All language subtitles for Lucy.Worsley.Investigates.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-XEN0N.Hi

January 1591, Edinburgh.

A woman is about to be executed.

Her crime?

She is a witch!

Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly.

She's been interrogated
and tortured,

and now she'll be strangled
and burnt at the stake.

BELL TOLLS

How did the execution
of this woman

light the fuse on a century
of witch-hunts across Britain,

and the state-sanctioned killing
of thousands more like her?

The ungodly are not so!

In this series,
I'm reinvestigating

some of the most dramatic and
brutal chapters in British history.

It wasn't just one generation,

it was three generations,
losing their lives,

bam, bam, bam.

These stories form part
of our national mythology.

They harbour mysteries that
have intrigued us for centuries.

It's chilling to think that
this could actually be evidence

in a murder investigation.

But with the passage of time,

we have new ways to
unlock their secrets,

using scientific advances
and a modern perspective.

It's a horrible psycho sexual form
of torture, isn't it? Absolutely.

I'm going to uncover
forgotten witnesses,

I'm going to
re-examine old evidence

and follow new clues to
get closer to the truth.

It is one of the great
British mysteries.

It was one of those moments,
I'm afraid, for a historian,

that makes the hairs stand
up on the back of your neck.

RAVEN CROAKS

Today, when we
think about witches,

we think about old
hags with pointy hats

and broomsticks and black cats.

But witches have a history that's
long, sinister and very real.

40O years ago, thousands
of ordinary women

were tortured and
executed in witch-hunts.

I want to know who these women
were, and why they were killed.

The witch-hunting craze that
swept the country 400 years ago

began here, just along
the coast from Edinburgh,

in the small seaside
town of North Berwick.

The events that were said
to have taken place here

would spark the very first
large-scale witch-hunt in Scotland.

I'm heading to the
scene of the crime,

the Old Kirk of St Andrew.

It looks a bit like a small hut.

Today, this is all that remains
of a once-size able church.

And it was here, one
night in October '590,

that a group of witches
supposedly gathered.

What a great place for
a witches' meeting!

Right on the edge of the
sea, with a huge, craggy,

devilish-looking rock
in the background.

This was a time when everyone
believed in witchcraft,

and this is the story
of what happened here.

"On the night of All Hallows..."
That means Halloween.

The perfect time for
some witchy business.

"There were a great many
witches, to the number of 200."

And it says that they
had flagons of wine...

THEY SlNG

they were making
merry and drinking,

and they were singing
all with one voice.

The story goes that
the devil was here.

And these witches were
concocting dangerous spells.

They took a cat
and christened it,

and afterward, bound to
each part of that cat

the chiefest parts
of a dead man.

And the said cat
was put in the sea.

And then, "There did arise
such a tempest in the sea

"as a greater have
not been seen".

THUNDER CLAP

This storm had been
conjured for one purpose -

to kill the King of Scotland.

WAVES CRASH

James Vl had been returning
by ship from Denmark,

and was lucky to survive.

This all sounds absolutely
bonkers. Ha-ha-ha-ha!

But it's all... Oh!

It makes a crazy sort of sense.

This is exactly the sort of thing
witches are supposed to do, isn't it?

They're supposed to play
around with corpses and cats.

Witches are supposed to be
able to control the weather.

It's one of their powers.

It might sound
like a fairy tale,

but what happened here set off
a devastating chain of events.

Dozens were executed
for this alleged plot.

And it triggered a
century of persecution

across the British Isles.

Thousands more would be killed
for the crime of witchcraft.

Some of them, men,
the majority, women.

To understand why this
story had such impact,

I want to see the
original text for myself.

It's held here, at the
University of Glasgow Archives.

It's a pamphlet, printed in
London, called News From Scotland.

And it gives a full account
of this plot against the king

and the trial of those
held responsible.

Only a very few of
these pamphlets survive.

This little book is
more than 400 years old.

It's an account, in quite...

I n fact, it's quite a
sensational, tabloidy account,

of the first major
witch-hunt in Scotland.

It was written in '59', shortly
after the events it describes.

I ...I have picked up
many, many old books,

and it never gets old.

It's a pleasure
every single time.

You can't open it too wide.

Don't want it to snap.

Here's a little summary.

It's a true discourse

of the apprehension
of sundry witches

lately taken in Scotland,
where of some...

Ooh! ..are executed,

and some are yet imprisoned.

These must be the witches.

They're all bustling along
in a sort of girl gang.

And it's pretty clear
that they are witches,

because here is the devil.

He's in a pulpit, he's making a
sermon like a priest would do,

but he's the flip
image of a priest.

He is, in fact, the devil.

And these witches here
at the top, they are

working magic with
their cauldron.

They have cooked up a storm

that has destroyed
His Majesty's ship.

