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In Peter Elmer's novel Witchcraft, Witch-Hunting, and politics in early modern England [32] he argues and provides evidence for the fact that many of England's great witch trials occurred at times when political parties and governing bodies felt that their authority was being threatened. During the years of 1629 to 1637 no trials occurred in ...
Witchcraft in Anglo-Saxon England (Old English: wiċċecræft) refers to the belief and practice of magic by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 11th centuries AD in Early Mediaeval England. Surviving evidence regarding Anglo-Saxon witchcraft beliefs comes primarily from the latter part of this period, after England had been Christianised ...
A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor), or witchcraft doctor, [1] is a kind of magical healer who treats ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. [2] The term is often misunderstood, and they could more accurately be called "anti-witch doctors".
Alice Molland – who has long held the tragic record of being the last woman in England to be hanged as a “witch” – was sentenced to death in 1685. Over three centuries later, in 1996, a ...
In the north of England, the superstition lingers to an almost inconceivable extent. Lancashire abounds with witch-doctors, a set of quacks, who pretend to cure diseases inflicted by the devil ... The witch-doctor alluded to is better known by the name of the cunning man, and has a large practice in the counties of Lincoln and Nottingham. [91]
Articles relating to witchcraft in England, traditionally the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have used malevolent magic against their own community, and often to have communed with evil beings.
Frontispiece from Matthew Hopkins's The Discovery of Witches (1647), showing witches identifying their familiar spirits. Following the Lancaster Witch Trials (1612–1634), William Harvey, physician to King Charles I of England, had been ordered to examine the four women accused, [29] and from this there came a requirement to have material proof of being a witch. [30]
Her trial in 1712 is commonly but erroneously regarded as the last witch trial in England. [13] The Witchcraft Act 1735 finally concluded prosecutions for alleged witchcraft in England after sceptical jurists, especially Sir John Holt (1642–1710), had already largely ended convictions of alleged witches under English law.