The Craft: King James, Fear & The Witch Hunts

Long before Eleanor Neale faced judgment in Virginia, King James VI of Scotland had already written the rulebook on fear. In this episode, we travel back to the European witch hunts that inspired his Daemonologie and learn how those anxieties crossed the Atlantic.Discover how royal superstition became colonial law and how one woman’s fate was sealed by centuries of inherited fear.Sources used in this episode:​King James VI & I, Daemonologie (1597) – primary text for quotes on witchcraft identification and punishment​Normand, L. & Roberts, G., Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: James VI’s Demonology and the North Berwick Witches (2000)​Goodare, J., “The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context,” Scottish Historical Review (1996)