
Catholicism often get brought
into the healing practices.
It's 30 years on from
Scotland's Reformation,
which takes place in 1560.
In theory, the country is
supposed to have converted
into this beacon
of Protestantism,
this glowing, godly society.
In practice, of course,
so many old traditions
and old practices do remain.
The women like Agnes
or Geillis would employ
without necessarily knowing
they were doing anything wrong.
But the church is suspicious
of what they're doing
for that reason and because
they're doing it as women.
Women were thought
in general to be weaker,
perhaps to be more
motivated by sex
and therefore to
be more susceptible
to the temptations of the devil.
A woman compared
to a man had less power
to make her own living.
They weren't
actually even allowed
to give evidence in court.
They're not trusted to
speak for themselves
or to have a clear enough
mind, clear enough judgment
to be able to give you an
accurate version of events.
Prejudices like this can
lead people then to think
that women are
much more susceptible
to the devil and his charms.
People accused of
witchcraft were often said
to have cursed others.
You fear a man's
physical violence.
That's how people think
about this in any modern era.
But if you know that a
woman is angry with you,
are you going to fear
that she will come round
and beat you up?
You fear is women's
curses and you fear women's
harmful magic.
They do say things
like, "You will regret this."
Or, "May the devil drag
your soul through hell."
If a woman's angry and
she says something like that,
and then something
bad happens, you go,
"Oh, that must be
because she was a witch."
When you get a stereotype
in your head about
people and you then
go out and make arrests,
you're much more likely
to question the people
who fit your stereotype.
For witchcraft, the
stereotype in Scotland
is it's much more
likely to be a woman.
♪
There's an idea that
women should be sticking
in their own lane.
They shouldn't be meddling
with healing practices
that are best reserved for
men who have actually been
through university.
Agnes is not
necessarily thinking she's
doing anything wrong,
certainly not anything evil,
but in the eyes
of the ministers,
she's doing something
that, at best, is ineffective.
At worst, is actually
offering herself to the devil
through illicit practice.
Now, at this point,
Agnes Sampson has been
imprisoned on the behest
of the local church court.
And the church has
basically put out a call saying,
"Do you know anything
bad Agnes has done?
"Have you seen
Agnes practising magic?
"Have you heard of
Agnes practising magic?"
And David Seaton goes, "I've
been torturing my servant girl."
And, yes, she says, "Agnes
was hired to get at me."
And, of course, the church
are very interested in that.
And then Agnes
gets interrogated.
So, Scotland has had
sporadic witch trials
before the 1590s, but it's at this
point that something new happens.
Geillis and Agnes
are subjected to brutal
torture for days on
end, pressured to answer
leading questions,
eventually to stop the agony.
They confess to attending
the Witches' Sabbathh
at the North Berwick Kirk.
But the interrogators
also extract a new
treasonous confession.
Both women are forced to
admit they used diabolical magic
to harm the King of
Scotland, James VI.
So, Geillis and Agnes end
up in prison in Edinburgh.
That's a terrifying thing if
you're just an ordinary person.
And suddenly, you're
on trial for your life
..and the King himself
is questioning you.
♪
Why is the King of
Scotland, James VI,
so fixated on two
common faith healers,
when he should be focused
on a much greater prize -
the throne of England?
♪
We've got Queen Elizabeth
I on the throne of England.
She has no children,
and everybody in Europe
is looking to see
who will be the next
ruler of England.
James is one candidate.
He and Elizabeth are
related. He's also a Protestant.
So, James is very
concerned with this question
of the English succession,
and are trying to put himself
in the best possible position
to accede to the throne
after Elizabeth's death.
♪
James VI was Mary,
Queen of Scots' only child.
For him to accede
to the English throne,
it is vital he finds a
wife and an heir to
continue his royal line.
James and his courtiers
start looking around
for a suitable wife for him.
They fix on one of the daughters
of Frederick II of Denmark.
This is Anne of Denmark.
Anne's 14.
And they do then get betrothed.
James starts to make plans
to bring her over to Scotland.
In September 1589, Anne
sets off from Denmark,
but the voyage is
set by problems.
Suddenly, this
huge storm blows up.
The ship starts to leak.
They have to pull
over in Norway.
When you send a princess,
you don't just send one ship.
You know, there was
a whole fleet of ships.
Keeping a fleet together
is particularly difficult.
16th-century sailing ships,
they don't have any brakes,
they're a bit hard to steer.
As soon as trouble breaks, you
can maybe keep one ship going,
but you cannot
keep a whole fleet,
and so the admiral basically
had to abort the voyage.
