National Geographic History - 09.10 201

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 81

opponent: militant Catholics. Catholic con-
spiracies threatened his claim on the English
throne, in much the same way the North Berwick
witches threatened him in Scotland. After the
Gunpowder Plot of 1605—Guy Fawkes’s plan
to blow up Parliament and kill the king—James
turned away from hunting witches in favor of
rooting out any Catholic conspiracies.

From Royal to Local
Even though King James’s attentions had
shifted, ideas about witchcraft had permeated
Scottish society. The notion of witches as a de-
monic conspiracy descended through the lower
levels of local government, making the witch
hunts of the 17th century local as well as na-
tional affairs.
There was a geographical pattern that shows
the state’s interest in rooting out witches: Heavy
witch-hunting took place in areas near the cen-
ters of state power, such as Fife and Lothian. Fear
of the devil was at its peak when the state was
determined to enforce religious uniformity.
More than half of all Scottish witch-hunting

took place during brief but intense periods of

panic. In one locality after another, the authori-

ties uncovered evidence of apparent witch con-

spiracies. Outside the panic periods, by contrast,

there were a trickle of cases.

Most practical measures to weed out witches

were taken by the local leaders of Scottish so-

ciety, the lairds (local aristocrats) and minis-

ters. They formed kirk sessions (parish com-

mittees of the church) to supervise the people

and to bring them to godliness. Kirk sessions

were not criminal courts, but they could arrest

and interrogate suspects and pass cases on to

the secular authorities. Most offenses that kirk

sessions dealt with concerned extramarital sex,

which may explain why so many Scottish female

witches were accused of sex with the devil.

While many of these incidents began local-

ly, some panics in Scotland had origins over-

seas. The third nationwide panic began in 1628

and probably spread to Scotland from Germa-

ny, which also experienced a huge upsurge of

witch-hunting in the late 1620s at the time of

the Thirty Years’ War.

THIS MAP of the British Isles was produced in 1595, four years after the

North Berwick witch trials. The southern part of Scotland, near Edin-

burgh, was the area most affected by the witch panics of the 16th and

17th centuries. More isolated areas of the Scottish Highlands, to the

north and west, saw fewer cases. In 1603 James acceded to the throne

of England as James I and united the crowns.

SEAT OAgnes Sampson, one F POWER THE REALM OF JAMES VI

of the accused witches

from North Berwick, was

questioned by King James

at Holyroodhouse in

Edinburgh, the seat

of Scottish royalty

for centuries.

DEA/ALBUM

BRIDGEMAN/ACI