All language subtitles for Lucy.Worsley.Investigates.S01E01.720p.iP.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV

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 psychosexual 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.

400 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-sizeable church.

And it was here,
one night in October 1590,

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 SING

..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".

THUNDERCLAP

This storm had been conjured
for one purpose -

to kill the King of Scotland.

WAVES CRASH

James VI 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...

In fact, it's quite a sensational,
tabloidy account,

of the first major witch-hunt
in Scotland.

It was written in 1591, 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 16th 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 VI'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 VI
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 1590,
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 callit",

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.

BIRDSONG

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 CHANTING

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 1560s,
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 1580s
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.

15th September, 1589.

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 Mary's.
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 16th 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 15th 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 16th 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 offence
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 1590s.

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 VI.

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 Forfar, just north of Dundee.

When a witch-hunt happened here
in the 1660s,

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 Forfar
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 Forfar.

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...trois
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 psychosexual
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 1590,
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 STRING 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, 1591,

Agnes was brought here,
to Castlehill.

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

WIND 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, 2,500 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
11 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".