Why did people believe in witches? (1485 to 1710) · History Home Learning Task Year 8 Why did people believe in witches? (1485 to 1710) Name Tutor Group Teacher Given out Monday

History

Home Learning Task Year 8

Why did people believe in witches? (1485 to 1710)

Name

Tutor Group

Teacher

Given out Monday 21 March Hand in Monday 11 April

Parent/Carer Comment

Staff Comment

Target

TASK 1 (BRONZE)

Draw a witch in the box at the bottom of this page.

Ask members of your family – or friends - to draw their own witch without looking at yours.

Compare the pictures you have drawn.

What similarities are there in your pictures?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Why did you draw your pictures like that? Where did you get your ideas of what witches look

like?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

My picture of a witch

TASK 2 - Multiple choice questions (BRONZE)

Have you ever watched the BBC TV programme QI? On QI questions are asked about things

which most people think they know the answer to because they have been taught to believe it, e.g.

“What colour is the planet Mars?” Most people would say red, when really it is a butterscotch

colour. Anyway, we are going to ask you some questions which most people think they know the

answer to about witchcraft. They are multiple choice – so choose carefully.

Question (a)

What did people used to do when someone was found guilty of witchcraft?

1. Burn them?

2. Hang them?

3. Drown them?

Question (b)

How were most people found guilty or accused of witchcraft?

1. Ducking stools – guilty if floated, innocent if sank?

2. Moles on their skin?

3. Rumours spread about them in the local pub?

Question (c)

Which King or Queen had the largest number of people accused of witchcraft during their reign?

1. “Bloody” Mary (Mary I)?

2. Queen Elizabeth I (“Good Queen Bess”)?

3. King James I?

Question (d)

Who could be accused of witchcraft?

1. Only women?

2. Children?

3. Women and men?

TASK 3 - Analysing a piece of evidence from the past (SILVER)

The Hanging of Witches in 1571 – probably York or Chelmsford hangings.

Look carefully at this picture.

What do you think is happening in the picture? (Try to explain what is happening at points A, B,

C and D – is there anything which shocks you about the picture? Why is money changing hands?)

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

______________________________________

Try to come up with 5 questions that you would like to know the answer to relating to this

picture.

1.___________________________________________________

2.___________________________________________________

3.___________________________________________________

4.___________________________________________________

5.___________________________________________________

TASK 4 - Thinking skills: How have our thoughts about life changed? (GOLD)

Why Did People Believe In Witches in the past?

Try to write a modern or practical explanation for these things witches were accused of in the 1500s to

1600s…

Accusation Modern or practical explanation

The witch made my beer go sour! Perhaps the person let air into the barrel which

made it go sour.

The witch cursed us and put a spell

on my child to make it ill.

The young pretty witch possessed

my husband with the devil and made

him leave me!

The witch who owns the farm next

door made our corn field rot.

I have had pains in my stomach for

days – it’s the witch that did it to me!

That witch looked at our church

tower yesterday and cursed – then it

fell down in the night.

When I lit my fire to burn some

rubbish she said hello to me and the

fire suddenly grew – she must be a

witch.

TASK 5 - Numeracy & thinking skills.

Use the graph to help you complete the

following activities and answer the

following questions.

1. BRONZE - Colour in the areas on

the graph with the 3 highest numbers of

indictments and the areas with the 3

lowest numbers of indictments – choose

different colours for each.

2. SILVER - In which decade were

the most indictments?

_________________________________

_________________________________

3. SILVER - In which decade were

the least indictments?

_________________________________

_________________________________

4. GOLD - Using the information

given, explain why more people were

indicted in some decades compared with

others.

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

Why Were People Prepared to Believe in Witches?

Before witches could be hanged there had to be laws which stated that witchcraft was a crime.

During the Middle Ages witches were put on trial in the church courts, but the punishments were

light and they were never put to death. In fact, very few witches were punished at all. It was

during the reigns of the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, such as Henry VIII, that harsh laws were

passed against witchcraft, as laws and courts became more closely linked to the King or Queen of

the time. People were very passionate about their religious beliefs and many took their religion

and new translations of the Bible literally – especially Protestants. The Bible mentioned witches

and of course anyone going against the Bible would be seen as being “in league with the devil.”

During Henry VIII’s reign…

The King suspected that witches were involved in plots to kill him. Henry VIII helped to start the

witch craze by making laws which said witchcraft existed and witches should be burnt. In 1542 a

law was passed which stated that witches should be punished by death. This law was repealed

when Henry died in 1547. Henry even had one of his own wives accused and found guilty of

witchcraft – Anne Boleyn. She was beheaded – maybe believing in witchcraft had its uses even

for Kings! In 1547 Henry’s laws were scrapped resulting in fewer executions during King

Edward VI and Bloody Mary’s reigns.

During Elizabeth I’s reign…

Elizabeth was a Protestant. Protestants persuaded the Queen that tougher laws against witches

were needed. In 1563 a new law was passed which brought back the death penalty for witches

who used magic to kill someone. Witches who harmed people were put in prison. Between 1580

and 1590 England was losing a lot of money, there were increasing numbers of poor people and

people were scared of disease and invasion. These fears and problems led many people to believe

in witchcraft – it was especially easy to blame something like the devil or witches for people’s

problems.

During James I’s reign…

James was seen as one of the most intelligent and clever Kings to rule England. Some of the

King’s ministers were strict Protestants and they persuaded him to introduce a harsher law against

witches. James himself even wrote a book about witchcraft. From 1604 anyone who was shown

to have contacted evil spirits could be hanged for witchcraft, whether or not they had done any

harm. Between the 1570s and 1610s new jobs were set up and people were paid for “hunting”

witches. The highest paid of these was called “the Witchfinder General”.

