331: American Witches

What inspired the deadliest bloodbath of the Tudor age: the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, in which protestants were slaughtered en masse? How did it drive Elizabeth I’s spy master, Francis Walsingham, to repress all treasonous activity in her realm? And, what terrible tr ...  Show more

How did Elizabeth I rule England? Why was she constantly in mortal peril in 1569? Who was Sir William Cecil, and why was he so crucial to her reign? And, how did his network of spies keep her alive, and England uninvaded…? Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss the secret war ragin ...  Show more

More than 200 accused, 20 executed and a village plagued with hysteria. Were the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 the work of superstition, a power struggle, fungus or actual witchcraft? What makes them stand out in the history of witch trials?

In this episode, Do ...

We often think of the witch trials as something in the deep and distant past.But, as we'll hear in today's episode, the attitudes and behaviour that led to witch trials is as present today as it was then.In this third and final episode of our limited series, Inside the Witch Tria ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the outbreak of witch trials in Massachusetts in 1692-3, centred on Salem, which led to the execution of twenty people, with more dying in prison before or after trial. Some were men, including Giles Corey who died after being pressed with heavy ro ...  Show more

For more than two centuries, between the late 1400s and early 1700s, a terror of witches gripped Europe. From Scotland to Spain, thousands of people were accused, tortured and executed. But as the hysteria faded in Europe, it crossed the Atlantic. In 1692, in New England, it took ...  Show more