BBC Radio Orkney

Witch Hunt

Factual: History

Exploring Scotland's war on witches and witchcraft with Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman.

Witch Hunt: The King and the Witches' Sabbath

The King and the Witches' Sabbath

BBC Radio Scotland - Witch Hunt, The King and the Witches' Sabbath

King James VI's war on witchcraft starts with the North Berwick trials.

Introducing Scotland's war on witches and witchcraft with Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman talking to a team of top historians about the role of King James in witch trials.

The witchcraft trials were one of the biggest injustices in Scotland’s history, a massive miscarriage of justice, but how did people come to believe in such a thing? Our top-notch panel of Scottish historians are here to take you deep into the psyche of the 16th century, along with our hosts Susan Morrison and Louise Yeoman.

This time we explore the North Berwick witch trials. The witches' sabbath came to Scotland sometime in the 16th century, but it was royal approval that made it fashionable to believe.  King James VI believed that witches met at a sabbath in North Berwick Kirk gaining powers from the Devil to sink his and his new wife’s ships and to assassinate him. We look at the dreadful consequences of these beliefs with historians Dr Mikki Brock, Professor Julian Goodare, Dr Lizanne Henderson and others, while cognitive psychologist Dr Faye Skelton explores how torture and harsh interrogation led people to confess to imaginary crimes.

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