The first major trial in England was heard at the Chelmsford assizes in July 1566. Scotland passed its own, even harsher, Witchcraft Act that same year.Įssex was the heartland of the earliest witch trials under the new act, and it was the county that pursued witch prosecutions most vigorously over the next century. It was replaced in 1563 by an ‘Act Against Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts’ – a clear indication that the authorities were growing increasingly fearful of magic during the early years of Elizabeth I’s reign. Henry VIII’s witchcraft act of 1542 was deemed unfit for purpose, and was repealed in 1547.
Commoners such as Jourdemayne were rarely caught up in such intrigues, but the tables would be turned more than a century later when witchcraft was seen to be a pervasive problem.Ģ 1566: blood, baskets and a cat called Satan
She was imprisoned for life.ĭuring the 15th century, concern was repeatedly expressed about necromancy and sorcery in aristocratic circles, leading to a handful of trials for treason, heresy, slander and murder. Cobham underwent public penance, pleading that she had hired the magicians not to kill the king but to use their magic to enable her to have a child by the Duke of Gloucester. Margery was burned at Smithfield either as a heretic or a female traitor. He was convicted of high treason and hanged, drawn and quartered. His magical paraphernalia was also exhibited, including wax images, a sceptre and swords draped with magical copper talismans. They were found guilty, and to warn others against such practices, Robert was made to stand upon a stage constructed in the churchyard of old St Paul’s Cathedral while a sermon was preached against magic. In 1441 she stood accused of employing a magician named Roger Bolingbroke and a wise-woman named Margery Jourdemayne to kill Henry VI by sorcery. The stand-out sorcery case of the pre-witch-trial era was that of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester.