All language subtitles for Witches.Truth.Behind.the.Trials.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH[EZTVx.to]

[♪ dramatic music]

- The 16th century picture
of what was happening

on Halloween night in
the North Berwick Kirk.

You've got this huge
meeting of people

coming in all different ways.

There are people being
magically transported

through the air by the devil.

- This is very clearly
demonic witchcraft.

- They're in the graveyard.

Doors fly open.

Blows again, suddenly
boom, candles.

And there is the devil.

So the devil climbs
into the pulpit

in the fashion of a
Christian minister.

- And then the horror, the
devil points out graves.

They go, they open the
graves, they get the corpses,

they get out their knives,
and they start cutting

off all the fingers,
and all the toes, and

the noses of the corpses.

And the devil says,
"Grind them into a powder

"and you're gonna go and
do bad magic with it."

"Because this is what I
command you as the devil,

"to go and do all
the evil you can."

And that is a 16th
century picture

of what's going on
at a witches meeting

in North Berwick Kirk.

[narrator] In a matter of
months, these suspected witches

will have to fight
for their lives

in Scotland's first
ever mass witch trial,

presided over by
the king himself.

[whispering]

- The story first begins
when we get a servant

called Geillis Duncan.

[birds chirping]

Geillis was questioned
by her master,

a man called David Seaton.

David Seaton is a bailey of
the borough of Tranent,

so this means he's sort of
a Scottish local government

official, but he
also runs the court.

So he's an important guy, he's
part of the legal machinery

of this little
patch of Scotland.

[Martha McGill] He became
suspicious of his servant,

Geillis, because she had a
tendency to sneak out at night.

[door creaking]

[Louise Yeoman] So he grabs poor
Geillis, and he tortures her.

He sort of practically
strangles her with a rope.

He keeps her awake.

So he thinks, I bet she is
going to witches meetings,

and he thinks she's
maybe been trying out

some of that magical healing.

Women like Geillis
would potentially provide

healing services to their
community, often using herbs,

perhaps with some kind
of incantation spoken

at the time of application.

[grinding noises]

- Healers don't really
have any training.

There are a few herbs that
they use that are recognized

as having medicinal powers
today, such as foxglove.

Most of, even the
herbs, are probably

what we would call placebos.

[grinding noises]

[Louise Yeoman] Imagine
she's getting threatened and

terrorized, and so Geillis
Duncan starts saying whatever

she thinks will make David
Seaton leave her alone.

[Martha McGill] What we see in
so many witch trials

is that she starts
to name names.

[♪ foreboding music]

One of the names
that then comes up

is the name of Agnes Sampson.

[birds chirping]

Agnes Sampson seems to have been
an older woman than Geillis,

probably fairly established
in her community,

had seemingly worked for
some time as a healer.

[Louise Yeoman] Now,
Agnes is versatile.

Agnes heals animals
as well as people.

[Martha McGill] Something you
see with a lot of these healers

is that they would recite
charms that were often

a strange mixture of
different influences.

A bit of Latin, a bit
of familiar prayers

that they had probably
heard at church.

[Louise Yeoman] Agnes is your
sort of all-round spiritual,

magical healing consultant.

She's got a big reputation.

Mostly what she's
healing through

are these sort of Latin,
Catholic, Christian charms.

[Martha McGill] The church
doesn't like that elements of

Catholicism often get brought
into the healing practices.

It's 30 years on from
Scotland's Reformation,

which takes place in 1560.

In theory, the country is
supposed to have converted

into this beacon
of Protestantism,

this glowing, godly society.

In practice, of course,
so many old traditions

and old practices do remain.

The women like Agnes
or Geillis would employ

without necessarily knowing
they were doing anything wrong.

[birds chirping]

But the church is suspicious
of what they're doing

for that reason and because
they're doing it as women.

[birds chirping]

Women were thought in
general to be weaker,

perhaps to be more
motivated by sex

and therefore to be
more susceptible

to the temptations of the devil.

A woman compared to
a man had less power

to make her own living.

They weren't actually
even allowed

to give evidence in court.

They're not trusted to
speak for themselves

or to have a clear enough
mind, clear enough judgment

to be able to give you an
accurate version of events.