You can see it's been wrecked,
people are falling into the waves.

And these are the witches

who disrupted the king's
journey back from Denmark.

This pamphlet was commissioned
by King James himself.

It was distributed in England
to tell the story of his triumph

against the witches'
wicked plot.

It's clearly designed
to be dramatic.

Hmm. So this is quite
emotive language here.

They're not just witches, they
are wicked and detestable witches.

They had, seduced
by their sorcery

a number of others to
be as bad as themselves.

So this is a problem.

The number of witches
in Scotland is growing.

There are more and
more of them every day.

We should be very afraid.

The author tells us that, "God
have lately overthrown and hindered

"the intentions and
wicked dealings"

"of a great number
of ungodly creatures,

"no better than devils."

News From Scotland
paints witches

as a serious threat to
order and stability.

And the witch-hunt as
the necessary means

by which the godly can prevail.

But why was the Scottish king
so eager to tell the English

about his triumph over evil?

The late '6th century
was a time of huge

political and
religious upheaval.

The Reformation was
sweeping across Europe,

as Protestants rejected
the Pope's authority

and centuries of Catholicism.

Here in Scotland, James
was the figurehead

for this new Protestant church,

but he also had his eye
on the English throne.

Queen Elizabeth I was getting
older, she had no children.

James was positioning himself
as a strong and godly ruler.

As a worthy successor
to the Crown of England.

Did James Vl's desire
for greater power

play a part in the ramping
up of a war against witches?

Edinburgh's National
Portrait Gallery

has a painting of James
Vl dating from this time.

James has just turned 24,

he has already had two
decades of his reign,

and a very turbulent
reign it has been.

And remember, he's
still quite a young king

who's sort of dealing with
noble factions and quarrels.

And he doesn't have
the all-important heir.

So, am I right that, in '590,
James has just got married?

Yes. He's just got married
to Anna of Denmark.

She's just a teenager.

She is his new bride.

And of course, now
James has the hope

that they're going to have children,
they're going to produce heirs.

But there've been a few
problems in getting her

from Denmark to
Scotland, haven't there?

Anna's meant to be coming to Scotland,
but there are these terrible storms

and her ship springs a leak.

And the admiral in charge of the fleet
says, " No, we have to turn back."

And James makes a decision.

"I'm going to go to Anna!"

Originally, he's
driven back by storms.

He has to go back into one of the
Fife ports and then try again.

But eventually, they
make it through.

But he's had to
leave his country.

I mean, OK, he has taken a lot of
his nobles and gentlemen with him,

where he can keep
an eye on them,

but he has had to
leave Scotland.

It's a risk. Yes!

So these storms, this business
of the weather in the North Sea,

is psychologically
onerous to him.

It's more than inconvenient,
it's dangerous.

He's had to take risks to his
personal safety to overcome it.

Yes. And remember, we've
only James, there's no heir.

If James goes down with the ship,
Scotland is plunged into chaos.

Louise, how familiar
do you think James was

with the idea of
witches and witchcraft?

Witchcraft has been around in
Scotland from before the Reformation.

The important thing is that people
believed that witchcraft is real.

And it's also about living
in a providential world,

where you believe God is
looking over everything.

So if the king is godly,
then God blesses him,

God blesses his rule, God
blesses his country and people.

Now, if you annoy God by letting
sinners like witches go unpunished,

well, that's when God might
visit your country with famines

and plagues and
losses in battle.

So, you know, to show
you're a good, strong king,

you must show you're a godly
king, upholding God's law.

And especially against the
enemies of God, the witches.

What better way to prove that
you're a righteous and godly king

than to triumph in a
face-off with witches?

That pamphlet, News From Scotland,
was clearly good spin for James.

But who were the real
women of North Berwick,

branded as witches, arrested
and burnt at the stake?

It's not easy to uncover the
story of these ordinary women.

They would have been illiterate,
so left no testimony of their own,

and many witch-trial
documents have been lost.

This book is a history
of King James VI.

It's contemporary, it was
written in his lifetime.

And there's a whole section
in it about witches.

And there should be a reference to
the very first woman to be executed

in the North Berwick witch-hunt.

And here, I think...

Yes!

Is her name.

Agnes Sampson.

Agnes Sampson, "grace wyff".

That means midwife.

Somebody who brings you God's
grace when you're giving birth.

And it says, "alias call it",

which means otherwise called,

"the wyse wyff of Keyth".

That means a wise woman,

a... a folk healer,

somebody with slightly
mysterious Powers.

And it looks like
she's from Keyth.

So, how on earth
did Agnes Sampson,

midwife and folk healer,

get caught up in this
brutal witch-hunt?

The answer could lie in the role
she played in her community,

and in the tools of her trade.

Hidden away in the storerooms at
the National Museum of Scotland

is a unique collection of everyday
objects with magical powers.

