This module will focus on a phenomenon peculiar to the early modern period: the prosecution of c.100,000-120,000 people for the crime of witchcraft in Europe and its colonies, which resulted in around 50-60,000 executions. In order to understand this phenomenon, and also the regional and chronological variation in witch-trials across Europe during the early modern period, we will explore:
- beliefs about witchcraft, magic and the devil, at both popular and elite levels;
- the legal context of witch-trials (laws, trial processes and the use of torture);
- what motivated accusers and witch-finders in witch-trials;
- whether or not there was a ‘stereotypical’ witch;
- the gendering of witch-persecution;
- why people confessed to being witches;
- and why witch-trials declined and then stopped by the end of the 18th century.
Students taking this module will engage with key historiographical debates in the field and with the main types of primary sources (all available in English) for the study of early modern witchcraft beliefs and witch-trials (demonologies, trial-records, pamphlets and images).
- Module Supervisor: Alison Rowlands