Prejudices like this can
lead people then to think

that women are much
more susceptible

to the devil and his charms.

People accused of
witchcraft were often said

to have cursed others.

[Julian Goodare] You fear a
man's physical violence.

That's how people think about
this in any modern era.

But if you know that a
woman is angry with you,

are you going to fear
that she will come round

and beat you up?

You fear is women's curses
and you fear women's

harmful magic.

They do say things like,
"You will regret this."

Or, "May the devil drag
your soul through hell."

If a woman's angry and she
says something like that,

and then something
bad happens, you go,

"Oh, that must be
because she was a witch."

[Louise Yeoman] When you get a
stereotype in your head about

people and you then go out
and make arrests,

you're much more likely
to question the people

who fit your stereotype.

For witchcraft, the
stereotype in Scotland

is it's much more
likely to be a woman.

♪ ♪

There's an idea that
women should be sticking

in their own lane.

They shouldn't be meddling
with healing practices

that are best reserved for
men who have actually been

through university.

Agnes is not necessarily
thinking she's

doing anything wrong,
certainly not anything evil,

but in the eyes
of the ministers,

she's doing something that,
at best, is ineffective.

At worst, is actually
offering herself to the devil

through illicit practice.

[Louise Yeoman] Now, at this
point, Agnes Sampson has been

imprisoned on the behest of the
local church court.

And the church has basically
put out a call saying,

"Do you know anything
bad Agnes has done?

"Have you seen Agnes
practising magic?

"Have you heard of Agnes
practising magic?"

And David Seaton goes, "I've
been torturing my servant girl."

And, yes, she says, "Agnes
was hired to get at me."

And, of course, the church
are very interested in that.

And then Agnes
gets interrogated.

[♪ music slowly fades]

[thunder rumbling]

[Martha McGill] So, Scotland
has had sporadic witch trials

before the 1590s, but
it's at this point that
something new happens.

[narrator] Geillis and Agnes
are subjected to brutal

torture for days on end,
pressured to answer

leading questions, eventually
to stop the agony.

They confess to attending
the Witches' Sabbathh

at the North Berwick Kirk.

But the interrogators
also extract a new

treasonous confession.

Both women are forced to admit
they used diabolical magic

to harm the King of
Scotland, James VI.

[Louise Yeoman] So,
Geillis and Agnes end up
in prison in Edinburgh.

That's a terrifying thing if
you're just an ordinary person.

And suddenly, you're on
trial for your life...

..and the King himself
is questioning you.

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

[narrator] Why is the King of
Scotland, James VI,

so fixated on two
common faith healers,

when he should be focused
on a much greater prize -

the throne of England?

♪ ♪

We've got Queen Elizabeth I
on the throne of England.

She has no children,
and everybody in Europe

is looking to see
who will be the next

ruler of England.

[Martha McGill] James
is one candidate.

He and Elizabeth are related.
He's also a Protestant.

So, James is very concerned
with this question

of the English succession,
and are trying to put himself

in the best possible position
to accede to the throne

after Elizabeth's death.

♪ ♪

[narrator] James VI was Mary,
Queen of Scots' only child.

For him to accede to
the English throne,

it is vital he finds
a wife and an heir to

continue his royal line.

[Martha McGill] James and his
courtiers start looking around

for a suitable wife for him.

They fix on one of the daughters
of Frederick II of Denmark.

This is Anne of Denmark.

Anne's 14.

And they do then get betrothed.

James starts to make plans to
bring her over to Scotland.

[waves crashing]

[Martha McGill] In
September 1589, Anne
sets off from Denmark,

but the voyage is
set by problems.

Suddenly, this huge
storm blows up.

[wind blowing]
[thunder rumbles]

[Martha McGill] The
ship starts to leak.

They have to pull
over in Norway.

[Juilian Goodare] When
you send a princess,

you don't just send one ship.

You know, there was a
whole fleet of ships.

Keeping a fleet together
is particularly difficult.

[winds intensifying]

16th-century sailing ships,
they don't have any brakes,

they're a bit hard to steer.

As soon as trouble breaks, you
can maybe keep one ship going,

but you cannot keep
a whole fleet,

and so the admiral basically
had to abort the voyage.

