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Mark is a Mochi member, compensated for his story. Hello delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The history podcast. That's not your estuary class. With me, your host, Katy Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books who's feeling a wee bit lightheaded right now because I have had two nosebleeds today. I haven't had a nosebleed in 25 years. So guess who has to go get their blood pressure checked tomorrow. Oh, my. Oh, my. And so, yes, more gag information is coming out so soon for dates in Ireland. I do have The London Show, November 8th. If you haven't got your tickets yet, get your damn tickets. Because once they're gone, they're gone. And I don't know if I'm going to make it to the UK next year, depending on how things work out. So busy, busy be. So that is happening. Oh, I've got blood on myself. Honestly, I. I just started bleeding at work. And then as I was walking home, I was like five minutes away from the house and I'm like, oh, my nose is bleeding again. And next thing you know, blood has covered half of my face. I look like a messy vampire, really. Which fitting for the season because it's, you know, the Halloween season. And I was like, oh, God, what if I scare all the children on the street as I'm walking home? Like, I can't do that. So I'm trying to, like, cover myself up. And all I keep thinking is, like, why don't I have a tampon in my bag? Because that would have, like, plugged this up real good. But I'm also. Next month is my birthday month, so I'm working on, like, stuff that I really love, stuff that's very me. So instead of having like a full month of a specific topic, like le. Witches. You know, witches, Witches, bookie bitches. I'm gonna be doing like one on week on Cult and one week on something else and all that kind of good stuff. But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, katie, quit your jibber jabber. In fact me. In fact you. I will. But first we have to get our source on. Our sources are the Story of Witches by Willow Wencham. Witches, Midwives and Nurses by Barbara Enrich and Deirdre English. Queen James by Gareth Russell. Agents of Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy and Denmark by Louise Nyholm Kalstrup. Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland, James vi. Demonology and the North Berwick Witch Trials by Lawrence Normand. The framework for the Scottish Witch Hunting in the now 1590s. Scottish witchcraft trials by Julian Goodia and Helen Woollimson. And of course, we have our old friends history.com and biography.com. are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin. Before I actually get into this episode, I should warn anyone and everyone that, you know, this is the abuse of women in history, you know, so be Prepared. If you are uncomfortable with torture, abuse, assault, attacks on women, physically and verbally, I suppose, and death, murder, this might not be the episode for you. You might want to exit stage left and we'll see you next time. But for the rest of you, it would be both difficult and downright foolish to try and talk about the history of witches, not discuss King James's part in it. King James VI of Scotland, first of England, who also tried to get parliament to call him the King of Great Britain. And they were like, no, pal. Like, you cannot demand your own nickname. When you give yourself a nickname, that. That's just not cool. Okay? That's not a thing that you do. But King James VI of Scotland, first of England, was instrumental in fanning the flames of witch fever. He even wrote the book on it and some Jesus fan fiction. But that's neither here nor there. If you listened to the previous episode regarding the Pendle witches, you may already know. But if you haven't, or you want a wee bit of a refresher, let's slip into some context. Women, yes, mainly women had been accused of witchcraft for centuries. Like, if you want the stats, it's approximately 85% of those accused of witchcraft were women. Okay. Some men, some children. Majority adult women. They were accused of cavautting with the devil or his demons for everything from angry words, accidents, natural disasters, anything that could not be explained or that needed a villain. So when things happen in life, like, a lot of the time you want a cause. You want something or someone to blame for whatever incident has occurred. Like, nobody likes the idea that stuff just happens. No rhyme, no reason, but stuff happens, right? And there isn't always a solution, There isn't always a reason or a cause. Sometimes stuff happens and you cannot stop it. It's why I'm terrified of natural disasters, because it's stronger than me. And so you need a scapegoat. You need someone to blame. Enter witches. Because, like, magic has been infused in culture, like, for as long as people have lived. Although a lot of what some people call, like witchcraft and like alchemy and the like is just science that people didn't understand yet. But it is what it is. So the witch trials, they occurred as early as the 13th century. Now, they may have been earlier, but we do not have the documentation to support that. But they really hit their stride between the 15th and 18th centuries in Europe and the New World in, like, North America. Patriarchal societies in which men held the positions of power. Legal, political, religious areas that were typically under the rule of Christendom. I could have just said Christianity, couldn't I? But no, Christian, dumb. I've said it now the words are out there. The spread and grip of Christianity throughout the Western world pushed the older religions to sort of the edges, the fringes of society to the uncommon. Now, older religions, sort of different, older, all these, they become associated with evil and witchcraft. And not only do you have that spreading its wings, but religious upheaval played a great part when the Christian church split. So the Roman