Witchcraft in the Elizabethan era.

Queen Elizabeth I was born on 7 September 1533, at Greenwich Palace, to King Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Henry had taken England out of the rule of the Church of Rome in order to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Anne Boleyn had been one of Catherine’s Lady’s in Waiting. After the birth of Elizabeth, Anne’s position became dangerous; Henry had wanted a son to guarantee succession to the throne ever since the birth of Elizabeth's half sister Mary in his first marriage. Anne was beheaded on charges of adultery and treason before Elizabeth was three years old. Henry then proceeded to make Elizabeth illegitimate by having Parliament declare his marriage to Anne Boleyn invalid. It was this relationship between Henry and Anne Boleyn, which was tested by claims of witchcraft, whether or not those claims were created by Henry himself it is unclear but the speculation continues. Meanwhile whilst Elizabeth lived apart from the court of her father in Hatfield, Henry married again, this time to Jane Seymour who delivered him the son he wanted so badly, Edward. Elizabeth saw her family at ceremonial occasions and was officially declared to be third in line to the throne. By the time Elizabeth was ten, Henry had married his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr, who gave the young Princess much needed loving attention. Elizabeth received the type of education that was normally only given to young boys at that time, focusing on classical languages, history and moral philosophy and supplemented by French and Italian. Henry died in 1547 and the ten year old Edward, in a frail state of health, succeeded his father to the throne. Henry's widow married Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral, whose brother Edward was King Edward VI's protector until he should reach the age of maturity i.e.18. After the death of Catherine in January 1549, Thomas Seymour was arrested for treason, the charge being that he had been plotting to marry Elizabeth, so that he might rule the kingdom. Elizabeth and her servants testified that he had often flirted with her and been over familiar towards her. Seymour was sentenced to death and beheaded. Edward VI died in 1553, leaving the throne to his half sister Mary who was set on returning England to the Roman Catholic faith. English Protestants, who were opposed to this plan and to her marriage to the Catholic King Philip II of Spain, threw the political situation into turmoil. Elizabeth and others conformed to Mary's demands, whilst secretly plotting to restore Protestantism to England. Mary had Elizabeth arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London after the rebellion led by Sir Thomas Wyatt in January 1554. Her imprisonment was followed by a year under house arrest at Woodstock, Oxfordshire. Mary died on the 17th of November 1558 and then Elizabeth ascended the throne.

The first statute against witchcraft was passed in England in 1542 during the reign of Henry VIII. The 1542 Act in England treated witchcraft as a felony, which included any acts of malevolence towards the public in general. The Act stated that it was a capital offence to practice witchcraft, enchantment or sorcery, to find treasure, to cause physical harm to another, to provoke unlawful love, or for any other unlawful purpose. North of the border a similar statute was passed under Mary Queen of Scots in 1562. In Scotland, however, the law differed in that torture was allowed as ...

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The second English act was passed in 1563 under Elizabeth I. It was more lenient in that the death penalty was only served if the witchcraft involved the death of another person. Less serious results of witchcraft incurred a maximum of 1-year jail sentence. In 1562 the Countess of Lennox was condemned for treason when she and four others consulted astrologers to determine how long Elizabeth I would live. Elizabeth I had just ascended the throne when Sir Anthony Fortescue was charged with casting a horoscope to determine her life expectancy. In 1563 Fortescue and seven others were charged with treason. These Catholics had determined by astrology that Queen Elizabeth would die next spring, how wrong could they be. The Elizabethan Statute of 1563 was very similar in wording to the 1542 Bill in Henry VIII’s reign. Protestant England was willing to believe that the Roman Catholics would resort to sorcery and witchcraft to restore the Old Faith. There was widespread suspicion and hostility where witches were concerned. All naturally incurred disasters and misfortunes were attributed to witches.