[Martha McGill] They get the
ship fixed up, set off again,

but there is continual
bad weather.

[winds blowing]

The waves beat them back...

..and they end up going
back to Norway again.

[narrator] Anne's fleet
makes six attempts to
sail to Scotland.

Each time, they are
forced to turn back.

They then write to the
court in Scotland,

and Anne explains that the plan
now is to remain in Norway

for the winter and come to
Scotland in the spring.

This is difficult
for James to hear,

and it occurs to him to
do something decisive.

[Louise Yeoman]
James says,

"Right, that's it.
I'm going for it.

"I'm fitting out a ship and
I am going to fetch her,

"and I'm going to leave
basically a committee behind

"to govern Scotland while
I go and I get Anne."

[Martha McGill] James
also encounters bad
weather along the way.

It's still stormy,
it's still rough,

there are still seemingly
all kinds of perils

associated with the journey.

There's a sense for James
and those around him

that this whole project
has been beset by all

kinds of difficulties in a
way that is uncomfortable,

perhaps even suspicious.

[narrator] James makes
it safely to Norway,

where he and Anne are married.

They travel on to Anne's
homeland, Denmark,

where they spend
the bitter winter,

waiting for the dangerous
storms to subside.

[Julian Goodare] James spends
six months or so in Denmark.

He meets this important
Danish theologian

they may well have
discussed witchcraft.

In Trier in Germany,
we've already had

significant outbreaks
of witch-hunting, and

stories about this
would have made their

way to the Danish court.

♪ ♪

These accounts of what
witches might get up to

were already in circulation.

There are theories that he
went and filled his head

with all of this sort of
stuff and then brought

it back to Scotland
direct from Denmark.

So, James and Anne set
off on the 26th of April,

and they manage the
voyage this time,

arrive back in Scotland
on the 1st of May.

♪ ♪

Questions start getting asked
in Denmark about what happened

to this voyage and how
it all went so wrong.

And you can imagine that for
the people who are in charge

of proceedings, this is
all a bit uncomfortable.

The Danish admiral blames
the governor of Copenhagen.

They talk to the governor of
Copenhagen, who then says,

"I think you ought to be
looking a bit further down

the social scale here.

"There might have been
these witches interfering

with the ships,
"making all of these

things go wrong."

♪ ♪

So, there's a process of passing
the buck until we get down

to the people who are least
able to defend themselves.

[♪ music playing]
[muted conversations]

[Louise Yeoman] Then you get
news coming from Denmark that

there are witches who've been
convicted, who've confessed,

to trying to sink James
and Anne and trying

to stop the marriage.

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] And you can
imagine this is actually what

James wants to hear.

James is a very
devout and godly man.

He would have believed that
everything that happens

is ordained by God, and
it fits James's desire

to see himself as
pretty important.

If he can believe that Satan is
out to attack him specifically,

it puts him in this really
significant position.

[narrator] King James is
convinced more dark forces are

conspiring against him.

His trusted allies, the Seatons,
reveal they have uncovered

witches working their evil
magic close to the king's

own home in Edinburgh.

[Louise Yeoman] The Seatons are
the people James stayed with

when he was waiting for
Anne to come across.

And they will have
chatted about Anne,

about when is the ship coming
and have there been storms.

So, it's really, you know,
a very short hop to

the king is now involved.

[narrator] The Seatons share
the chilling confessions

extracted from Geillis during
cruel and unrelenting torture.

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] James then
decides it's time for him

to figure out for
himself what's going on.

It's a sign of just how
important it was to him

that he determines to
interrogate the suspects

at his own home, at
Holyrood House.

[Julian Goodare] Not all kings
would have done that.

[Martha McGill] These are often
poor, uneducated women

who are getting dragged into
a place they must never have

imagined they'd set foot,
surrounded by all of

these very educated men, the
kinds of social superiors

whom they are very much
not accustomed to defying.

It puts a new kind of pressure
on the accused women.

[Louise Yeoman] People accused
of witchcraft like Agnes

undoubtedly understand
that they're

on trial for their lives.

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] Agnes Sampson
is kept in the Tollbooth from

November of 1590
until January of 1591.

[Julian Goodare] The
Tollbooth is a large
administrative building.

