How to Punish a Witch in 16th-Century England

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We've all seen movies burn witches at the stake. But how did England's lawmakers propose to punish these evil-doers? You might be surprised. This week, Lesley explores the various ways a sorcerer could be punished in early modern England.

Podcaster: Lesley

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Further Reading
 
​Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: the Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Clarendon Press, (1991).

Malcolm Gaskill, “Witchcraft and Evidence in Early Modern England”, Past & Present, 198 (2008), pp. 33-70.

Alan MacFarlane, Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England: A Comparative and Regional Study, Routledge, (1970).

P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, “King James’s Experience of Witches, and The 1604 English Witchcraft Act”, Witchcraft and the Act of 1604, J. Newton and J. Bath, eds. Brill, (2008), pp. 29-46

J.S. Sharpe, Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England, University of Pennsylvania Press, (1996).

​​Music: "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin Macleod (www.incompetech.com)