Witch trials in England

Witch trials are known to have occurred in England during the Middle Ages. These cases were few, and mainly concerned cases toward people of the elite or with ties to the elite, often with a political purpose.[2] Examples of these were the trials against Eleanor Cobham and Margery Jourdemayne in 1441, which resulted in lifetime imprisonment for the former, and an execution for heresy for the latter.

It was however not until the second half of the 16th-century that a widescale witch hunt took place in England. The cases became more common in the end of the 16th-century and the early 17th-century, particularly since the succession of James VI and I to the throne. King James had shown a great interest in witch trials since the Copenhagen witch trials in 1589, which had inspired the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland in 1590. When he succeeded to the English throne in 1603, he sharpened the English Witchcraft Act the following year.

Witch trials were most frequent in England in the first half of the 17th-century. They reached their most intense phase during the English civil war of the 1640s and the Puritan era of the 1650s. This was a period of intense witch hunts, known for witch hunters such as Matthew Hopkins.

The first Witchcraft Act in England was introduced in 1542. The Act was however repelled in 1547. The Witchcraft Act of 1563 introduced the death penalty for any sorcery used to cause someone's death. In 1604 the Witchcraft Act was reformed to include anyone to have made a Pact with Satan.

In England, it was not as common as in some other nations to be accused of having attended a Witches' Sabbath or having made a Pact with Satan.[1] The typical victim of an English witch trial was a poor old woman with a bad reputation, who were accused by her neighbors of having a familial and of having injured or caused harm to other people's livestock by use of sorcery.[1] The common method used in an English witch trial was to estimate guilt with the use of trial by ordeal, where people accused of witchcraft were often trialed by the ordeal of water.[1]

Between 500 and 1000 people are estimated to have been executed for witchcraft in England.[2] Of all executions known for sorcery in England, 90 percent were women, more than any other country in Europe.[2]

After the many witch trials of the mid 17th century, the cases became fewer during the second half of the 17th-century. Mary Hicks and her daughter Elizabeth Hicks have been referred to as the last people executed for witchcraft in England in 1716.

Witch trials formally ended in England after the introduction of the Witchcraft Act of 1735.