Well, what we have here
is a selection of some of

our large collection
of charms and amulets,

which are reputed to have
superstitious powers.

So these were objects put
to, um... protect you,

and they are also curative.

So, what sort of a world are
we looking into here, then?

One... one where people
probably believed in God,

but also believed in a load of other
sort of supernatural powers? Yes.

We have religious belief, a belief
in God, that is able to co-exist,

in their mind, quite happily,
with the supernatural.

So a belief in fairies,
malevolent elves, evil witches.

What's this neat little black one that looks
like a Christmas pudding tied up with a ribbon?

This is a seedpod that's come
all the way... Oh, is it?

Possibly from the Caribbean,

and it's floated
on the Gulf Stream.

So local people, ordinary people,
would pick them up off the beaches

and use these to help
them during childbirth.

And as a result, they
are called Mary's Nut.

Mary's Nut? Yep,
or St Mary's Nut.

So it's really Mother Mary's
protection in childbirth.

So it's that combination
of a religious belief

allied to something that
has more of a folk belief

and a superstitious belief.

And is it the sort of thing that you'd lend
to your friend when she was pregnant...

Yeah, I think you could.
..and then pass it on? Yeah.

But you'd probably want
your own one, anyway,

cos you're probably giving birth
quite a lot. Oh, many times, yes.

A lot of... a lot of use
for the Mary's Nuts. Yeah.

This one catches my eye.

Well, this little cross
is a wonderful example

of something everyday that
anyone could have owned.

It's, um... made from rowan,

and the rowan tree is
supposed to be protective

against evil spirits.

So you might just carry this,
you could have it on your person,

or you could have it
under your pillow. Mm-hm.

And you planted rowan trees in your
gardens to keep away the evil spirits.

So, how does a folk
healer fit into this world

of the amulets and the charms?

So you'll have had these as your
everyday item for everyday protection,

and you would bring in someone,
like a healer, a wise woman,

when something's gone
really badly wrong.

She will have had knowledge of herbs
and so on, like a homeopath today.

But they're also presumed
to have magical powers.

This sounds like witchcraft.

What's the difference between
folk healing and witchery?

The witch is living
within the community

and associated with evil things.

Evil spirits, nasty things
happening, disease, crops failing.

The folk healer is
associated with good things.

So, the folk healer is
on your side... Yes.

And the witch is
against you? Yes.

Indeed, she's a witch-buster.

Because she's associated with
getting rid of those evil spirits.

Agnes would have been a
pillar of her community.

So, how did that change?

And why did she become
branded as a witch,

accused of plotting
to kill the king?

I want to see where the
wise wife of Keyth lived.

Her village lies in the
East Lothian countryside,

about 20 miles south
of North Berwick.

So I guess that's the
remains of the village.

Looks like it's only
one house just now.

But up here this way,

is the... the remains
of the church.

BlRD SONG

I'm looking for the ruin, that I
think is through this sea of nettles.

Makes a change from
being in the library!

Ah! That's brilliant.

MONASTIC CHANTlNG

It's great to think that Agnes
herself would have stood here.

This would have been
where she came...

to services.

Here since the 12th century,

Agnes' village church would have
been Catholic for almost 300 years.

Decorated with murals and alive
with the chanting of Latin Mass.

But from the '560s, her church
was becoming Protestant.

The shock waves
of the Reformation

were felt even in remote
villages like this one.

The church was stripped of
its Catholic adornments,

the Latin Mass was banned.

Now, Catholic belief and folk belief
had sort of peacefully co-existed.

But I'm starting
to wonder whether,

as Catholic gave
way to Protestant,

a folk healer like Agnes might
have been caught in the crossfire.

Religious change
brought huge upheaval,

even for a small, rural
village like Agnes'.

And they faced other
difficulties, too.

It was a period that's sometimes
called the Little Ice Age.

Winters were getting colder.

I do know that in the '580s there
was a big famine in Scotland

and population was rising.

There was more
competition for resources.

There must have been
more fear and suspicion

and trouble of various kinds,

as there always is when
something bad happens.

There must have been a sense
that something was going wrong

and that somebody
must be to blame.

A folk healer like
Agnes trod a fine line

between being someone people
called upon when they needed help

and someone they blamed
when misfortune struck.

It makes me wonder what triggered
the first accusation against Agnes.

News From Scotland claims
she was denounced as a witch

by a local servant girl
called Geillis Duncane.

But I can't find any
evidence to back that up.

What I have uncovered
is this document,

describing a church
leaders' meeting.

'5th September, '589.

The minutes of the synod say

they've ordered the
Presbytery of Haddington,

that's the local church
committee in Haddington,

to summon before
them Agnes Sampson,

suspected of witchcraft.

So here it is in
black and white.

