        |
|||
James VI of Scotland & the North Berwick Witches |
|||
 |
|||
The StageKronborg Castle, Denmark – 20 August 1589 The fourteen-year old Anne Princess of Denmark is getting married to James VI of Scotland, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, with the Earl Marischal standing as proxy. By the end of the month, the news has reached Edinburgh and the new bride is expected to arrive by September. On 1st September, Anne sails for Scotland from Copenhagen in a fleet commanded by Admiral Munk but the flagship springs a leak. By the 10th the fleet is forced to take refuge in Norway due to further leaks and storms. It is now mid-September and news reaches Scotland of the storms which are preventing Anne’s voyage. Impatient, James goes to Seton for two weeks to await her arrival. On 1st October the Danish fleet is once again forced by gales to return to Norway, and James receives a letter on the 10th announcing that the voyage has been abandoned and that Anne will spend the winter in Oslo. Unable to wait, James’s fleet sets sail from Leith for Oslo on 22nd October and reaches Norway on 28th despite contrary winds and gales. James and Anne get married in person on 23rd November in Oslo, and James writes to his council in December stating that he will be absent from Scotland until the spring. On 22nd December, James and Anne set out for Denmark arriving in late January, and spend the winter and spring there. On 21st January 1590, they are married again at Kronborg Castle, Copenhagen. Finally, James and Anne arrive at Leith on 1st May after a four-day stormy voyage. This summary of how James came to bring his new bride home marks the start of one of the fiercest witch hunts in Scotland, which raged from 1590 to 1597, setting the stage for further such outbursts into the next century. The first part of this episode is known as the trials of the “North Berwick Witches”. The main protagonists are John Fian, a schoolmaster from Tranent; Agnes Sampson, a “cunning” woman, healer and midwife from East Lothian; Barbara Napier, an affluent Edinburgh woman; Euphame MacCalzean, another powerful Edinburgh woman; and Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, none other than the nephew of Mary, Queen of Scots’ third husband, James Hepburn. What happened was that James cast the blame for his and Anne’s troublesome sea voyages on a group of people, and turned those trials into treason cases interfering with the legal and judicial process in an unprecedented way. John Fian and Agnes Sampson were strangled and burned on Castle Hill in Edinburgh, while Euphame MacCalzean was burnt alive in the same place. Barbara Napier escaped her fate for a time by claiming that she was pregnant but was finally executed in Haddington along with five others in the second half of 1591. Bothwell though, proved to be a more slippery subject. 39 others were implicated and one Robert Grierson died before he could be tried as a result of the torture he had endured. The BackgroundAfter Anne’s voyage to Scotland was abandoned, Admiral Munk was questioned as to the reasons for the leaks. Anxious to avoid an accusation of negligence, Munk blamed it on witchcraft and the wife of a Copenhagen citizen was apprehended as well as five other women. James was already in Norway at the time and when in Denmark, he visited Niels Hemmingsen, author of “Admonitio de Superstitionibus Magicis Vitandis”, a book on witchcraft, and it is often assumed that the exchange with the Danish theologian sowed the seeds of continental demonology into James’s mind. However, there is no evidence that James and Hemmingsen discussed anything else but Protestant ideology during their meeting. The contemporary continental beliefs concerning witchcraft had been set out by the work of the Dominican theologians, the “Malleus Maleficarum” commissioned by Pope Pius VIII in 1484. This work expounded the theory that witches got together to wield harm against people, cattle and crops by the use of such things as weather magic, wax dolls, powders and ointments made from dead bodies and children fat etc. Previous to the North Berwick Witches case, trials in Scotland and in England had already brought in the element of shipwreck by witchcraft and attempts on the monarch’s life by the use of wax representations. Legally, the 1563 Witchcraft Act had been passed in Scotland during the reign of James’s mother, Mary, but few cases were tried under it. The act allowed prosecution by civil authorities, but it was the kirk who regularly petitioned the government for more action on the issue. Before 1563, witchcraft cases were handled by the ecclesiastical courts and punishment imposed by secular powers. After 1590, a number of measures were established which opened the floodgates for abuses. On 26 October 1591, after the four main North Berwick trials had taken place, the privy council passed an act which gave six commissioners the power to make enquiries into all current and future cases of witchcraft, using torture if necessary, with a view to sending them to trial. On 8th June 1592, under church pressure, the