A woeful ghost issaid to wander thePalace of Holyroodhousein Edinburgh , her nebular torso bald , naked , and clobber . As fable has it , she is the apparition of Agnes Sampson , interrogated at Holyrood and subjected to cruel torture some 400 geezerhood ago .
It ’s an eery tale that stem from a material and tragical miscarriage of justice . In December 1590 , Sampson was fetch to Holyrood to be question on charges ofwitchcraft — acapital offense , made all the more tomb by claim that she had used her powers to try and bring about the death ofJames VI , the reigning king of Scotland . A pocket-sized - town therapist , Sampson suddenly rule herself in the impose presence of high - grade interrogators , including James himself .
At first , Sampson traverse the charges against her . Then come the torture . All the tomentum was shave from Sampson ’s dead body and her drumhead was bond with rope , have a pain “ most grievous , ” harmonize toNews from Scotland , a propaganda pamphlet trumpet James ’s prosecution of suspected witch . After nearly an time of day of maltreatment , investigators come up what they were search for : the “ devil ’s scratch , ” supposedlybranded onto witchesby Satan himself , “ upon her privities . ”
At this moment of physical and sexual humiliation , Sampson broke . She “ forthwith confessed whatsoever was demand of her , ” the pamphlet reported .
Once value within her community for her healing abilities , Sampson was now in full ensnared in awitchpanic that had spread to the high echelon of Scotch society . The confession that she gave under torture would play a cardinal role in the infamousNorth Berwick witch trialsof 1590-‘91 , and entangle Sampson in the ambitions of a Billie Jean Moffitt King who was outstandingly eager to pursue ordinary citizen for their supposed dealing with the heller .
Bones, Cats, and the Devil’s Buttocks
Sampson also confessed to a villainous plot of ground to murder James with blackmagic . She enunciate that after the world-beater sweep afield in 1589 tomarry Anne of Denmark , the North Berwick crone baptise a cat , constipate it with a dead man ’s finger cymbals , and flip the animal into the sea , create a hex that had causedsevere stormsto plague James ’s journey . “ The say witch declared that his Majesty [ would have ] never derive safely from the sea,”News from Scotlandreported , “ if his faith had not run above their intentions . ”
It ’s an “ absolutely bonkers ” story , historiographer Lucy Worsley says inLucy Worsley Investigates , a PBS series that explore striking events in Britishhistory ; the fourth sequence , which delves into the North Berwick witch trials , isstreamingon PBS this month .
James and his advisors , however , took Sampson ’s confession as proof of a confederacy against him . At least 70 peoplewere try out , tortured , and executed in the trial that would spiral out from this conspiracy theory . Sampson was among those who lost their liveliness . On January 28 , 1591 , one 24-hour interval after being convicted in a formal trial , she was hamper to death and her dead body was burn , then the stock penalisation for witches in Scotland .
Aspiring to Godliness
The North Berwick trials check off the first in a series of intensewitchcraft panicsthat gripped Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries . Like other historic witch hunts , these incidences of mass hysteriadefy unproblematic explanation . But among the complex forces that give rise to the trials was a spiritual revolution that strike base in Scotland decades before Sampson and James VI had their unlikely encounter at Holyrood .
Scotland , like many other European body politic in the 16th C , was everlastingly changed by theProtestant Reformation , the landmark religious movement that challenged the mastery of the Catholic church building and activate bitter conflicts between Catholic and Protestant factions . The reformers emerged triumphant in Scotland , whichofficially becamea Protestant countryin 1560 .
Under the influence of the extremist Reformation leader John Knox , the Church of Scotlandimplemented astrict moral computer code , with the end ofestablishinga “ godly state . ” Local church courts , know as “ kirk sessions , ” sought to clip perceive vice like dancing , drunkenness , celebration at weddings , card - playing , and luxurious dress . Amid this austere climate , “ belligerent Protestants … defined witches as one of their principal foe , ” Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts write inWitchcraft in former Modern Scotland .
impression in witchery and magic were not fringe sentence in late-16th C Scotland . They “ permeated every social and ethnic level , ” Normand and Roberts write . And , as Worsley tells Mental Floss , pursuing suspected witch offer a way to hold one ’s “ aspirations towards godliness”—something that may have been on James ’s mind when he became involved in the North Berwick tryout .
A Royal Wedding and Mysterious Storms
James , boy of the ominous - fatedMary , Queen of Scots , was born in 1566 , . He became king when he was just 13 calendar month old , follow his mother ’s abdication of the Scots throne . James wasraised as a Protestantand became theheadof the Presbyterian church in Scotland in 1584 . But the young king ’s interest in witchesonly seems to havetaken flight in 1590 , after plans to bring his Danish bride to Scotland were repeatedly thwarted by misadventure at ocean .
James and Anne of Denmark were married by proxy in August 1589 . The following calendar month , Anne made three endeavour to set cruise for her new home , but was wedge to take shelter in Norway after her fleet was hobble by strong winds and a blabbermouthed flagship . So James decided to move around to Anne . He too encountered violent winds , but was ultimately able to make it to Norway , where the pair was married once again , this time brass to face .