On 15th September, 1589,

we have the first
reference to Agnes Sampson

in connection with witchcraft.

This is a year before
Agnes was implicated

in the North Berwick
plot to kill the king.

It doesn't tell me exactly
what she's accused of,

but we do know
what happened next.

By this time, the
Scottish Church

was in the hands of radical
Protestant reformers

who'd been led by john Knox.

Knox had wanted to
create a new godly state

based on the pure message of the
Bible - obedience and discipline.

Ushering in a new age of
religious puritanism in Scotland.

CROW CAWS

This is St Mary's
Church in Haddington.

Both North Berwick and
Agnes' village of Keyth

came under its jurisdiction.

And it was here that church elders
first put Agnes under investigation

as a suspected witch.

Hello?

And this church was
at the forefront

of the religious and moral
reforms sweeping the country.

Hello. Will you be Stewart?
Hello. I'm Stewart, yes.

It's really nice to meet you,
Stewart. Nice to meet you.

Welcome to St Maryts. Thank
you for having me. Not at all.

So, Stewart, what's
your connection

to this really huge
and beautiful church?

Well, I'm a member of the church
and I'm also one of a team

who guide visitors around
during our open season.

And my late wife was a
minister here for ten years.

Is that quite unusual, to be a female
minister in Scotland? Not nowadays.

There have been female ministers in the
Church of Scotland for over 50 years.

Mm-hm. But it's
relatively recent, yes.

And my wife was
the first one here.

The first one here? A
trailblazer! Absolutely.

Now, I know... Every historian
knows, that in the '6th century,

the big thing that happens in
Scotland is the Reformation,

which is led by john Knox.

He's... he's a
Haddington boy, isn't he?

Well, John Knox was born about 200
yards from where we're standing,

on the other side of the river.

And he was almost certainly
baptised in this church.

Oh, wow! So this church...

He was baptised here?

This is right at the cutting edge of
the Reformation, then, this place. Yes.

And how would you
characterise this...

this Scottish Reformation religion
that john Knox was keen on?

Of course, it was a much
simpler, stricter and very...

In some ways, very
harsh religion.

So, what kind of behaviour

did the Reformed Scottish
Church disapprove of?

What we you might describe
as frivolous behaviour.

Singing, dancing, drinking.

And, of course, fornication.

You could be called up in
front of the congregation

if you're misbehaving
in some way.

And that's because the devil
is just around the corner

and your soul is at risk of eternal
damnation if you step out of line.

Yep. And john Knox didn't
approve of women, did he?

Well, he didn't approve of women
being in positions of authority. Mm.

So, if the new church did not like to
have women in positions of authority,

someone like Agnes,
who was a wise woman,

who had the trust
of the community,

do you think maybe they
felt threatened by that?

That;s quite possible, yes.

BELL TOLLS

I wonder if Agnes was aware

that she was being
watched by the church

as she went about her business
as a midwife and a healer?

It's starting to look
like there's no place

in this new Protestant
order for women like her.

She is a woman in a
position of authority.

She's got this power of healing,

people in the
community trust her,

need her, look up to her.

Do the church authorities
feel a bit threatened by that?

Agnes' fate now lay in the hands
of these fervent Protestants.

And these religious leaders
were absorbing new ideas

circulating in Europe about
the nature of witchcraft

and how to deal with it.

They were laid out in a book written
by two German Catholic theologians

in the '5th century.

This is a direct translation

of a text that's more
than 500 years old.

It's called Malleus
Maleficarum -

the Hammer of Witches.

And it's a sort of a... a manual

of how to spot a witch

and what sort of things
they're going to get up to.

One of the things that
pleases me about the book

is that it's a sort of series
of, um... questions and answers.

Like a listicle that you
might get in a magazine.

How are witches transported
from place to place?

How do witches
perform their spells?

How is a formal
pact with evil made?

Central to this text was
the idea that witches

were in cahoots with a
dangerous enemy, the devil.

It's all part of a general
turning up of the temperature

on religion in the '6th century.

You've got new Protestants saying,
"No, this is the way to do religion!"

And you've got those Catholics, who
suddenly become a lot more defensive,

and they say, "No! We
feel under attack now.

"This is the way
to do religion."

So that's why people
just start to think

that it's a matter of
life and death, this.

The devil is really
wandering around your church,

tempting you,
tempting your wife,

and it's like the end of days.

In the 16th century, everybody gets
utterly obsessed with the devil.

Demonology books like
this made it clear

the devil was specifically recruiting
women to do his evil bidding.

Why is it that more witches
are female than men?

I'm quite interested in what
they're going to say about that.

Well, it's basically because
of the wickedness of women,

as spoken of in the Bible.

In Ecclesiasticus 25 -

"There is no wrath above
the wrath of a woman!

"I had rather dwell
with a lion and a dragon

"than to keep house
with a wicked woman."