It's next to the church.

It's the usual place where
the Privy Council meets.

It's a prison, it's a
courthouse, it's where

actual trials take place.

As far as we can tell,
many of the interrogations

also take place
in that building.

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] When it
comes to questioning,

several men would come and
interrogate the suspect.

[indistinct whispers]

Usually this involved
asking quite a lot

of leading questions.

[muted conversation]

Typically your
interrogators will be

there asking things like,

"Did you make a pact
with the devil?"

"Did you have sex with him?"

"Did you meet other witches
at a night-time gathering?"

♪ ♪

And pressure would be applied.

[distorted screaming]

[narrator] Throughout history,
countless horrifying methods

have been used to elicit
confessions of witchcraft.

The trials in Scotland
are no different.

[Louise Yeoman] The major way
this is done is by

torturing them through
sleep deprivation.

[indistinct whispers]

[Nimisha Patel] Sleep
deprivation over a very

short period of time,

within 48 hours, has
the intended effects.

People can start to hallucinate.

You become extremely
disorientated.

You can't think,
you can't focus,

you can't concentrate,
you can't process.

Things may be said to you that
you start to just repeat.

So you start to even
maybe believe what

you're actually saying.

So this is where
questions can be leading,

but also plant in information.

It creates the perfect
conditions for people

to say what the torturers
want them to say.

There's also physical violence
that goes on as well.

[muffled screaming]

[Martha McGill] Agnes has
this rope drawn around
her head and tightened.

[♪ music intensifies]
[Geillis screams and cries]

[Julian Goodare] They seem to
have used thumbscrews,

things that they tighten on
the fingers or the thumb.

[continued screaming]
[screws squeak]

We have at least two people
who commit suicide in custody

over the course of the
North Berwick Hunt.

We have someone else who
dies of being tortured.

[Julian Goodare] And I'm sorry
to say that, you know,

most of the authorities
who are carrying out what

I would call torture today,

the way they do it is by
calling it something else.

Just don't call it torture.

You can get away with
whatever you like.

♪ ♪

I can see that they are
putting considerable pressure

on these people to confess.

[indistinct whispering]

[Martha McGill] So your
interrogators are hoping
to extract a confession,

but they're also hoping
to find visible evidence

of somebody's pact
with the devil.

The way this could be done was
by locating a witch's mark.

[Julian Goodare]
One type of mark,

and this is the one
that seems to be

particularly important
in North Berwick,

is the type of mark that
you detect with a pin.

[Louise Yeoman] This is a very
traumatic thing because it

involves being stripped naked.

And this is usually
done in public with

people standing round.

And what they do is
they take a long pin,

a little dressmaker's pin,
more like a big hat pin,

and they shove it
into you, all over.

[distorted screaming]

They're looking for a place
where they can put the pin in

and you won't feel it.

[ragged breathing and crying]

So in the case of Agnes,
supposedly they eventually

find a mark on her genitals.

[Julian Goodare] A coercive and
humiliating procedure.

You know, particularly
if you're then told,

"And we found the mark, right,
so we know you're guilty,

"are you going to confess now?"

This seems to be the point at
which several people break down

and decide that
they will confess.

It is generally easier
to cooperate with

the interrogators.

The interrogators tell
you what they want.

If you just give them it,
you get an easier time

than if you argue or refuse.

This, unfortunately, is why
we get false confessions.

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

[Martha McGill] For Agnes, once
they had what they needed from

her in the way of a confession,
that's when things get

moved on to Holyrood House,
when there's actually something

to put before the king.

So Agnes has been found by
the interrogation process

to tell particular stories,
and when she gets brought

out in front of James,
she plays her part.

♪ ♪

She gives this account
of how at Halloween

she went to this Sabbathh.

[Louise Yeoman] We've got
accounts of many

witches' meetings where
they're hauling up the devil,

doing magic with the devil.

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] Typically,
stories about the Sabbath

are not so likely
to be coming from

the lower levels of society,

from the accused
people themselves.

These are ideas that
are getting introduced

during the
interrogation process.

[Louise Yeoman] It's the
interrogators, they've
read all this stuff.

They're saying, "How are
you going to kill the king?

"Why are you going
to do it like this?