They get the ship
fixed up, set off again,
but there is continual
bad weather.
The waves beat them back
..and they end up going
back to Norway again.
Anne's fleet makes six
attempts to sail to Scotland.
Each time, they are
forced to turn back.
They then write to
the court in Scotland,
and Anne explains that the
plan now is to remain in Norway
for the winter and come
to Scotland in the spring.
This is difficult
for James to hear,
and it occurs to him to
do something decisive.
James says,
"Right, that's it.
I'm going for it.
"I'm fitting out a ship and
I am going to fetch her,
"and I'm going to leave
basically a committee behind
"to govern Scotland
while I go and I get Anne."
James also encounters
bad weather along the way.
It's still stormy,
it's still rough,
there are still seemingly
all kinds of perils
associated with the journey.
There's a sense for James
and those around him
that this whole project
has been beset by all
kinds of difficulties in a
way that is uncomfortable,
perhaps even suspicious.
James makes it safely to Norway,
where he and Anne are married.
They travel on to Anne's
homeland, Denmark,
where they spend
the bitter winter,
waiting for the dangerous
storms to subside.
James spends six
months or so in Denmark.
He meets this important
Danish theologian
they may well have
discussed witchcraft.
In Trier in Germany,
we've already had
significant outbreaks
of witch-hunting, and
stories about this
would have made their
way to the Danish court.
♪
These accounts of what
witches might get up to
were already in circulation.
There are theories that
he went and filled his head
with all of this sort of
stuff and then brought
it back to Scotland
direct from Denmark.
So, James and Anne
set off on the 26th of April,
and they manage
the voyage this time,
arrive back in Scotland
on the 1st of May.
♪
Questions start getting asked in
Denmark about what happened
to this voyage and
how it all went so wrong.
And you can imagine that for
the people who are in charge
of proceedings, this is
all a bit uncomfortable.
The Danish admiral blames
the governor of Copenhagen.
They talk to the governor of
Copenhagen, who then says,
"I think you ought to be
looking a bit further down
the social scale here.
"There might have been
these witches interfering
with the ships,
"making all of these
things go wrong."
♪
So, there's a process of
passing the buck until we get down
to the people who are least
able to defend themselves.
Then you get news
coming from Denmark that
there are witches who've been
convicted, who've confessed,
to trying to sink James
and Anne and trying
to stop the marriage.
♪
And you can imagine
this is actually what
James wants to hear.
James is a very
devout and godly man.
He would have believed
that everything that happens
is ordained by God,
and it fits James's desire
to see himself as
pretty important.
If he can believe that Satan
is out to attack him specifically,
it puts him in this really
significant position.
King James is convinced
more dark forces are
conspiring against him.
His trusted allies, the Seatons,
reveal they have uncovered
witches working their evil
magic close to the king's
own home in Edinburgh.
The Seatons are the
people James stayed with
when he was waiting
for Anne to come across.
And they will have
chatted about Anne,
about when is the ship coming
and have there been storms.
So, it's really, you
know, a very short hop to
the king is now involved.
The Seatons share
the chilling confessions
extracted from Geillis during
cruel and unrelenting torture.
♪
James then decides
it's time for him
to figure out for
himself what's going on.
It's a sign of just how
important it was to him
that he determines to
interrogate the suspects
at his own home,
at Holyrood House.
Not all kings would
have done that.
These are often poor,
uneducated women
who are getting dragged into
a place they must never have
imagined they'd set
foot, surrounded by all of
these very educated men,
the kinds of social superiors
whom they are very much
not accustomed to defying.
It puts a new kind of pressure
on the accused women.
People accused of
witchcraft like Agnes
undoubtedly
understand that they're
on trial for their lives.
♪
Agnes Sampson is
kept in the Tollbooth from
November of 1590
until January of 1591.
The Tollbooth is a large
administrative building.
It's next to the church.
It's the usual place where
the Privy Council meets.
It's a prison, it's a
courthouse, it's where
actual trials take place.
As far as we can tell,
many of the interrogations
also take place
in that building.
♪
When it comes to questioning,
several men would come
and interrogate the suspect.
Usually this involved
asking quite a lot
of leading questions.
Typically your
interrogators will be
there asking things like,
"Did you make a
pact with the devil?"
"Did you have sex with him?"
"Did you meet other witches
at a night-time gathering?"
♪
And pressure would be applied.
Throughout history,
countless horrifying methods
have been used to elicit
confessions of witchcraft.
The trials in Scotland
are no different.
The major way this is done is by
torturing them through
sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation over a very
short period of time,
within 48 hours, has
the intended effects.
People can start to hallucinate.