"All witchcraft comes
from carnal lust.

"Which is, in
women, insatiable."

And that's why the devil's able
to recruit them more easily.

They're so desperate
to fill their wombs

that they will consort
even with devils.

If there aren't enough men
to go around, devils will do.

"The witches meet together
in conclave on a set day.

"And the devil appears to them

"in the assumed body of a man."

And he says to them, "Look, if
you have sex with me, ladies,

"I will give you long
life. That is the deal!"

And this witch is showing
her allegiance to the devil

by kissing his backside.

LUCY LAUGHS

Oh, dear!

What has surprised me,
reading through this book,

and I really wasn't
aware of this,

was just how much witchcraft and
sex seemed to be mixed up together.

Fear about sexual matters
and the lust of women

seems to be absolutely
fundamental.

Now, this brings
to life the devil

having his meeting with all the
witches who were in his power.

So that's like our coven of witches
meeting in the church in North Berwick.

Here's the devil, sitting on
his throne, with his horns.

And this witch here, she's
got her fire and her cauldron.

Look, she's putting in
little cats, I think.

Oh, and look, here's a witch
taking off on her broomstick.

I like the way that the things
that witches used for their magic,

cauldrons, broomsticks,
um... cats, even,

are just... just things
from around the house.

They're ordinary,
domestic things.

And the things that
women would use, not men.

So, poor Agnes!

She's had the bad luck to be
born at a really bad time.

For over 100 years now,
this conspiracy theory,

kicked off by theologians,
has been growing in power.

People now genuinely believe

that witches are largely female,

that they gather in groups,

that they have this kinky
sexual pact with the devil,

and that their
number is growing.

More and more witches
are being recruited.

So, what are the
authorities going to do

to deal with these wicked women?

For centuries,
accusations of witchcraft

had largely been settled
within the local community.

But now, driven by Protestantism

that cast witches as
the devil's agents,

the authorities
had to crack down.

Well, this is the
Scottish Witchcraft Act.

So this act was drawn up by
Scotland's Protestant Reformers.

John Knox may even
have had a hand in it.

It is statute and ordained

that no manner of
person or persons,

of whatever estate,
degree or condition,

is to use any manner
of witchcraft.

And if you do do that,

they'll be under pain of death.

It actually says under
the pain of "deid".

That means death.
You will be killed.

It has become a capital of
fence for the first time.

So the act is really clear that
the whole weight of the law

is going to come down on
anybody doing witchcraft.

But there's a... It seems to
me there's a huge problem here.

It doesn't actually
say what witchcraft is!

So witchcraft is open
to interpretation.

And that means the law is
open to interpretation.

And that seems to me
to be very dangerous.

The Witchcraft Act put in
place a legal framework

for the prosecution of witches.

Now, if enough evidence
could be gathered,

a suspected witch could
be tried in the courts

and sentenced to death.

GULLS CRY

By autumn 1590, the church
elders in Haddington

had been investigating and
building a case against Agnes

for more than a year.

I'm told that very few
witch-trial documents still exist,

but remarkably,
Agnes' have survived.

I can't access the originals in
the National Records of Scotland,

but the History Centre
in Haddington has a copy.

Incredibly, they include
detailed transcripts

of the evidence against Agnes.

It says here - Here follows
the articles of her "dittay"...

whereof she was convicted

by number 53!

Now, a dittay,

it's from the French,
dittay meaning said.

These are the things that
were said against her,

and there were 53 charges.

That's quite a lot, isn't it?

OK. Here, she's charged with
using of witchcraft in healing

of john Thompson
in "Dirletoune",

who remained...

Oh, I see what she's done.

She's... She used witchcraft
to heal john Thompson,

but he remained "crepill",
that's crippled,

notwithstanding thereof.

I can see that if you'd...
you'd booked Agnes to heal you

and then it failed,

then he'd want his
money back, wouldn't he?

You might be so cross that you
reported her to the authorities.

Let's have a look at this one.

Item - for coming
to Bessie Aitkenhead

and using her prayer
and devilish charms

for the recovering
of her health to her.

Well, here's someone
who's pleased.

Betty... Bessie...
Aitkenhead has been cured.

So when I look at the
list of people who've been

either cured or
not cured by Agnes,

it's a bit confusing, cos you
can't see what the problem is.

She's sort of going about
her business as a healer.

But perhaps the problem is

that this old, traditional way of
doing things, of healing people,

has now become suspicious

because people are increasingly
worried about witches.

There's a lot of talk here
about witchcraft and prayers...

to the devil.

I mean, I cannot know
whether all of these people,

who were Agnes' clients,

whether they really
said these things,

or were these important people who
were determined to catch a witch,

were they taking the
evidence and twisting it

and putting on this
whole witchy layer?