"Why are you going
to do it like that?"

♪ ♪

[Julian Goodare] They have to
tell a story because

they're being tortured,
they can't remain silent.

The interrogators
want credible detail.

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] Agnes talks
about how she suspended

a toad upside down and collected
the venom that fell out of it,

and she used this
to make a poison

that she wanted to
use on the king.

She asked supposedly a
man of his bedchamber

to bring her some of his
linen that she could then

anoint with this poison.

So we're getting at this
point this conspiracy

against James himself.

James is initially reluctant
to believe these stories

these alleged
witches are telling.

But then Agnes
whispers into his ear

the words that he said to his
new wife in their bedchamber

on their wedding night.

[muted conversation]

James is supposedly
astounded by this...

..and suddenly realises that,
in fact, it's all true.

♪ ♪

Now we have this great
satanic conspiracy

that James sees as a
real and genuine threat

to himself and to
the whole nation.

[♪ conspiratorial music playing]

Agnes is found guilty on
the 27th of January, 1591.

♪ ♪

And she's executed the next day.

♪ ♪

[narrator] We imagine
histories' witches burnt
alive at the stake.

But this horrifying act
was surprisingly rare.

[fire crackling]

[Martha McGill] You would
strangle people before burning

them as a somewhat more
humane death sentence.

[crowd booing]

One reason to burn bodies
is that it created this

impressive public spectacle.

It made a real statement about
your power as government.

[♪ music playing]
[crowd shouting]

Another reason to burn
the body of a witch

is so that the devil can't use
her corpse for any trouble

after she's gone.

So there was this fear about
the corpse that was left behind

and how that could continue to
inflict misery on communities.

[crowd noises]

[Julian Goodare] They
probably have built the pyre
in advance of the trial.

They're ready to go
if and when the right

verdict is handed down.

So the pyre will be ready.

[crowd shouting]

Agnes will be strangled...

♪ ♪

..and then burnt.

[fire crackling]

Castle Hill, it's on the top of
a hill, a very visible thing.

It will be seen for miles.

It lasts for hours.

It's a very dramatic spectacle.

People will have gathered,
you know, in hundreds

or even thousands to watch this.

[♪ music ends]

[Julian Goodare] Various
people are still in prison

and one of them is
poor Geillis Duncan,

with whom it all started.

[chains rattling]

She is in prison
for over a year.

[Louise Yeoman] Presumably
because she was very useful

to her interrogators, saying
whatever they wanted her to say.

[Martha McGill] She's
going to be worn down.

She's going to be tired of the
treatment she's undergoing.

When these men come to
her, who are educated,

who have this superior
social status,

and start insisting on what
she needs to be telling them,

she's probably going to
be looking for a way out.

She confesses what
they want to hear.

Geillis is brought
before James herself.

Again, tells this story
that she's been fed

about her activities.

She says she was at this Sabbath,
she raised these stones.

James was said to have
been very interested

in these proceedings.

[narrator] Broken from
months of brutal torture,

Geillis names more witches.

She begins to accuse members
of Scotland's aristocracy,

names fed to her
during interrogation.

[Louise Yeoman] One of the
high-ranking women who got

accused was Barbara Napier.

[Julian Goodare] She is a
member of the Edinburgh elite.

[muted conversation]

So a quite
well-connected person.

[Martha McGill] Barbara
Napier is accused of
consulting with witches,

but also initially of engaging
in witchcraft herself.

And initially, the
jury acquits her.

They're not convinced.

They think she's
an honest woman.

And the King goes mad about it.

He wants them put
on trial for it.

[Martha McGill] An interesting
feature of the Scottish legal

system in this period
is that juries could

themselves be prosecuted for
returning the wrong verdict.

In James's mind, this is
what's going on here.

The jury has been presented
with compelling evidence

and they've come out
with the wrong answer.

He starts putting some
pressure on them.

Barbara is then convicted.

[Louise Yeoman] Luckily,
Barbara pleads pregnancy.

We know ultimately,
she survived.

She wasn't barren. She got away.

[crow squawks]

[narrator] Although the
vast majority of the
accused witches are women,

a small number of men
are also convicted.

[Martha McGill] Another
figure who's accused is

this Haddington schoolmaster
called John Fian.