Catholic Church, as it is now known it splintered with the introduction of Protestant Christianity, which created distrust within communities. So you had, you know, Christianity, and so you would have like Roman Catholic, sort of that Christian side, and then you would have Eastern Orthodox. Those were the two big boys in the whole Christian system. And then Christianity starts splintering off, right? So you've got Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran. I think the Huguenots were one. There's just Christians, kind of Christians, Christian lights. Can't believe they've got Christians. You know, there's everybody, right? So on top of religion, you have economic and societal challenges which led to many women, some men, and yes, even a few children being accused of witchcraft. And as I said in the previous podcast episode on the Pendle Witches, whenever there is a rise in moral conservatism, there is also an application of othering in society in which the marginalized are demonized, dehumanised and branded as morally corrupt. Women were convenient scapegoats for plague, pestilence, famine and a stormy sea. But we'll get to that in a moment. The Malleus Maleficarum was Originally published in 1486 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Kramer. Translated as the Hammer of the Witches, this misogynistic vitriolic text is a very, very lengthy witch hunting manual. And it was sold in bookstalls and cathedral and university towns. But it wasn't just there. It was popular because it had a vast readership. It spread beyond the clergy, right? Beyond religious leaders. You had the gentry and the nobles. Royals were reading this. Kings, queens, dukes, everybody, right? This wasn't something on the fringes. This was very much like I'm trying to think of if we ever get another Game of Thrones book. Well, we probably not. He's probably going to die before it comes out. Unless it's already written. Sidebar. What if George R. Man has Martin, Martin, Martin. That was weird. If George R.R. martin has written Winds of Winter, he's written the end of Game of Thrones or A Song of Ice and Fire. If he has written the ending to the saga of the Song of Ice and Fire and he's got it set aside only to be published upon his demise so that, you know, he doesn't have to deal with the backlash and the, like, people's feelings regarding the end of the story. Because I have a feeling it's like that probably if he has finished it, because, you know, the TV show was good to a point, and then they just like, I've never seen something lose momentum as quickly as that. Like, ow. But anyway, back to this. So King James of Scotland, King James VI of Scotland, I should say, was one such reader of books. Oh, I don't like that. I got a dirty taste in my mouth there. No, I'm the reader of books. You're just a book reader. Blech. James had become King of Scotland when he was only 13 months old, when his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate the throne. So you may notice that he is King James of Scotland and she is Mary Queen of Scots. So, like, before him, right, the whole concept of being like the crowned person in Scotland, right, wasn't that you were a ruler of the land, you were a ruler of the people, you represented the people. So you would have been King of Scots. Queen of Scots, not King or Queen of Scotland. Like, that was the idea behind it. But he's like, no, no, no, no. I am the King of Scotland. So Mary, Mary Queen of Scots was a Catholic, but Scotland had undergone a Protestant Reformation, and so James had been raised to be an obedient Protestant king. Being Protestant was something that was going to hold him in good stead, royally, politically, as Queen. Elizabeth I, who was Church of England and also Protestant, had no heirs. And so good Queen Bess would be looking for an heir to the throne of England and Wales, a Protestant heir to the throne. Like, I'm not sure when it was, but it did happen that they changed the law, like Parliament changed the law, so that no Catholic could become like the King or Queen of England. Anyway. Scotland had been in turmoil since James ascended the throne, with many, and I do mean many, kidnapping and murder attempts on the young king's life. And events like the Black Dinner with would make an impact on the manner in which James would dole out punishment in the name of self preservation. When James VI of Scotland was 23, it had not gone unnoticed by everyone around him, everyone important that he avoided. Women lacked an heir and had many intense attachments with male friends. Here's the thing. Legitimate children were necessary in carrying on the royal line. And so a marriage was on the cards. Like, you had to be married, you had to have a legitimate heir. This was something that was required in order for the legacy to continue. Because if not, like, it's. It's a power struggle, it's an issue. And James, he had been raised and molded in such a way that like, they wanted this to continue to create the Scotland that they wanted. And so he needed to get hitched. A marriage was arranged between James and Anna of Denmark. She would then change her name to Anne because that's what happened. You'd be whatever your name was in the country you were from. And then you would come over after you got married and you change your name. Like Catherine of Aragon, she was Catalina, like, because it, she was fucking Spanish, you know. And her name was changed when she moved, you know. So Anne was a princess, a daughter of the Danish Norwegian king, Frederick ii. So Denmark, Norway was one kingdom at the time and it was a Protestant nation. It had what was called a real union. So it was a dual monarchy. Yeah. So it was also fairly close with Scotland. It had a shared history. And of course it had like the Orkney Islands. They're like close to Norway. Like Stavanger in Norway is actually closer to Edinburgh than London is. Like many royal marriages at the time, the couple were wed by proxy. And what that means is that they each had a service and someone stands in for the bride or the groom in their respective locations. And this was really common with, with sort of royal marriages. It was like, here's a little like proxy wedding and then they would have like a proper royal wedding after. Right. As it was necessary. So anne, she's like 14 at the time, which is a little younger than James, who's 23, and she's about to set sail for Scotland. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. There is an unprecedented storm during storm season and Anne is unable to get there. So she actually sails from Denmark and then has to turn around because it's so stormy and has to return to Norway. Like Norway is the only place she can go. So when James, mail order bride doesn't arrive by the estimated shipping date, he takes matters into his own hands. And by his own hands, I mean a well trained group of seamen. Oh, sorry. A well trained group of seamen would help James traverse across the North Sea to collect his new bride. And because he has to sail there, he has to get to her before, like the storm season gets too bad, like before the seas get too rough. And so he has to he has to like, contact Queen Elizabeth the First, he has to like write her a letter or get the ambassador to do it. And he has to inform them that he's sailing to get his bride, that it's not like a war fleet. He's like, I just want to let you know because, like, the English navy at this point was doing very well. And James is like, ah, I don't. I'm not doing anything. I'm not doing anything at all. Don't be scared and don't destroy my fleet of ships. So off he sails to Norway to get to his new bride and they are together for the first time and they travel down to Copenhagen in Denmark and this is where he is exposed to the Danish royal court. And as it turns out, his new in laws were they believed that they knew the exact cause of this emergency. Witches. Witches. Spooky bitches. Witch hunting had been the norm in the southern section of Denmark Norway for over 40 years, with the first documented executions in 1540. As far back as the 1530s, it was seen as the duty of godly people to hunt down witches like wolves. When Denmark Norway had converted to Protestantism from Catholicism in, it was expected that such extremist views would peter out. Spoiler alert. They did not. In fact, demonologists would use the terms like heresy, apostasy, idolatry, sacrilege and Catholicism to describe witchcraft. Basically, anything non Protestant could fall under the veil of witchcraft. And what's interesting is that it's not the clergy, it's not the church leaders pushing this narrative at the time, but royal officials. And it was here that James had arrived. James, who had been raised by the most dour of Christians. Now, I would say that Scottish Presbyterians, like historically, were as miserable as sin, but sinning's not allowed. So Queen Anne's fleet had tried to pass through Denmark Skagerak Strait six times and failed on the last attempt. Her boat began to leak and they had to retreat to the nearest port and that was in Oslo. And like Oslo is the. The capital of Norway and that is actually where her and James met in person for the first time. And that's when they got married properly, officially in person irl. So like she tried six times, didn't make it, had to just retreat. So once as just weather, twice is disheartening. But sex storms, well, that's witchcraft and magic. The newlywed royal couple spent Christmas at Anne's Brother King Christian IV's court at Helsingal, where admirals and courtiers were arguing over whether witches had attacked the royal family. So here's the thing. By preventing the Queen to get to the King and have the royal wedding and the royal bedding, most importantly, this would prevent royal heirs being produced. And so this is an attack on the line of succession. And anyone who has heard anything about Henry VIII knows, and I understand it's a different country, but like, this is sort of a general rule with a lot of royals in the lineage. Right. And it is the idea that the line of succession and to attack the line of succession is to attack the Crown itself. Any attempt to poison or destroy the line of succession for a lot of countries was considered treason. So the following summer, it was alleged that witches had caused sea storms by sending demons out to the ships in barrels. Obviously, because they may be demonic entities, but flying is outwith the realm of possibility. And so these demons that had floated across the sea in barrels had attacked the hull of Queen Anne's ships. This resulted in Anna Koldings, Karen Weffers, Marin Morgensis, Marin, Mats Bruges and eight others put on trial for witchcraft in Copenhagen. These women were tortured and they confessed. And two of them were executed. Like they confessed to causing storms by sending demons out in barrels to attack the hull of the Queen's ships while making a storm. Which honestly just feels like they don't have a lot of respect for the demons. Also, like, but in all seriousness, two women were executed for allegedly sending demons in barrels to attack a ship on the North Sea. Or not. Wasn't even on the North Sea at that point, but it's, you know, on a treacherous part of the sea. The royal couple sailed to Scotland in May after the storm season. But this journey was also plagued with bad weather. And by bad weather, I mean a terrible storm. Naturally, both the Scottish and the Dano Norwegian royal families believed that witches were plotting to murder them. Back in Scotland, the Scottish Witchcraft act had been introduced in 1563, which is almost 30 years prior. This was a serious offence. Practicing any form of witchcraft, even consulting with a witch, was punishable by death. And King James was going to utilise these laws to set up his new tribunal, the purpose of which was to root out all of the witches in his kingdom.