There's much to question
about this document,

but it does offer a tantalising
glimpse of Agnes herself.

We're told that she's a
widow and has children,

and that she learnt her
folk-healing skills from her father.

So I love the way that hidden
within this formal document

written by men who
had it in for Agnes,

we're actually meeting
the real person.

And then, here... Now, this
is really extraordinary.

Because this is just what
you don't normally get.

You do not normally get the
recorded words of somebody

living in a tiny village
in remote Scotland

in the '590s.

That's not somebody that we
normally hear from in history.

But here, we do,
because recorded here

are the words to Agnes'
prayer to her patients

for life or death.

All kinds of ills
that ever may be

In Christ's name,
I conjure thee.

I conjure thee...

Both more and less with
all the virtues of the Mass

And right so the nails sore

That nailed Jesus and no more.

And right so the same blood

That reeked over
the ruthful rood.

Forth of the flesh
and forth of the bone

And in the earth
and in the stone,

I conjure thee in God's name.

These are supposed
to be her very words.

It's like she's speaking to us.

It gives a wonderful,
tingly feeling.

This is... this is...
this is why we do this,

to bring people
back from the dead.

But one thing is clear,

even if some of Agnes' clients were
grateful for her powers of healing,

and even if she claimed
that her prayer was to God,

the authorities were intent
on painting her as a witch

in league with the devil.

And there's something else in
here that's really intriguing.

People are summoning
her from far and wide.

And it's not just villagers who are after
her services, it's... it's the toffs.

Posh people are after her, too.

Perhaps her far-reaching
reputation as a healer

helps explain why, when the
king was looking for a scapegoat

for the storms that
beset his ship,

Agnes Sampson was a ready
name on people's lips.

In late autumn 1590,

just weeks after the alleged
witches' gathering at North Berwick,

Agnes was arrested,

taken to Edinburgh
and imprisoned.

And in early December, she was
brought here to be interrogated.

This is the Palace
of Holyroodhouse.

This was the home
of King James Vl.

This part of the palace
here has been altered,

but this part is the original
palace that Agnes would have seen.

She would have set
eyes on these two

rather sinister-looking turrets.

So I really am walking in
Agnes' footsteps at this moment.

This is the actual chamber in
which James VI received visitors.

His bedchamber is
just through there.

And it was here, in this room,
to the best of our knowledge,

that Agnes came
face-to-face with the king.

What an extraordinary encounter.

A woman from a tiny rural
village brought before the king.

A Protestant monarch determined
to prove he had the power

to drive out the devil.

So, what on earth
happened in this room?

News From Scotland
offers this account...

Agnes Sampson was brought
here to Holyroodhouse

before the king's majestry

and sundry other of the
nobility of Scotland.

But it says here, she
stood stiffly in the denial

of all that was laid to her
charge. So she stood up to them!

This is a fearsome situation,

to be questioned by the king
himself in his royal palace,

but she wasn't
giving way an inch.

Despite this, at some point,
Agnes cracked and confessed.

It's chilling to realise
that all the detail

of what happened in North Berwick,
as recounted in News From Scotland,

actually comes
from the confession

Agnes made right here
in Holyrood Palace.

It was Agnes who said 200
witches gathered together

and used a dead man
and a christened cat

to raise the storm that
almost killed the king.

This is her story.

But why would she
say all these things?

Reading on, I think
I can see why.

Agnes Sampson had all
her hair shaven off

in each part of her body

and her head thrawn with a rope.

But during this time, she
would not confess anything,

until the devil's mark was
found upon her privities.

Now, to my mind, this
is... this is torture

of a really horrible
sexual nature.

It's a sort of a sexual assault.

And then, when this happened,
when they did this to her,

she immediately confessed
whatsoever was demanded of her.

And... goodness me, I 'd
do exactly the same thing.

Poor Agnes.

It's hard to be sure whether these
descriptions of torture are true.

Was this the sort of treatment
inflicted on women like Agnes?

To find out, I'm travelling to
For far, just north of Dundee.

When a witch-hunt happened
here in the '660s,

more than 50 women were accused
from this small town, alone.

Ah! It's Judith! Hello!

I meet you in the
flesh at last! I know.

One local historian has been
doing ground-breaking research

into the experiences of
these so-called witches.

She's uncovered shocking new
evidence of their interrogation

from unlikely
historical documents -

the town's financial records.

Accounts of the town
officials sounds a bit dull.

LUCY CHUCKLES

Yes, it does, if you...

if you don't realise
what's going on.

And what's going on in
For far at that time

is a witch-hunt that's
been described as

being like no other in Scotland.

And when you follow the money,

you find some really
interesting things.

OK, on the first page,
the first section

that you examine here
of Girsell Simpson.

She was a suspected witch.

But she was arrested and she
was put in the tollbooth.

