North Bewick Research Paper

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The North Berwick Witch Trials began in 1590 and carried on till 1592. Many people that came from East Lothian, Scotland, including several nobles of the Scottish court. The questionable witches were incriminated for holding their covens on the Auld Kirk Green in the village of North Berwick, East Lothian which is near Edinburgh. Witchcraft wasn't a problem nor a concern at first but the events following made some very drastic changes in East Lothian, Scotland. A year or so preceding to the events was a time where King James VI of Scotland, was very merciful when it came to witchcraft. He experienced a horrible storm while he was sailing to Copenhagen to marry Princess Anne of Denmark. James was forced to take shelter on the coast of Norway for a period of time. There …show more content…

Bounteous amounts of the accused confessed under torture to having had an occurrence with the Devil in the North Berwick churchyard after dark. The also confessed to giving themselves over to evil such as attempting to poison the King and other members of the King's household as well as trying to sink the King's ship. Specific confessions claimed that, on Halloween of 1590, the devil made the witches dig up corpses and cut off various joints and organs. They then had to attach the joints and organs to a dead cat and heave it into the sea in order to summon the storm that would nearly shipwrecked the King's ship. A few suspects claimed the devil told them to do it because the devil considers King James his greatest enemy. King James took that remark as a compliment and felt he was doing something right since he was able to upset the devil for not complying with the Devils evil plans. The confessions were suspiciously complementary to one another and all of the confessions were drawn out by torturing those who were