You become
extremely disorientated.
You can't think,
you can't focus,
you can't concentrate,
you can't process.
Things may be said to you
that you start to just repeat.
So you start to even
maybe believe what
you're actually saying.
So this is where
questions can be leading,
but also plant in information.
It creates the perfect
conditions for people
to say what the torturers
want them to say.
There's also physical
violence that goes on as well.
Agnes has this rope drawn
around her head and tightened.
They seem to have
used thumbscrews,
things that they tighten
on the fingers or the thumb.
We have at least two people
who commit suicide in custody
over the course of
the North Berwick Hunt.
We have someone else
who dies of being tortured.
And I'm sorry to
say that, you know,
most of the authorities
who are carrying out what
I would call torture today,
the way they do it is by
calling it something else.
Just don't call it torture.
You can get away
with whatever you like.
♪
I can see that they are
putting considerable pressure
on these people to confess.
So your interrogators are
hoping to extract a confession,
but they're also hoping
to find visible evidence
of somebody's
pact with the devil.
The way this could be done
was by locating a witch's mark.
One type of mark,
and this is the one
that seems to be
particularly important
in North Berwick,
is the type of mark that
you detect with a pin.
This is a very traumatic
thing because it
involves being stripped naked.
And this is usually
done in public with
people standing round.
And what they do is
they take a long pin,
a little dressmaker's pin,
more like a big hat pin,
and they shove it
into you, all over.
They're looking for a place
where they can put the pin in
and you won't feel it.
So in the case of Agnes,
supposedly they eventually
find a mark on her genitals.
A coercive and
humiliating procedure.
You know, particularly
if you're then told,
"And we found the mark,
right, so we know you're guilty,
"are you going to confess now?"
This seems to be the point at
which several people break down
and decide that
they will confess.
It is generally easier
to cooperate with
the interrogators.
The interrogators tell
you what they want.
If you just give them it,
you get an easier time
than if you argue or refuse.
This, unfortunately, is why
we get false confessions.
♪
For Agnes, once they
had what they needed from
her in the way of a confession,
that's when things get
moved on to Holyrood House,
when there's actually something
to put before the king.
So Agnes has been found
by the interrogation process
to tell particular stories,
and when she gets brought
out in front of James,
she plays her part.
♪
She gives this account
of how at Halloween
she went to this Sabbathh.
We've got accounts of many
witches' meetings where
they're hauling up the devil,
doing magic with the devil.
♪
Typically, stories
about the Sabbath
are not so likely
to be coming from
the lower levels of society,
from the accused
people themselves.
These are ideas that
are getting introduced
during the
interrogation process.
It's the interrogators,
they've read all this stuff.
They're saying, "How are
you going to kill the king?
"Why are you going
to do it like this?
"Why are you going
to do it like that?"
♪
They have to tell
a story because
they're being tortured,
they can't remain silent.
The interrogators
want credible detail.
♪
Agnes talks about
how she suspended
a toad upside down and collected
the venom that fell out of it,
and she used this
to make a poison
that she wanted
to use on the king.
She asked supposedly
a man of his bedchamber
to bring her some of his
linen that she could then
anoint with this poison.
So we're getting at
this point this conspiracy
against James himself.
James is initially reluctant
to believe these stories
these alleged
witches are telling.
But then Agnes
whispers into his ear
the words that he said to his
new wife in their bedchamber
on their wedding night.
James is supposedly
astounded by this
..and suddenly realises
that, in fact, it's all true.
♪
Now we have this
great satanic conspiracy
that James sees as a
real and genuine threat
to himself and to
the whole nation.
Agnes is found guilty on
the 27th of January, 1591.
♪
And she's executed the next day.
♪
We imagine histories'
witches burnt alive at the stake.
But this horrifying act
was surprisingly rare.
You would strangle
people before burning
them as a somewhat more
humane death sentence.
One reason to burn
bodies is that it created this
impressive public spectacle.
It made a real statement about
your power as government.
Another reason to
burn the body of a witch
is so that the devil can't
use her corpse for any trouble
after she's gone.
So there was this fear about
the corpse that was left behind
and how that could continue
to inflict misery on communities.
They probably have built
the pyre in advance of the trial.
They're ready to go
if and when the right
verdict is handed down.
So the pyre will be ready.
Agnes will be strangled
♪
..and then burnt.
Castle Hill, it's on the top
of a hill, a very visible thing.
It will be seen for miles.
It lasts for hours.
It's a very dramatic spectacle.
People will have gathered,
you know, in hundreds
or even thousands to watch this.
Various people
are still in prison
and one of them is
poor Geillis Duncan,
with whom it all started.