It says - An item
to Andrew Taylor

foreclosing of the high
tollbooth yay time,

that Girsell Simpson was therein

and foretaking
down of them again.

Oh! So, when the suspected
witch was in the prison,

they closed up the
windows... Yep.

And then, when she
had been executed,

they opened up the windows
again. That's right.

And that would be to
keep her in the dark?

Well, it's the devil, and
you don't want the devil

cursing the people in the
street when they walk by. Wow!

Oh, look at this!

For the making of two pairs of
stocks for the witches. Oh, yes.

The stocks are
really interesting,

cos stocks sound like
they're quite innocent.

You know, we have images of
people in stocks outside.

Being hung up like this and
people throw eggs at them. Yeah.

That's not what's
happening here.

In Scotland at the time, stocks
were used on the accused witches

as a form of torture.

It says here that candles are
bought for those who did watch

Girsell Simpson, who's
the suspected witch.

What does that mean, to
watch her, do you think?

Watching usually
comes with waking.

So watching and waking was
a form of torture in itself.

It's sleep deprivation.

Later on, we'll
see that there...

there are other prisoners
in. They're male prisoners,

and they're murderers, and
they're not being watched.

There's no candles
being paid for for them.

Mm! So, the suspected witch is
treated worse than the murderers?

Yes. Wow! Absolutely.

These women, they're a danger

because they endangered
the whole of society.

Yeah. They put the idea of
the godly society at risk.

If you go down to
13th September... Yes.

John Kincaid and David
Cowan come to For far.

So John Kincaid is the
famous witch-pricker.

The witch-pricker. Yeah.

That's a very resonant phrase.
What exactly does that mean?

Well, they pay for two...
trots preens for him.

Here it is. This... this is
the purchase of two preens

for the pricking of
Catherine Porter.

Preens are pins.

They're made of iron and they're
usually about three inches long.

Or some people would
say... Three inches? Yeah.

Oh, not tiny little dressmaking
pins, big...? Big pins.

And what ex...? Why... why do
they want to stick these pins

into the suspected witch?

They're trying to
find the devil's mark.

What's that? It was usually
thought to be a blue mark.

It could be a mole, it could be an
extra nipple, it could be scars.

Anything that they thought
was unusual on a woman's body

that doesn't respond to
pain or it doesn't bleed.

That was evidence,
pure and simple,

that you had convened
with the devil.

So what they would do was, they
would... they would shave the woman,

they would shave all her hair,

and they would...
She would be naked.

She's in front of
a panel of men.

She's having these pins
stuck in all over her body.

And they would prick
people for hours.

There's mention in one of
the Privy Council documents

of a woman dying
from witch-pricking.

It's... it's a really...

It's... it's a horrible psycho
sexual form of torture. Absolutely.

What really shocks me, Judith,
is that the evidence is here.

That they've recorded it
for us to see. Indeed.

When I read these
treasurers' accounts,

and I've read them many times,

the hairs never cease to stand
up on the back of my neck. Um...

And I think, how could they
have treated people like this?

And then, you have to remember
what they had in their mind.

And in their mind, they
were absolutely convinced

that they were not people.

You know... They were
devils. Yeah. Inhuman.

They are the devil.

How long have you been trawling
through all of these records, Judith?

About ten years. Oh, wow!

At least ten years.

And what... what
motivates you to do this?

Well, erm...

one, it's just so
incredibly interesting,

and two, there's the
real sense of injustice.

Judith's research shows how the
authorities devised a system

for rooting-out witches.

Torture was an acceptable
means to elicit a confession.

And the so-called devil's mark,
which wasn't too hard to find,

provided undeniable proof.

Under this kind of duress,

in December '590, Agnes
made her confession.

Remarkably, the National Records
of Scotland holds an account

of what was said during
Agnes' actual interrogation.

It also offers clues
as to why Agnes' case

triggered a craze for
witch-hunts across the country.

Is this word-for-word, then?

Was there someone in
the room making notes?

How was it put together?

This has been written
up afterwards.

There was probably a scribe
in the room at the time

jotting down a few things,

but this isn't a transcript
of her actual words,

this is a summary
in the third person.

You know... you know,
"She confessed that...

"She denied that..."

Um... and so on.

And we see breaks in
the document, where,

perhaps she was tortured.
It's hard to tell.

We do know in general terms
that she was tortured.

And we can see this text
as a kind of negotiation,

because Agnes probably didn't know
anything about those storms at the time,

but they're asking her about it,

so she knows she can't
just remain silent,

she has to tell a story, otherwise
she'll get tortured more.

Do you think that the
interrogators were asking

what we might call leading questions
to get a particular answer?

Oh, undoubtedly, yes. You know, "Tell
us about when you met the devil".

And, " How does one
worship the devil?"