privy council set up a joint body consisting of commissioners from kirk and government who, touring the country, devolved power into the hands of local men, who were free to seek out and punish witches in their area. This measure was by far the most damaging, so much so that on 12 August 1597, the privy council issued an order which withdrew the standing commission to those they had been granted, and declared that the council would judge each case of witchcraft separately and none could proceed without a privy council commission. The EvidenceLet us now turn to the events which led those four unfortunate people, as well as many others, to meet their death in 1591. How did two ordinary people from the country come to be linked with two city women of high rank and a nobleman, cousin of the King? In November 1589, a Geillis Duncan (executed in December 1591) was apprehended in Tranent on an accusation of witchcraft. Sometime before December 1590, she seems to have implicated Agnes Sampson in a tale about a meeting in the middle of the firth with a witch from Copenhagen during which they raised a storm. Agnes Sampson was a notorious wise woman in East Lothian or, as they were known in those days, a “cunning” woman. She had already been investigated in Haddington for her practices and later, she would be convicted on numerous counts such as, healing, failing to heal or refusing to heal certain people with the use of her herbal remedies and magical prayer; foretelling whether someone would recover from or succumb to their illness by asking the “devil” who appeared to her in the shape of a great black dog; and attending several witches “conventions”, including the one during which James’s life was put at risk. We know that Agnes eventually confessed under torture, and that James personally took part in her interrogation and extracted information from her. In January 1591, Agnes was again examined and attempted to retract her statement about her involvement at the North Berwick convention but was probably tortured until she confessed to it again. During the course of this examination, she implicated Barbara Napier by stating that the latter had consulted her with reference to harming a man called “Archie” (the Earl of Angus) and to gain the favour of Lady Lyons, and sundry. A hint along the same lines was made concerning Euphame MacCalzean. Part of the investigation process was to confront the accused with the witnesses, and this is what happened in the case of Barbara and Euphema. On the evidence of other witches allegedly present at the conventions, it was put forward that Agnes Sampson had proposed the king’s destruction at the request of Bothwell, and that the devil had suggested a wax image of the king, which Euphema handled at Acheson’s Haven (near Prestonpans) on 31st July 1590. Napier was also accused by Ritchie Graham, a “warlock” (executed on 24th February 1592), to have written down a conjuration which he composed, a garbled piece of Latin wishing uncleanness and syphilis on the king. On 29th January 1591, Geillis Duncan, Janet Stratton and Donald Robson confessed and developed the story of a letter sent to Barbara Napier and summoning a meeting at Prestonpans and at Leith to raise storms and prevent Queen Anne’s homecoming. The meeting at North Berwick kirk on 9th September 1590 was elaborated, and Euphema was accused of having requested the wax image from the devil. In a deposition dated at around 30th January 1591, Janet Stratton stated that there had been a convention at the haven called the “Fiery Hills” (Acheson Harbour near Prestonpans), the previous 31st July. The purpose of this meeting had allegedly been to bring about the death of the Earl of Angus by magic at the instigation of his wife, Lady Lyons and with Barbara Napier acting as go-between. However, the assizers (the jurors) acquitted Napier of that charge. On 4th May 1591, in the presence of the king and Bothwell’s enemy, Chancellor Maitland, Stratton elaborated on this story as well as the sinking of a ship in September 1589 and the meeting at North Berwick. Agnes Sampson she said had “dripped” a toad over the fire (obtained the liquid from a dead toad’s body) in her house, and mixed it with the “wash” (stale urine used for bleaching clothes!) which Stratton had been summoned to bring her. This potion had then been sent to Edinburgh to be used by the women mentioned. On 5th May 1591, Geillis Duncan, Donald Robson and Bessie Thomson were once again examined. In what seems to be an increasingly manipulated statement to be used for political ends, Bothwell was specifically incriminated as the one who commissioned and provided funds for the making of the wax image to be used to destroy the King. Robert Grierson, who had died at that stage, was said to have exclaimed that “it would be long before the gold came out of England” (implying that Bothwell sometimes received subsidies from Elizabeth I). The main source of the evidence against Bothwell however, came from Richard Graham who had made a deal with James that he would reveal all he knew about him, if he was allowed the protection