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40 Real People Executed for Witchcraft

Tim Flight October 15, 2019 27 min

25. King James VI of Scotland tried, condemned and executed the folk-healer Agnes Sampson

Illustration of the events surrounding the North Berwick Witches from the pamphlet Newes from Scotland, London, 1591. Wikimedia Commons

When a terrible storm at sea delayed James VI of Scotland’s marriage to Anne of Denmark, he suspected witches. Soon evidence of a coven in Edinburgh was discovered. A terrified servant girl accused of illicit nocturnal behavior tried to save her life by implicating others. One of the accused, Agnes Sampson, eventually confessed to being a witch under torture. James questioned her himself, and Sampson admitted to trying to kill the king and his wife by raising the storm. Satisfied, James overruled the skeptical jury at her trial and burned Sampson and two other ‘witches’ in 1591.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk