Case Study: James VI and the North Berwick Witch Hunt

Between 1590 and 1592 more than 70 people were accused of being witches in East Lothian, with their activities centring on the town of North Berwick.

The case became so well known that even King James VI of Scotland, personally intervened in the trials.

In 1589, King James VI of Scotland and princess Anne of Denmark were engaged to be married.

Anne left Copenhagen for Edinburgh in September 1589, but stormsrepeatedly forced the fleet of ships carrying her to take shelter in Norway. James decided to join her there, where they married in November.

They returned to Scotland the following April, but the fleet of ships was again battered by storms and one ship was sunk.

In Copenhagen in May 1590, a woman called Ane Kolding had been arrested for witchcraft.

Under torture, Kolding confessed that she and a group of other women had sent demons to try to stop Princess Anne travelling to Scotland.

Kolding and twelve others were executed for witchcraft.

Now in Scotland, James heard news of the Copenhagen witch trials. This put the idea in his mind that magic had been used against his bride.

This could have been the end of the matter had a man from Tranent, East Lothian, David Seton, not become suspicious of one of his servants – a young woman by the name of Geilis Duncan.

She was known locally as a healer, and frequently disappeared at night.

Fearing witchcraft, Seton had Geilis was arrested. She was tortured using a device called the pilliwinkes, similar to thumbscrews, and it was alleged that the Devil’s Mark was found on her throat.

Under pressure, Geilis confessed and she named other witches from Edinburgh and East Lothian who she said were behind attempts to sink the ships of the king.

Those who Duncan named were also arrested and questioned.

In many cases they were tortured, like the local school master, John Fian, who "was put to the most severe and cruell paine in the world, called the Bootes". This means his legs were put into tight clamps into which wedges of wood were hammered.

Most of the people arrested ended up confessing or naming others that they claimed were also witches.

The story that emerged described gatherings of witches where the Devil had appeared and instructed them to kill King James.

King James became aware of the plot, and he ordered a trial to get to the bottom of it all.

Details of the trial were recorded in Newes from Scotland, a pamphlet that James had distributed as part of his campaign against witchcraft.

When he heard of the matter, King James ordered that the main suspects be brought to Edinburgh. He even issued a special permission to use torture.

James spoke personally to one of the accused, Agnes Sampson, and was said to be shocked that she could retell private conversations that he'd had with his wife, Anne.

According to Newes from Scotland, it was Agnes Sampson's confession that linked the accused to a plot to kill King James.

Moreover she confessed, that at the time when his Majestie was in Denmarke, shee … tooke a Cat and christened it, and … said Cat was conveyed into the middest of the Sea by all these Witches, sayling in their Riddles or Cives…: this done, there did arise such a tempest in the Sea, as a greater hath not bene seene: … the saide christened Cat was the cause that the Kinges Majesties Shippe at his coming forth of Denmarke, had a contrarie winde to the rest of his Shippes

It is thought that around 70 people were tried for witchcraft in connection with this case.

James paid close attention to the trials and intervened when one woman, Barbara Napier, was declared innocent of all charges. He insisted that the verdict be changed and that she be executed.

Geilis Duncan, whose torture and accusations were at the centre of this witch hunt, was sentenced to death.

Immediately before her own execution, she declared that her confession was untrue and that she had only admitted to witchcraft and plotting to kill the king while suffering extreme pain under torture.

It didn't save her, however, and she was executed by being strangled and then burned.

The events surrounding the North Berwick trials convinced King James that not only were witches a real threat, but that they could be involved in treason against him.

He started work on a book which detailed the dangers posed by witches.

It was named Daemonologie, and was published in 1597, the only such book published by a king.

The book was influential in convincing others of the dangers of witchcraft.

King James's Daemonologie influenced William Shakespeare. It is thought that the book provided the inspiration for the witches in his play Macbeth.

In Macbeth one of the witches even refers to traveling across the sea in a sieve, just like the North Berwick witches were accused of doing:

But in a sieve, I'll thither sail(Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 3)

When James became King of England in 1603, he continued his fight against witchcraft.

In 1604, the English Parliament passed an Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft and dealing with evil and wicked Spirits. This new law made performing witchcraft, or consulting with evil spirits a crime punishable by death.

Later James came to accept that many of those accused of witchcraft had been accused unfairly.

As a result, he was less active in hunting witches in later life.

However, it would be another 124 years before a new law brought witch trails across Scotland and the UK to an end.