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The National
2 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Witch trials offer lens on how leaders whip up public panic
Given that King James VI and I drove the frenzy and gave it legitimacy in Scotland, why then did he go on to save English citizens who had been accused of witchcraft following the Union of the Crowns? It's a question that puzzled Steven Veerapen (pictured) of Strathclyde University when writing his authoritative biography of King James and which he seeks to solve in his new book, Witches: A King's Obsession. As well as showing why witch hunts were pursued so vigorously in Scotland, the book also demonstrates how leaders can unleash the worst of humanity by whipping up panic and hatred to suit their own ends. One of the reasons James gave credence to superstitions around witchcraft in Scotland was that he had an extremely low opinion of his fellow countrymen. Veerapen said this wasn't particularly surprising as there had been numerous plots and rebellions against his predecessors on the throne, which led him to the conclusion that Scotland not only had a witch problem that was making his subjects troublesome, but that this was driven by the devil. READ MORE: 'Absolutely crazy': Scottish jazz artist scores new film by Hollywood director James was also irritated by the Kirk's refusal to recognise him as its head. He much preferred the system in England, where the monarch is head of the Church, to the Scottish Presbyterian belief that all are equal under God, including the King or Queen. The Witchcraft Act in Scotland had actually been passed by his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, but the hunts only began after James learned of the Scandinavian belief that witches had caused the storms that had prevented his new bride from joining him from Denmark. That caught his imagination, according to Veerapen, and gave him the chance to show himself as a leader, while also metaphorically blowing a raspberry to those who thought he wasn't fit to lead the Kirk. 'He thought it would stick in the Kirk's craw because it would prove he was a worthy religious leader,' said Veerapen. James also thought it would raise his profile in European academic circles as the study of witchcraft was considered at that time to be a serious subject. He then not only went on to lead the first hunt in Scotland at North Berwick but wrote his book Demonology which laid out the ways to 'prove' someone was a witch. These included finding the 'Devil's mark' and confessions gained through torture. 'These bits of crazy evidence that no courtroom should ever accept stood as good evidence for decades and decades,' said Veerapen. It meant that James not only normalised, but authorised, witch hunting, giving people the incentive they needed to blame others for their problems as well as the belief that their horrific actions were sanctified. One of the big themes in the book is the role of the media. Newssheets detailing the witch hunts were lapped up by the public, so much so that Veerapen regards them as a kind of precursor to the craze of true crime stories today. In the centuries since his reign, James's reputation has been shredded by his belief in witchcraft but Veerapen points out that he was a man of his time. 'There was a lot of European debate about it, so while witch hunting sounds extremely backwards to us, it was considered forward thinking at the time,' said Veerapen. 'The majority believed witchcraft was real and very dangerous. So James, in showing that he was going to deal with it, was looking like a modern politician who is saying, 'I'm going to be tough on crime'. 'You always find governments identifying a common enemy within and then trying to look tough in dealing with them.' The witch hunts spread in Scotland because it was endorsed at the top. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar blasted as 'hypocrite' after branding Benjamin Netanyahu 'war criminal' 'People were being educated into believing witches were real,' Veerapen said. ''They're here. They're a problem and we have the solution and legal machinery to fix it.' 'What seemed to happen, and this was across Europe, was that if you had a national leader who was whipping up and driving the charge against it, you had national panics, and that's what you got in Scotland.' However, why did James become lukewarm on the subject once he moved to the English court to take up his role as King of both nations? Contrary to what's been said in the past, James didn't soften his views when he went to England, Veerapen said. The conventional, fairly Anglocentric story has been that he became more 'civilised' in England, with some historians even suggesting he grew embarrassed about his 'backwards' Scottish occult views. But it's clear he didn't modify his views; he just didn't drive any English hunts as he'd driven Scottish hunts. 'He simply insisted that the arguments he'd written up in Scotland be referred to by his English justices – as far as he was concerned, it was for the English judiciary to study and comprehend his Demonology and sort the real from the fake accordingly,' Veerapen said. 'He definitely never disavowed it. It was even reprinted in his collected works in 1616.' The fact that he was taking on a bigger job as the ruler of two nations is the more likely answer as to why he stopped leading witch hunts. 'What he now wanted to do was foster order and unity,' said Veerapen. 'He wanted to bring all the Protestant sects together and reach some sort of accommodation with the Catholic Church, so he didn't want to be leading witch hunts because that was all about dissent.' James now felt more secure and able to continue his other academic pursuits rather than pursuing witches. He even intervened in some cases to say they hadn't met the required evidence he had set out in his book. 'In this way, although his standards of evidence were appallingly low, he left a means for later rationalists to deconstruct the phenomenon and thus demand higher standards of proof which witchcraft was, by its nature, incapable of providing,' said Veerapen. The new book clearly demonstrates that history is not a straight line of civilisation's progress. 