And so, one of the
things that witches do

is that they kiss
the devil's arse.

That is... Does it say that
in her confession? Yes.

Before they departed,
they all kissed his arse.

That almost certainly comes from
a leading question from somebody

who has come across the
European learned idea

of how witches
worship the devil.

And Agnes has been
made to say it.

If people torture you enough,
you do get so confused

that you lose confidence
in your own memory

and you start thinking,
"The interrogators are right

"and perhaps I am
a witch after all".

That's awful. They're
breaking her body

but also her mind at the same
time. Yeah, I'm afraid so. Yeah.

It seems to me that
they're fitting her up.

You certainly could say that. I
mean, they're doing it unwittingly.

They're terrifyingly
sincere, these guys.

You know, they think
they're getting the truth.

They are trying to save
themselves and everybody

from the terrifying
power of the devil.

And, you know,
it... it certainly,

by this time, has
become a conspiracy.

They... they think it isn't
just one witch, you know,

it's a group who has done this.

And this is what the elite
understand that witches will do.

They will gather in groups.

So they're asking Agnes, you
know, "Who else was there?"

Whether these were names that she
gave, or names that were fed to her

and then she repeated,
you can't always tell.

You ask for names of accomplices

and you get a sort
of snowball effect.

And once you've got one witch, you can
then go to another and another and another

and, you know, the snowball
can go on getting larger

until everyone's sick of it.

How many people eventually get
pulled into the whole thing?

How many people, ultimately, is one of
the very difficult questions to answer.

Almost certainly dozens,
probably hundreds.

But, you know, many of the
records have disappeared.

It's very hard to put numbers
on it, for that reason.

Julian, why is the North Berwick
witch-hunt, in particular, so important?

There have been earlier trials
with individual witches,

but they never get
into large numbers.

They don't manage to
interrogate them properly

and it all fizzles out.

This is the first
big, successful one

where we see the witch-hunters
really working out how to do it.

So this provides a
sort of blueprint

for how to have what you might
call a successful witchcraft panic

that actually leads to
large numbers of executions.

And versions of that then
get repeated time and again

over the next 100 years
or so in Scotland.

SOMBRE STRlNG RECITAL

What's so horrifying is that
clearly, if you torture someone,

they'll say anything
to make it stop.

It's this that made
Agnes into a witch.

And, in a final tragic irony,

offer up the names of
59 other people, too,

who'd go on to
face the same fate.

But here's the problem -

she's now officially
confessed to causing storms

and to conspiring
to kill the king.

Six weeks after her confession,

Agnes was put on
trial in Edinburgh.

The building Agnes' trial took
place in stood right here.

It was in the shadow
of the great cathedral.

She would have been the only
woman in a courtroom full of men.

The trial took one day,

and the verdict was guilty.

The following day,
28th January, '59',

Agnes was brought
here, to Castle hill.

She was to be strangled
and burnt at the stake.

A sentence reserved only for
the most dangerous of heretics.

I can't begin to imagine how
petrified she must have felt

as she was being brought here,
knowing what was going to happen.

RAVEN CROAKS

WlND WHISTLES

Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly,

nor standeth in
the way of sinners,

nor sitteth in the
seat of the scornful.

But his delight is in
the law of the Lord,

and his law doth he
meditate day and night.

In this moment, religious zeal,

fear of the devil,
and an ambitious king

had collided to create
a system of persecution,

from which there was no escape.

And Agnes Sampson paid
the ultimate price.

This event, it makes me angry.

It seems like a terrible,
tragic miscarriage of justice.

This is a woman who
tried to help people,

but who ended up
being punished for it.

Agnes' case set the blueprint
for a century of witch-hunts.

Soon after her death, the Scottish
King became James I of England,

and extended the
English witchcraft laws,

leading to witch-hunts
south of the border, too.

But it was Scotland that would
have one of the highest rates

of witch-killing
anywhere in Europe.

In total, 2,50O people
would be executed,

the vast majority, women.

These were mothers,

sisters, daughters.

And imagine what it was like
for other women in this society.

The fear they must have felt
that they could be next.

The only national monument
to the thousands killed

is this small drinking fountain,
known as the Witches' Well.

But a campaign is now under way
for a more significant memorial

and an official pardon.

It's hard to know what to do

with these dark
chapters from our past.

It seems to me there's
a double injustice

for the women caught
up in the witch-hunts.

They were wrongly convicted,

but on top of that, their
stories have been forgotten.

They've been buried under
a pile of stereotypes.

Now is the time to restore
the voices of women

like Agnes Sampson...

and to make sure they're heard.

How did a catastrophic plague

that wiped out around half
the population change Britain?

I am tempted to think
that these " men thought,

"Right, the plague is coming,

"we're jolly well not going to go to
work, we're going to go to the pub.

"Because tomorrow, we die".