of Edinburgh Castle’s walls. On 7th May 1591, it was the turn of Bessie Nisbet, Euphame MacCalzean’s servant, to be examined. She stated that her mistress had given her letters to take concealed in a loaf of bread to Kate Muirhead (executed on 19th May 1593 in Edinburgh) or Jennie Stewart, who must have been imprisoned at the tolbooth. Euphame MacCalzean was questioned on the same day about those letters, and denied having sent them. Sometime in June 1591, Janet Kennedy, the “witch of Reydon”, who had been brought back from England, was examined in James’s presence. She corroborated the story of the image to destroy the Earl of Angus, and then the manufacture of the king’s image for the same goal. She incriminated Agnes Sampson by name and Barbara Napier by implication, and said that Agnes had “forced” her to go to the conventions by dragging her spirit out of bed while she lay sleeping. In another deposition in June, Janet Kennedy mentioned that she had been in Agnes Sampson’s house, where the roasting of the king’s image was taking place in the presence of “Napier”, “MacCalzean” and other “poor folk”. A few days after Euphame’s execution, on 19th June and 4th July 1591, Janet Stratton and Donald Robson respectively, deponed before a Notary Public that they had never met Bothwell, and did not know “any evil of him”. They also denied knowing or ever speaking to Euphame MacCalzean, and stated that all they had said had been for fear of torture. These depositions were taken by David Ogilvy, who had been one of the prolocutors (spokesmen) at Euphame’s trial, and was related to her as he was her husband’s son-in-law. On 4th December 1591, Geillis Duncan and Bessie Thomson were executed in their turn. While waiting for their execution on Castle Hill, they also denied that Barbara Napier and Euphame MacCalzean were witches, and maintained that they had been persuaded to slander them by the magistrate David Seton and his son, for which they asked God to forgive them. The TrialsJohn Cunningham or “Fian” was the first to be tried on 26th December 1590. He was executed in late January 1591. None of the pre-trial examinations have survived in his case, but from his dittay, we have the most fanciful account of the convention, introducing elements of continental witch sabbats and of an image of the devil inspired by the Reformation. He was convicted of becoming the devil’s clerk as the latter appeared to him while he was lying in bed wondering how he could avenge himself of his landlord’s failure to whitewash the walls of his bedroom, and of allowing the devil to apply his mark on him with a rod; of abusing the body of a widow, Margaret Spens, and at the devil’s instance refusing to marry her; of allowing himself to be carried in spirit to the meeting at North Berwick kirk to render homage to the devil and promise to do his works, raising winds to trouble the king’s voyage to Denmark, convening with other witches and participating in the desecration of graves whose corpses were dismembered for witchcraft purposes; of opening the locks of David Seton’s son’s gates; of possessing a William Hutson with an evil spirit; of chasing cats to be used in witchcraft; of foretelling whether people would live or die; of destroying lives, crops etc. Agnes Sampson’s trial followed on 27th January 1591. She was executed the next day. Her story also contains popular folklore about what takes place at the witches’s sabbats, but the description is far less grotesque than the continental accounts. It is through her that we are introduced to the tale about the baptising of the cat, which was later used to raise the storm in Leith. A cat was passed under a chimney three times and later cast into the sea at Leith with a dead man’s bones and joints tied to it, after which it swam back ashore. She was convicted of numerous “witchcraft” offences as previously mentioned, and was generally believed to have been the main “witch” in the whole affair. Barbara Napier’s trial lasted from 8th to 10th May 1591. It is unclear when she was executed as she claimed to be pregnant to stay her execution. It is believed however that she died in Haddington later in the year along with five others. Barbara Napier being a city dweller of higher rank (she was the wife of Archibald Douglas, brother of the Laird of Carshogill), had five prolocutors (spokesmen) to represent her. She was not convicted of witchcraft as such but of consulting with witches for the destruction of the king and the death of the Earl of Angus. She was also charged with consulting with Agnes Sampson on various matters and with Ritchie Graham to help her son, but the assizers acquitted her of being at the North Berwick convention and of making a wax image to destroy the Earl of Angus. However, James refused to accept the verdict, and on 7th June 1591 he convened twelve assizers, threatening them with a conviction for “wilful error”. James maintained that in acquitting Napier, the assizers had been motivated by kinship ties and other allegiances, rather than a desire to see justice being done. Euphame MacCalzean’s trial lasted from 9th