The idea that a mephistophelean conspiracy was behind the royal couple ’s marine misfortunes may have start in Denmark , where some blamed the delays to Anne ’s fleet on allege witches and put the defendant on trial take up in May 1590 . Whatever the accelerator , rumors of a personal threat against him seem to have captured James ’s tending . He was awell - educated swayer , and part of this curiosity was scholarly ; “ demonology , ” or the written report of monster , was considered anintellectual pursuitin the former modern period . ( The kingpublished his own treatiseon the subject in 1597 . )
But James still took a hands - on approach path to tackling what he consider as the threat ofwitchcraft in Scotland . “ He does roll up his arm and … [ say ] , ‘ Right , I ’m run to question these people myself , ’ ” Julian Goodare , emeritus prof of account at the University of Edinburgh and conductor of theSurvey of Scottish Witchcraft , tells Mental Floss . “ Not all monarchs would do that . A batch of them would leave it to their functionary . It ’s maybe a personal vogue of kingship , possibly it ’s arrogance , or peradventure it ’s just being an participating male monarch who thinks he ’s got a contribution to make . ”
An Eye to the English Throne
Witchcraft was not the only concern occupying James ’s mind in the late-16th century . He was theclosest royal relativeofElizabeth I , the aging monarch on the English throne . Elizabeth had no tiddler and resisted list a heir ; James was very keen to “ position himself as [ her ] potential heir , ” Worsley tells Mental Floss . “ He wanted to smooth up his credentials to get ready for her subsequent death . ” Establishing himself as a unattackable and reverent ruler who stamped out witch and the peril they posed to god - revere citizens would do just that .
At home in Scotland , Protestant church service loss leader were claiming to derive their index straight off from God , rather than the sovereign — another reason for James to assert his moral authority by take a hard-line posture on witches . It was n’t a purely political scheme ; according to Goodare , reports of witches plot against his life would have seemed believable to the king . But James probably understood the benefits of being comprehend as an enemy of the dickens and his witchy accomplice .
“ He ’s go to think , when he present himself in world in almost any field of body process , ‘ How ’s this going to play out ? ’ ” Goodare says . “ That ’s not always the issue - one thing that he ’s thinking about , but it ’s not something he can ever entirely bury . ”
The Wise Wife of Keith
As kingly aspirations transpired at the upper levels of Scotch society , Agnes Sampson was busy with her healing practice , serving many clients in her East Lothian village . “ Women like her just generally are n’t put down ; they take the air very lightly through the archive , ” Worsley says . “ But because of what take place to her , we know such a lot about her . ”
She was a widow woman and a female parent , known locally as the “ Wise Wife of Keith”—a woman skilled in traditional healing method acting , from the settlement of Nether Keith . She used both innate cure and orison to bring around illnesses , assist in childbirth , foretell impending decease , and , ironically , vagabond off ill that clients believed were set upon them by witch .
Sampson ’s practice , with its curative , predictions , and conjuration , smell of the supernatural — not unusual among women of her profession , but adangerous path to trodas church and state authorities became increasingly concerned with purging the world of sinful behaviors . “ If clients aver , ‘ I watch her saying a prayer against witches , ’ that could very easily , in the eye of the beholder , morph into ‘ I see her cast a trance , ’ ” Worsley explains .
Worsley mull that there was another reason misgiving fell on Sampson . Historic witch hunts oftenpersecutedmarginal member of society — which Sampson was , by virtue of existing at a time when woman were considered to be inferior to men , and thusmore susceptibleto the lure of the devil . But Sampson was also a well-thought-of design within her residential area , whose expertise was sought by everyone from the local poor to member of the pocket-sized gentry .
“ Protestantism at that metre was a male - eclipse faith and it was a comparatively new religion in Scotland , ” Worsley say . “ A matured , well-thought-of woman who had won the [ admiration ] of the community through helping people … could seem like a rival rootage of self-confidence to the church elders in the residential district . ”
Ultimately , it was a local servant miss identify Geillis Duncan who sealed Sampson ’s luck . When Duncan became thefirst incriminate witchto undergo inquiring in late 1590 , she named the Wise Wife of Keith as a fellow factor of the devil .
Honoring Witch Hunt Victims
Sampson found herself in an impossible situation , face brutal interrogations by striking official , who were quick to think that she was guilty of a diabolical conspiracy . “ When you get witches ’ confessions , what you ’re wait at is a dialogue between inquisitor and suspect , ” Goodare articulate . “ This someone is being rack , this individual does n’t understand the politics , this person is terrified … They endeavor to give the answers that are want . ”
Before 1590 , according to Goodare , almost allwitchcraft prosecutionsin Scotland had postulate “ isolated individual . ” The large scope of the North Berwick trials go under the stagecoach for four additional mass panics in Scotland in the 17th century , leading to the executions of some 2500 accused—“five timesthe average European execution rate per caput , ” Goodare writes inNational Geographic . Most of these victim were women , and most of their names are not known today , displace in history Holy Writ by tale of prominent figure — like James VI , who ultimately prevailed as Elizabeth I ’s replacement , becomingJames I of Englandin 1603 .
During the process of make her boob tube special , Worsley was “ challenged and upset ” by the details of Sampson ’s experience . She desire that viewers will be similarly moved . “ I am delighted to … let citizenry reward her and remember who [ Sampson ] was , ” Worsley say , “ and also think of her achievement , as well as the horrible ending of her life sentence . ”