John Fian had supposedly
served as the devil's secretary

during the Sabbath,
presumably as one of the

few literate people present.

John Fian is subjected
to a wide range of

pretty gruesome tortures.

♪ ♪

Eventually, after holding
out for a long time,

he does confess and
he is executed.

[crowd shouting]

[fire crackling]

So another prominent
figure who's accused

is Euphame MacCalzean, a
relative of David Seaton, who

first questioned
Geillis Duncan.

She, again, is an example
of the higher tiers

of Scottish society getting
drawn into witch-hunting.

And there was real effort
put into saving her.

But they don't succeed.

I mean, you've got the King
pushing for conviction.

And in the end,
Euphame's executed.

She is sentenced to
be burned alive.

[Julian Goodare]I think this is
possibly the King himself,

having been so cross at not
getting Barbara Napier executed.

You can almost imagine
him banging the table.

"Right, I'm really going to
make my point this time."

[Martha McGill] In total,
about 60 or 70 people are
drawn into these trials.

[narrator] For over a year,
Geillis Duncan, the key witness,

has been trapped in
prison as one of the

first witches accused.

She provided her torturers
with a torrent of

names and information.

But her time is up.

She's finally summoned to
meet her terrible fate.

[Martha McGill] The accused
would not necessarily have

legal representation.

Typically would not
even testify in court.

All that would get fotted
out would be the confession

they had already supplied.

♪ ♪

So they don't really
have much space to

stand up for themselves.

If they have already
confessed under torture,

there's relatively
little opportunity to

then change their mind.

[Louise Yeoman] She was taken
to Edinburgh's Castle Hill

on a December afternoon to
be strangled and burned.

[crowd shouting]

Geillis does try to backtrack.

[Louise Yeoman] At the stake, she
recanted everything she said.

[crowd screaming]

She said it was all lies.

She admits that she has
lied because of torture

about all the other
women, but she doesn't

want to go to her death with
that in her conscience.

But it's too late at that point.

A sentence has already
passed in the mind of James,

in the mind of the
people hearing her case.

[crowd shouting]

So Geillis is finally executed
on the 4th of December, 1591.

[Julian Goodare] Just what goes
through these people's minds

when they're tied to the stake.

It's hard to imagine.

[fire crackling]

[Martha McGill] For James,
however, it's still
unfinished business.

[narrator] King James is not
satisfied that the likes of

Agnes and Geillis,
mere common folk,

were behind the
plot to kill him.

He feels he is worthy of
a more significant foe.

He hears rumour that
someone much closer to home

could be behind the
plot to kill him.

One of the very people
he put in charge

while he was
collecting his bride.

His own cousin, Francis
Stewart, the Earl of Bothwell.

[Louise Yeoman] Francis
Stewart, Earl of Bothwell,

he is James's cousin.

He's sometimes described
as a loose cannon.

I think that's a great
way to describe him.

He has a lot of
run-ins with James VI.

He promises he's going
to be a good guy

and he's going to reform his
ways while James is in Denmark.

When James comes back, well,
James is not really sure

that Bothwell's been reformed.

James comes to believe,
because somebody is getting

the accused witches to say it,
that Bothwell is the mastermind

behind this alleged conspiracy.

♪ ♪

The version that the
witches have been tortured

into telling James is
that the Earl of Bothwell

decided he was scared of
James, he thought James

might execute him, and
therefore he decided to

get his revenge on him
first and to murder James.

[narrator] It's discovered the
rumours incriminating Bothwell

come from one man, a renowned
magical healer, Richie Graham.

[Martha McGill] Now, Richie
Graham was what we might
call a service magician,

someone who travelled around
offering his magical talents.

[Louise Yeoman] He'd been
hanging about with people
in very high places.

[narrator] As a provider
of magical services to
Scotland's gentry,

including Bothwell, Richie
Graham is the perfect suspect.

He is summoned for questioning.

Graham, in an attempt
to save his own skin,

then implicates Bothwell
for witchcraft.

♪ ♪

[Louise Yeoman] And then he
becomes really important as

the person who said,

"Yeah, Bothwell wanted
to kill the king.