to 15th June. She was executed on Castle Hill on 25th June and subjected to the harshest method of execution available: being burnt alive. Euphame had been a prominent member of Edinburgh society, being the only daughter and heiress of Thomas MacCalzean, advocate and senator of the College of Justice. She was married to Patrick Moscrop, son of the advocate John Moscrop, and had three daughters and at least two sons, one of whom called Thomas who died young. She was also related by marriage to David Seton (her husband’s sister Katherine was David Seton’s wife). She was supposed to be a catholic and partisan of Bothwell, hence the link with Bothwell and the witches, and she was represented as a rebellious and quarrelsome woman and a bad wife. The main charges against Euphame were trying to murder her husband (for which she was acquitted), poisoning several people, manufacturing love charms, murdering her husband’s nephew, two counts of treasonable attendance at conventions, and consulting other witches regarding present and future husbands, impeding marriages, disposing of partners by witchcraft and “avoiding by magical means the penalty that God imposed on Eve’s daughters, the natural and kindly pain of childbirth” (!!!). On 5th June 1592, Euphema’s estates were returned to her family by act of Parliament, after her name had been cleared by the depositions taken after her death. Francis Stewart, Lord Bothwell was brought before James on 15th April 1591 charged with plotting with Agnes Sampson and Richard Graham against him. He was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle the next day until 21st June when he escaped in the early hours of the morning. On 25th June, James issued a proclamation against Bothwell, accusing him of treason and witchcraft. A few weeks later, a letter addressed to the “nobility” arrived in Edinburgh, casting doubt on the motives behind the charges against Bothwell. Maitland was blamed as were Bothwell’s origins. Being the son of Robert Stuart, an illegitimate son of James V, whom Mary, Queen of Scots had later legitimised, Francis Stewart was actually next in line for the throne of Scotland. On 1st July 1591, Bothwell contacted the king to try and minimise the damage caused to his family by the forfeiture of his lands; James, however, refused to hear anything about it and ordered military pursuit. On 27th December 1591, Bothwell struck back by breaking into Holyroodhouse with a view to killing Maitland and seizing James. The attempt failed and several of his supporters were hanged. In February 1592, support for James was on the wane as a result of Jame’s leniency towards the catholic Earl of Huntly, who had murdered the Earl of Moray. On 28th February, Richard Graham, Bothwell’s chief accuser, was deemed to have served his purpose and was executed. At the moment of his execution however, he stood by his accusations. James then confirmed Bothwell’s forfeiture but also legalised presbytarian church government to regain some of his former support. The kirk then jumped on the opportunity to extract more power against the eradication of witchcraft, as described above. Bothwell continued to roam and cause trouble for James. On 28th June 1592, he attacked Falkland Palace with four hundred men while James and Anne were in residence but was beaten off. Finally, in July 1593 he again broke into Holyroodhouse, seized James and gained the upper hand. On 10th August 1593, Bothwell was cleared of witchcraft but within two years, James had managed to turn the tide in his favour again. Bothwell fled to England where Elizabeth sheltered him for a while to force James to act against powerful catholic magnates. Bothwell launched a military assault on Leith in April 1594 which failed, and Elizabeth withdrew her support. In March 1595, the kirk excommunicated Bothwell, and he went into exile in France in April. He then moved on to Spain and then Italy, and died in poverty in Naples in 1612. Conclusion“It hath not bene the custome that the Kings of this Realme my forebeers should sit in persone upon cryminall causes, neither have I my selfe done it save onely twise.” (James admitted to the assize on 7th June 1591) The case of the North Berwick Witches is one of the best examples of political manipulation and authoritarian paranoia in 16th century reformed Scotland. James and the Kirk used each other’s power to achieve their aims and twisted the legal system to suit their means in a way which sends shudders down the spine of any democratic society. Pascale Jooste NB: Retired schoolteacher Iain Johnstone, from Macmerry, has just completed Acheson’s Haven, a historical novel based on the events, while a film crew is currently in East Lothian making a documentary for the Mysterious Scotland series, to be shown on STV early next year (2003). Sources: “Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland”, Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts, 2000. “The Witch Cult in Western Europe”, Margaret Murray, 1921. “Malleus Maleficarum”, Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, 1486. | |||
| Links Contact | |||