Elizabeth may have had another reason to be seen persecuting witches. Anne Boleyn, her own mother, was widely believed to have been a witch. Her Protestant subjects would not have been enchanted, excuse the pun, by this allegation. Elizabeth’s Catholic subjects were being exposed to spiteful propaganda, which attempted to discredit the Protestant queen. She was reputedly as much a witch as her mother. Most derogatory reports about Anne Boleyn came from two hostile sources with vested interests. Eustace Chapuys, Charles V’s Imperial Ambassador, attempted to prevent Henry VIII from divorcing Catherine of Aragon. He viewed Anne Boleyn as an evil woman who "used witchcraft to manipulate and control the king." Nicholas Sander, a Catholic priest, worked actively against Queen Elizabeth I. He assured his readers that Anne Boleyn had the monstrous appearance of a witch. He is renown for accusing her of having, "…a tumour on her neck and a sixth finger on her right hand" It is difficult to see how Henry VIII could have fallen in love with such an ugly creature. Catholics repeated Sander’s claims, and many in provincial areas believed them because they had never seen Queen Anne. There is no truth in the claim that Anne had a sixth finger, this extra digit was the reputed characteristic of a witch. A Venetian Ambassador who saw Anne in 1532 claimed that she was of medium height, very swarthy with black and beautiful eyes. Neither Eustace Chapuys nor the Venetian diplomat mentioned a sixth finger. Sander also claimed that Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII’s bastard daughter. Lady Elizabeth Boleyn was supposedly King Henry’s mistress. Sander alleged that Anne had married her father. His charges must be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt because of his attempts to discredit Queen Elizabeth I. Sander was committed to restoring the Catholic faith in England. He was a over-zealous priest and died in Ireland in 1581. Sander had spent two years there trying to stimulate rebellion against the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. It has to be understood that Sander was the only source for the yarn that Anne Boleyn had a sixth finger.

Henry’s attempts to give life to a legitimate male heir had resulted in a daughter, a miscarriage, and a deformed foetus. Anne’s fate was sealed. The King could not admit that he had fathered the defective foetus. It was more expedient to claim that a lover had fathered this monstrosity. Anne Boleyn’s death was manufactured because she failed to give Henry VIII a male heir. The King needed a good excuse to shed his second wife. The allegations of witchcraft served the purpose beautifully. Witches were apparently unable to bear healthy children. They cavorted with numerous lovers, poisoned their enemies and afflicted men with impotence. Predictably, the scheming King charged Anne with trying to poison both his elder daughter Mary, and his illegitimate son the Duke of Richmond. He next complained of impotence. Henry could not afford another divorce action, and he was busy planning his next attempt to procreate and produce a male heir to his throne. Henry VIII married Jane Seymour only several days after Anne Boleyn’s execution. It is an undisputed fact that Queen Anne commended her soul to Jesus at least twice before the swordsman beheaded her.

In 1581 Queen Elizabeth passed another Statute, which forbade attempts to determine her lifespan by astrology, prophesying or witchcraft. These acts warranted the same penalty as practicing witchcraft. The Catholics were reputedly using the services of astrologers, soothsayers and witches to re-introduce Catholic supremacy in England. Elizabeth I was plagued by Catholic plots to place Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne. She feared for her life. Elizabeth was determined to preserve the Protestant ascendancy at any cost. Henry VIII had always kept a wary eye on Catholics. He was forced to put down one Catholic-led insurrection. Queen Elizabeth I herself had to suppress a rebellion led by the Catholic nobility in Northern England. She was then forced to approve the execution of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587. Then Elizabeth had to face the might of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

There were more accusations of witchcraft in Elizabeth’s reign than in the whole of the 17th century. In total 445 indictments for witchcraft were heard by the Courts of Assize in Essex, Hertford, Kent, Surrey and Sussex between 1559 and 1603. Only 335 witchcraft cases were heard before the Courts of Assize on the Home Circuit between 1604 and 1698. Both Catholics and Protestants believed that witches were able to fly by night, shape shift, and control the weather. It goes without saying that witches were also accused of killing children, and of injuring humans and animals. After one or two sessions of torture, even the non believers acknowledged that they were able to perform “wondrous” feats.

In the end no one knows whether or not witches exist nowadays never mind back in the 16th Century, however it can be established that the accusations were real enough and that the women accused felt the wrath of so called witch hunters and the angry mobs that were prone to follow such characters. What has to be acknowledged is that most of the claims were only made as part of vendetta against Elizabeth by the Catholic’s who felt that Elizabeth I was illegitimately holding the throne from Mary Queen of Scots who they saw as the rightful heir to the throne.