035 - A Magazine of Scandal

This week's episode continues the trials of East Anglia, as we see the result of the Witchfinder General's efforts in the summer assizes of Chelmsford and Bury St. Edmunds. One was headed by the Earl of Warwick, a noble with little in the way of legal training, and the other by a triumvirate of two priests and a lawyer. One goes exceptionally well for the witchfinders, and the other... not so much. This episode primarily makes use of the following texts: -  Gaskill, Malcolm, Witchfinders: A Seventeenth Century English Tragedy, (2005) -  Levack, Brian, ‘State-Building and Witch-Hunting’, in Oldridge, Darren (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader, 2002 -  Purkiss, DIane, The English Civil War: A People's History, (2007) -  Jackson, Louise, ‘Witches, Wives and Mothers: Witchcraft Persecution and Women’s Confessions in Seventeenth-Century England’, in Oldridge, Darren (ed.), The Witchcraft Reader, 2002 For a full bibliography, please see the website: https://thehistoryofwitchcraft.co.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/historyofwitchcraft/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HistofWitch Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/HistoryofWitchcraft The Recorded History Podcast Network: www.recordedhistory.net The History of Witchcraft is up for an award! Go here to vote: http://podcastawards.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Om Podcasten

Witches didn't exist, and yet thousands of people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Why? The belief in magic and witchcraft has existed in every recorded human culture; this podcast looks at how people explained the inexplicable, turned random acts of nature into conscious acts of mortal or supernatural beings, and how desperate communities took revenge against the suspected perpetrators.