Lucy Worsley Investigates, The Witch Hunts

PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):

Sunday, Oct. 2, at 8 PM
Monday, Oct. 3, at 2 AM

Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):

Friday, Oct. 14, at 8 PM

We all think we know what we mean by a witch but behind the clichés of pointy hats and broomsticks lies a terrifying history that has been largely forgotten. Four hundred years ago, thousands of ordinary people—most of them women—were hunted down, tortured and killed in witch hunts across Scotland and England. Historian Lucy Worsley investigates what lay behind these horrifying events.

The research begins in North Berwick, a seaside town not far from Edinburgh, where the witch hunting craze began. The story goes that, in 1590, a coven of witches gathered here to cast a spell to try to kill the King of Scotland, James VI. Worsley uncovers a web of political intrigue that led to a woman named Agnes Sampson, a faith healer and midwife, being investigated. She was accused of witchcraft and interrogated at Holyrood Castle by King James himself before being tortured and executed.

Under torture, Sampson gave the names of her supposed accomplices, some 59 other innocent people, resulting in the first successful large-scale witch hunt in Scotland. Its brutal success made it the model for trials rolled out across Scotland and England for the next hundred years.