She is in prison
for over a year.
Presumably because
she was very useful
to her interrogators, saying
whatever they wanted her to say.
She's going to be worn down.
She's going to be tired of the
treatment she's undergoing.
When these men come
to her, who are educated,
who have this
superior social status,
and start insisting on what
she needs to be telling them,
she's probably going to
be looking for a way out.
She confesses what
they want to hear.
Geillis is brought
before James herself.
Again, tells this story
that she's been fed
about her activities.
She says she was at this
Sabbath, she raised these stones.
James was said to
have been very interested
in these proceedings.
Broken from months
of brutal torture,
Geillis names more witches.
She begins to accuse members
of Scotland's aristocracy,
names fed to her
during interrogation.
One of the high-ranking
women who got
accused was Barbara Napier.
She is a member of
the Edinburgh elite.
So a quite
well-connected person.
Barbara Napier is accused
of consulting with witches,
but also initially of
engaging in witchcraft herself.
And initially, the
jury acquits her.
They're not convinced.
They think she's
an honest woman.
And the King goes mad about it.
He wants them
put on trial for it.
An interesting feature
of the Scottish legal
system in this period
is that juries could
themselves be prosecuted
for returning the wrong verdict.
In James's mind, this
is what's going on here.
The jury has been presented
with compelling evidence
and they've come out
with the wrong answer.
He starts putting
some pressure on them.
Barbara is then convicted.
Luckily, Barbara
pleads pregnancy.
We know ultimately,
she survived.
She wasn't barren. She got away.
Although the vast majority of
the accused witches are women,
a small number of
men are also convicted.
Another figure who's accused is
this Haddington
schoolmaster called John Fian.
John Fian had supposedly
served as the devil's secretary
during the Sabbath,
presumably as one of the
few literate people present.
John Fian is subjected
to a wide range of
pretty gruesome tortures.
♪
Eventually, after holding
out for a long time,
he does confess
and he is executed.
So another prominent
figure who's accused
is Euphame MacCalzean, a
relative of David Seaton, who
first questioned Geillis Duncan.
She, again, is an
example of the higher tiers
of Scottish society getting
drawn into witch-hunting.
And there was real
effort put into saving her.
But they don't succeed.
I mean, you've got the
King pushing for conviction.
And in the end,
Euphame's executed.
She is sentenced
to be burned alive.
I think this is possibly
the King himself,
having been so cross at not
getting Barbara Napier executed.
You can almost imagine
him banging the table.
"Right, I'm really going to
make my point this time."
In total, about 60 or 70 people
are drawn into these trials.
For over a year, Geillis
Duncan, the key witness,
has been trapped in
prison as one of the
first witches accused.
She provided her
torturers with a torrent of
names and information.
But her time is up.
She's finally summoned
to meet her terrible fate.
The accused would
not necessarily have
legal representation.
Typically would not
even testify in court.
All that would get fotted
out would be the confession
they had already supplied.
♪
So they don't really
have much space to
stand up for themselves.
If they have already
confessed under torture,
there's relatively
little opportunity to
then change their mind.
She was taken to
Edinburgh's Castle Hill
on a December afternoon
to be strangled and burned.
Geillis does try to backtrack.
At the stake, she recanted
everything she said.
She said it was all lies.
She admits that she has
lied because of torture
about all the other
women, but she doesn't
want to go to her death
with that in her conscience.
But it's too late at that point.
A sentence has already
passed in the mind of James,
in the mind of the
people hearing her case.
So Geillis is finally executed
on the 4th of December, 1591.
Just what goes through
these people's minds
when they're tied to the stake.
It's hard to imagine.
For James, however, it's
still unfinished business.
King James is not
satisfied that the likes of
Agnes and Geillis,
mere common folk,
were behind the
plot to kill him.
He feels he is worthy
of a more significant foe.
He hears rumour that
someone much closer to home
could be behind
the plot to kill him.
One of the very
people he put in charge
while he was
collecting his bride.
His own cousin, Francis
Stewart, the Earl of Bothwell.
Francis Stewart,
Earl of Bothwell,
he is James's cousin.
He's sometimes described
as a loose cannon.
I think that's a great
way to describe him.
He has a lot of
run-ins with James VI.
He promises he's
going to be a good guy
and he's going to reform his
ways while James is in Denmark.
When James comes back,
well, James is not really sure
that Bothwell's been reformed.
James comes to believe,
because somebody is getting
the accused witches to say it,
that Bothwell is the mastermind
behind this alleged conspiracy.
