Witches in the 16th/17th century
A coven of witches
In the 1560-1660, there was a big increase in the number of witch trials across the world. Some people claim there were 9 million witch hunts whereas more recent research suggests up to 6 million witch hunts. Tens of thousands of people were executed for witchcraft. The reason for this witch craze was due to several reasons. Firstly, most people at the time were uneducated, many things were unexplained, and therefore they used mainly religion and the supernatural to explain things. People living in villages were isolated from the rest of the country therefore many things were left unexplained; they were unaware of religious changes occurring in town. They used witches as scapegoats, used them to blame for any bizarre circumstances that occurred. As well as that there were famines; crop failures were blamed on witchcraft.
In the 1640's the English civil war was taking place, many lives were lost and destruction invaded England. People thought this crisis was the work of the devil, associates of the devil, witches were causing this disaster. Also at the end of the 15th century, there was an outbreak of syphilis, symptom’s caused a witch like appearance therefore people became even more suspicious of witches. Appearances was a major part on people’s judgements of others at the time, if people looked odd, were ugly or had a defect like Molly Leigh then they were accused of being a witch. Most people being accused of witches were women because men were more powerful at the time so had the authority to control women. People that went outside the social norms such as not attending to church or if they rebelled, they earned themselves a first-class ticket to witch land.
In the 1640's the English civil war was taking place, many lives were lost and destruction invaded England. People thought this crisis was the work of the devil, associates of the devil, witches were causing this disaster. Also at the end of the 15th century, there was an outbreak of syphilis, symptom’s caused a witch like appearance therefore people became even more suspicious of witches. Appearances was a major part on people’s judgements of others at the time, if people looked odd, were ugly or had a defect like Molly Leigh then they were accused of being a witch. Most people being accused of witches were women because men were more powerful at the time so had the authority to control women. People that went outside the social norms such as not attending to church or if they rebelled, they earned themselves a first-class ticket to witch land.