"Bothwell wrote to me
to do it, and I said,

"Oh, no, you'll
need Agnes Sampson

"and you'll need all these
other women to do it."

So he's the person
who's ditching all the

conspiracy together.

In a way that satisfies
his interrogators

and makes them think,
"We've had this really

serious, well-thought-out
plot against the king."

And the chief villain was
the Earl of Bothwell,

and here's Richie
Graham, the right-hand

man, who set it all up.

♪ ♪

In April 1591, Bothwell is
charged with witchcraft.

He is then held in
Edinburgh Castle.

[Louise Yeoman] It's really
astonishing that this goes as

high as the Earl of Bothwell
being accused of witchcraft.

This has started with serving
girls being interrogated,

and now we have an Earl being
imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle.

♪ ♪

Bothwell knows this isn't
a great position to be in,

so he very quickly escapes.

[Julian Goodare] He just climbs
out of a window and makes a rope

out of knotted sheets.

[birds chirping]

And he stays on the run for
most of the next two years.

[Louise Yeoman]
Bothwell's finally tried,
and he's acquitted.

His fellow nobles just do
not want to find him guilty,

but James is still furious.

James doesn't trust him.

Bothwell eventually gets exiled.

He ends up dying in
poverty in Naples.

[Martha McGill] Interest in
witchcraft persists.

There are more trials over
the course of the 1590s.

James is certainly not done
inquiring into the subject.

And in 1597, he publishes a
book entitled Demonology.

♪ ♪

This was James's attempt to
thoroughly survey the topic

of how the devil worked,
how he might interfere

with proper Christians,
and to set out some

general principles around
good Protestant behaviour

and keeping clear of the devil.

James actually
resurrects certain ideas

that had mostly fallen
by the wayside,

like the idea of a trial
by water for witches.

[water splashes]

[Julian Goodare] One
interesting point about the
book Demonology is the title.

So Demonology,
knowledge of demons.

James seems to have
invented that word.

The title of James's book
seems to be the first time

when we find the word
demonology in English.

The publication of that
book gives witchcraft

additional credibility.

[Martha McGill] In 1603,
Elizabeth I dies without heirs.

♪ ♪

James's dreams come true.

He succeeds to the
throne of England.

[narrator] Almost immediately,
James makes updates to the

English Witchcraft Act.

[Martha McGill] The Witchcraft
Act is the act under which

witches were prosecuted.

By the previous version,
witchcraft in England

was a capital crime only
if the alleged witch had

actually murdered somebody.

Under the new
Witchcraft Act of 1604,

basically any witchcraft
can be punished by death.

England typically hadn't
been as severe as Scotland

when it came to the
pursuit of witches.

The Act of 1604
casts a long shadow.

[Julian Goodare] Another
thing happens in 1605,

two years after he's
got the English throne.

A group of radical subversive
Catholics try to blow him up

and blow up the entire
Houses of Parliament.

This is the Gunpowder
Plot, 5th November 1605.

And it really was quite
a shocking thing.

James persuaded himself that he
personally had played a role

in uncovering the
Gunpowder Plot.

And it's not just
that he was clever.

It's that he's protected by
God, and so God would not

allow such a wicked deed.

That gives the king a huge
amount of divine legitimation.

I know, let's have a
celebration every year,

every 5th of November.

We will remind ourselves just
how wicked that plot was

and just how goodly
the king was.

[fire crackling]

♪ ♪

[Martha McGill] The North
Berwick Trials are over,

but they have set this
dangerous precedent.

There is now this established
idea that it's possible

for people to band
together in groups

and launch wild,
demonic conspiracies,

attack their communities.

And these ideas feed through
into other witch trials

in the next century.

[narrator] Scotland's first
mass witch trials

saw at least 40 people accused,
the vast majority women.

Through horrific torture
and forced confession,

some of it overseen
by the king himself,

over half of the accused were
found guilty and put to death

for the impossible
crime of witchcraft.

[screaming]

[Martha McGill] It takes a while
for witch hunting to die down.

A lot of that is a
legacy of what happened

in the early 1590s.

The stamp of approval that
the king put on it all.

[narrator] It would be another
century until the end of

witch hunts, trials and
executions in Scotland.

Until then, they will
spread like wildfire

across Europe and
to the Americas.