♪
The version that the
witches have been tortured
into telling James is
that the Earl of Bothwell
decided he was scared of
James, he thought James
might execute him, and
therefore he decided to
get his revenge on him
first and to murder James.
It's discovered the rumours
incriminating Bothwell
come from one man, a renowned
magical healer, Richie Graham.
Now, Richie Graham was what
we might call a service magician,
someone who travelled around
offering his magical talents.
He'd been hanging about
with people in very high places.
As a provider of magical
services to Scotland's gentry,
including Bothwell, Richie
Graham is the perfect suspect.
He is summoned for questioning.
Graham, in an attempt
to save his own skin,
then implicates
Bothwell for witchcraft.
♪
And then he becomes
really important as
the person who said,
"Yeah, Bothwell
wanted to kill the king.
"Bothwell wrote to
me to do it, and I said,
"Oh, no, you'll need
Agnes Sampson
"and you'll need all these
other women to do it."
So he's the person
who's ditching all the
conspiracy together.
In a way that satisfies
his interrogators
and makes them think,
"We've had this really
serious, well-thought-out
plot against the king."
And the chief villain
was the Earl of Bothwell,
and here's Richie
Graham, the right-hand
man, who set it all up.
♪
In April 1591, Bothwell
is charged with witchcraft.
He is then held in
Edinburgh Castle.
It's really astonishing
that this goes as
high as the Earl of Bothwell
being accused of witchcraft.
This has started with serving
girls being interrogated,
and now we have an Earl being
imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle.
♪
Bothwell knows this isn't
a great position to be in,
so he very quickly escapes.
He just climbs out of a
window and makes a rope
out of knotted sheets.
And he stays on the run for
most of the next two years.
Bothwell's finally tried,
and he's acquitted.
His fellow nobles just do
not want to find him guilty,
but James is still furious.
James doesn't trust him.
Bothwell eventually gets exiled.
He ends up dying
in poverty in Naples.
Interest in witchcraft persists.
There are more trials over
the course of the 1590s.
James is certainly not done
inquiring into the subject.
And in 1597, he publishes
a book entitled Demonology.
♪
This was James's attempt
to thoroughly survey the topic
of how the devil worked,
how he might interfere
with proper Christians,
and to set out some
general principles around
good Protestant behaviour
and keeping clear of the devil.
James actually
resurrects certain ideas
that had mostly
fallen by the wayside,
like the idea of a trial
by water for witches.
One interesting point about
the book Demonology is the title.
So Demonology,
knowledge of demons.
James seems to have
invented that word.
The title of James's book
seems to be the first time
when we find the word
demonology in English.
The publication of that
book gives witchcraft
additional credibility.
In 1603, Elizabeth
I dies without heirs.
♪
James's dreams come true.
He succeeds to the
throne of England.
Almost immediately,
James makes updates to the
English Witchcraft Act.
The Witchcraft Act
is the act under which
witches were prosecuted.
By the previous version,
witchcraft in England
was a capital crime only
if the alleged witch had
actually murdered somebody.
Under the new
Witchcraft Act of 1604,
basically any witchcraft
can be punished by death.
England typically hadn't
been as severe as Scotland
when it came to the
pursuit of witches.
The Act of 1604
casts a long shadow.
Another thing happens in 1605,
two years after he's
got the English throne.
A group of radical subversive
Catholics try to blow him up
and blow up the entire
Houses of Parliament.
This is the Gunpowder
Plot, 5th November 1605.
And it really was
quite a shocking thing.
James persuaded himself that
he personally had played a role
in uncovering the
Gunpowder Plot.
And it's not just
that he was clever.
It's that he's protected by
God, and so God would not
allow such a wicked deed.
That gives the king a huge
amount of divine legitimation.
I know, let's have a
celebration every year,
every 5th of November.
We will remind ourselves
just how wicked that plot was
and just how
goodly the king was.
♪
The North Berwick
Trials are over,
but they have set this
dangerous precedent.
There is now this established
idea that it's possible
for people to band
together in groups
and launch wild,
demonic conspiracies,
attack their communities.
And these ideas feed
through into other witch trials
in the next century.
Scotland's first
mass witch trials
saw at least 40 people
accused, the vast majority women.
Through horrific torture
and forced confession,
some of it overseen
by the king himself,
over half of the accused were
found guilty and put to death
for the impossible
crime of witchcraft.
It takes a while for
witch hunting to die down.
A lot of that is a legacy
of what happened
in the early 1590s.
The stamp of approval
that the king put on it all.
It would be another
century until the end of
witch hunts, trials and
executions in Scotland.
Until then, they will
spread like wildfire
across Europe
and to the Americas.