'It's a very messy process and there are lots of mistakes,' Veerapen said. 'There are lots of people at the top, the people in charge, getting things completely wrong.' It should also be recognised that people wanted the witch hunts to happen. 'This was popular – people at the top wanted it to happen and so did people in the lower orders,' he said. 'Enough people wanted to see the worst in people and loved accusing each other.' It's a terrible blot on Scotland's past but Veerapen said that although it shows a shameful side to humanity, it was a minority of the population that were involved. 'It was truly awful and far too many people suffered, but throughout this period, there were more people across society unwilling to believe the worst of others than otherwise,' he said. That is perhaps something to cling to, as it is clear that the tendency for unprincipled leaders to stoke up hatred of vulnerable groups is just as strong in the 21st century as it was at the time of King James VI and I. Witches: A King's Obsession by Steven Veerapen is out on September 4, published by Birlinn Ltd
The Herald Scotland
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Radio: A reminder that medieval politics was a dangerous business
'He's not just a skull,' the Reverend Andrew Doarks, the church's current rector pointed out on Radio 4 on Sunday evening. 'People call it the head because he's got a bit of vertebrae .. And there's an ear … And there are bits of skin still on him. So, we call him Simon's Head.' And where, you might ask, is Simon's body? That will be in Canterbury Cathedral where, instead of a head, Simon of Sudbury is buried, it is said, topped by a cannonball. The headless Archbishop, or rather the Archbishop's head, was the latest subject in Radio 4's Illuminated slot. Don't Lose Your Head! was a reminder that medieval politics was a dangerous business. Simon of Sudbury had gone into the church and proved himself useful by negotiating peace treaties with both the French and the Scots (we're more than two centuries before even the Union of the Crowns here). But then Simon found himself trapped at the Tower of London when the Peasants' Revolt kicked off over the poll tax. He was decapitated and his head was used for a kickabout. (No link is made to the Lionesses at this point, which may be the only time that hasn't happened on radio this week). The rebels also nailed Simon's mitre onto his detached noggin. Lovely. Presenter Robin Markwell's documentary had things to say about corporality and spirituality, but this was at heart a pleasingly straightforward, if gruesome, slice of history. There was a lot of it about on Radio 4 this week. Scottish writer Laura Cumming's new series Speed of Light - stretched across the week at 11.45am - saw her examine the early years of the history of photography and its role in recording history. In the process it also made history. This was a quiet, unassuming series. Just Cummings's words and voice, accompanied by a spot of music. But the result was fascinating; particularly on Monday and Tuesday when she revealed the importance of Scots-born photographers in the visual history of both the United States of America and Canada. Monday's programme explored the work of American civil war photographer Alexander Gardner - born in Paisley - who photographed the Battle of Antietam. Gardner also took the famous 'cracked-plate' portrait of Abraham Lincoln just two months before the President's assassination by John Wilkes Booth. Booth, by the way, was a well known actor whose face was familiar to many in the United States via photography. That familiarity ultimately didn't help the actor. He was gunned down by Union soldiers 12 days after he killed the President. The power of the photograph in action, you might say. On Tuesday Cumming headed north to examine the work of another Paisley buddie, William Notman who emigrated to Canada in 1856, where he pursued his interest in photography, taking photographs of Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and Canadians both grand and ordinary; from the country's first Prime Minister, Sir John Macdonald, a fellow Scot, to moose hunters and the men laying the country's railways. New to me, his photographs are, you have to say, a delight and such is Cumming's way with words you don't mind that you can't see them on the radio. Her descriptions are vivid. But they do push you to Google them. It's worth the effort. Either Notman or Gardner would be a good exhibition subject for the Paisley Museum when it finally reopens, by the way. As Alison Rowat has already noted elsewhere in The Herald, Scottish writer Irvine Welsh has been on the publicity circuit in support of his new novel Men In Love, a sequel to Trainspotting. (I'm about two-fifths of the way through it as I type this. It's very blokey, very Welshy, very readable.) On Saturday morning - the day before he turned up on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch (see Alison's column) - he was on 6 Music talking to Chris Hawkins about Oasis, his 'serial raver' days, his guilty love of disco when he was a punk and this moment we are currently in. 'They're pretty dark times right now. The internet has not been kind to us," Welsh said, condemning the power of this billionaire elite. 'You think to yourself, 'This is horrible, but what is it that is good in life?' And what's good in life is love.' Dig deep enough and you'll find that every old punk is a disappointed hippy at heart. Listen Out For: Stuart Mitchell's Cost of Dying, Radio 4, August 6, 11pm If the idea of attending the Fringe brings you out in hives then you can always get your comedy quotient on Radio 4. Scottish comedian Stuart Mitchell, a regular on Radio Scotland's comedy panel show Breaking the News, has a new Radio 4 series which begins with a look at end-of-life care. Might be a challenge to make that funny, but Mitchell is up to it.
