Children of Nature - Witch History Extracts

The history of witches is very long and gruesome, here are a few accounts of witch trials from my book.

In 1441, Eleanor Cobham was the mistress and second wife of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester.  Her crime was that she had consulted an astrologer, Roger Bollingbroke who predicted an illness for the king.  She denied the charges but admitted to using love potions obtained from Margery Jourdemain also known as the Witch of Eye.  Margery had knowledge on how to end pregnancies, though Eleanor had gone to her in the hope of a potion to conceive.  Margery also had friends in high places, clerics and courtiers who were also using her services but as she had been caught offending before, Margery was put to death by burning.  Roger Bollingbroke was hung, drawn and quartered while Eleanor was made to do public penance, forced to divorce her husband and spent the rest of her life in prison.

1581 - 1593

In Trier, Germany at least three hundred and sixty eight people were executed when people rose up to eradicate witches blamed for continued sterility in the area.  People from all classes, ages and sexes were victims.  It was recorded by an eyewitness that one hundred and eight of those burned were from the nobility.  Meanwhile the executioner got very rich from it all.  Children of the punished were exiled and all their possessions confiscated.  Eventually the population was shrunk to the point some villages only had one female left.  The investigations slowed down eventually when new laws were passed restricting how much inquisitors could charge to examine the accused.

1716

Mary Hickes and her nine year old daughter Elizabeth were accused of taking off their stockings in order to create a storm.  They were hanged in Huntingdon on 28th July.

Read more in Children of Nature - A History of Witches  available from www.amazon.co.uk or download to Kindle

Children of Nature

The history of witches goes back a very long time to a pre christian age and the days of worshipping nature and the goddess.  Ancient peoples lived by the cycles of nature, by observing these cycles they knew when to plant crops and when to harvest etc.  As a result rituals and celebrations evolved along with beliefs that everything had a spirit.
When Christianity came along these children of nature were considered to be pagans and witches and therefore evil.  What I have tried to look at in my book is what exactly were these people doing that caused so much outrage.  We are generally taught of the stereotypical witch, the old hag dressed in black flying on a broomstick.  She is usually poor with a cat for company.  However out of the thousands accused, a percentage were men, in Iceland most of those executed were men.  They were mostly healers with a knowledge of herbs, astrologers, midwives, fortune tellers.  Many were poor people in the wrong place at the wrong time while others were from wealthy families.  Some were old, others were children.  What they had in common was to be accused of crimes they couldn't possibly have committed, such as weather magic, causing illness by bewitchment, flying on broomsticks, turning themselves into animals. Many would just admit to these impossibilities than suffer the ordeal of being tortured.  Methods of torture included sleep deprivation, continual walking, thumbscrews, the rack and many more.  One woman confessed to killing her own children, even though they were alive and well.  Once a confession was secured the victim was usually decapitated and burned at the stake or sometimes burned alive.  Witch hunters began to appear, offering their services to towns and villages of ridding the area of witches and making a good living in the process.  How many people were killed depends on what source you read, some say fifty thousand, others say two hundred and fifty thousand.

Children of Nature is available from www.amazon.co.uk  or as a download to Kindle