Charles I…

During Charles’ reign (1625 -1649) he relaxed laws on witchcraft and became more concerned

with issues such as taxes and wars with Scotland and France, and even with the English.

The English Civil Wars (1642 – 1649) and the 1700s.

Extreme Protestants took control of large parts of England during and after the English Civil

Wars. These Protestants or Puritans took the Bible very seriously and strongly believed in

witchcraft. The new English leader Oliver Cromwell made laws to punish people found guilty of

witchcraft, because his extreme Puritan views meant he strongly believed in the powers of

witches.

In the 1700s Kings and Queens had favourite scientists and thinkers, most of whom believed in

reason and science and not witchcraft. Astronomy and travel and trade and music seemed to be

more important for leaders rather than witches and evil. This was all part of early modern

thinking and as a result fewer laws were made about superstitions such as witchcraft.

TASK 6 - Read the article on witch bottles.

People had a real fear of witches. If you had your own house you would try and keep witches

away so that no harm would come to you or your family.

Witch Bottles

What do you do if you find yourself bewitched? If you find you are constantly out of sorts, and

you just know someone has put the evil eye on you? The answer is obvious: you must set about

killing the witch who has bewitched you. But how do you set about killing a witch?

Well, the first thing you do is to get a witch bottle. Any old bottle will do - often they are made of

pottery - the type known as bellarmines - but sometimes, as in this case, it is a wine bottle made

of glass. In fact this was rather an old bottle, for it was made about 1685, but it was not buried

until some time after 1720, so it was already some 40 years old when it was finally buried.

It had been well-used too - note the chips on the rim: it had been re-used year after year for

containing wine or other liquids. But finally, when it was too old for further use, it was turned

into a witch bottle, and buried.

Inside the bottle you put a number of objects that will do harm to the witch. Inside this one there

were a number of bent pins - nine in all, all each bent into an L-shape. Note how the head of the

pin is made by winding wire twice round the shank and then cutting the ends.

Then add some human hair - this example, highly magnified, was probably an eyelash. Also some

wool fibres and leaves of some prickly grass, and then add the most critical ingredient: urine.

Then bury the witch bottle, preferably in a warm place under the hearth, and when the witch tries

to pass water, she will suffer dreadful torments and may even die. This works well even if you do

not know who the witch is: you simply watch all your friends and neighbours, and if one of them

suddenly falls ill, and possibly even dies, then that person must be the witch who is harming you.

One witch bottle was dug up at Reigate, just south of London, where it was found buried in a

ruined house. The bottle was however complete, the stopper was still in position, so it provided

an unusual opportunity to examine the contents. Alan Massey, who has been studying witch

bottles, was able to study the contents, and even to determine - with some difficulty - that the

liquid was in fact urine. Whether the witch bottle was "successful" we cannot know: however,

witch bottles were often meant to explode when the witch finally expired, and as this witch bottle

survived, perhaps it was a failure, and the witch survived too.

Design and draw your witch bottle in the space below – think carefully about ingredients to

include (BRONZE)

What do witch bottles tell or show us about people’s beliefs in those days? (SILVER)

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

This article from the British Archaeology Magazine in 2009 explains some more about witch bottles – if

you are interested in stuff like this you might want to look up the Young Archaeologists’ Society on the

Internet and get involved with our local Bath and Somerset group.

TASK 7 - Examples of real people accused of witchcraft.

Look at the cover of this pamphlet from 1589. Be careful because some letter I characters are

actually Js, and some fs are actually the letter s. Remember our language has changed over the

centuries – think how different Shakespeare’s writing style is to ours.

Study the picture and the information carefully and answer the questions about the “witches”.

1. Describe what you can see in this

picture. What do you think is

happening? Try to include any

detail from the text e.g. the date.

2. She was found guilty because she

was a little old lady who had lots

of pets! These pets or “familiars”

were said to be her way of

contacting the devil! Do you think

she deserved to be killed?

Why/why not?

1. Describe what you can see in this

picture? What do you think is

happening? Try to include any detail

from the text e.g. the date.

2. She was found guilty because they

did not understand why or how the

boy was ill. Perhaps he even went to

her for some cheap medicine as there

were no proper doctors in the 16th

century. Do you think she deserved

to be killed? Was she just an excuse

for people’s fears and lack of

understanding about illness?

Extension Task 1 (SILVER) If your homework has not taken the 5 hours it is supposed to, or if you have left some tasks out

you SHOULD be doing, try these interesting extension tasks.

Enjoy! Oh and gain extra House Points by doing these!

Read the article below.

King James I believed that witches existed to bring people to the devil. He even accused a group

of witches and warlocks of trying to sink his ship as he journeyed with his new queen from

Denmark to Scotland by casting spells that brought up terrible storms (which did manage to sink

his wedding/treasure ship).

However under Charles I (1625-49) laws against witches were relaxed, as he was busy dealing

with arguments over money and wars.

In the 1640s England became more strongly Protestant and Protestants believed in witches at that

time. As Oliver Cromwell started to take over England and as English people became poorer and

angry during their Civil War, accusing people of being witches became common again.

In the 1640s a man called Matthew Hopkins was given the job of finding witches. He was paid by

people to find them – so it was in his interests to make sure he told people what to look for to

accuse people. Simple things like having too many pets or living alone or having too many moles

were seen as evidence of being a witch.

Other signs and symbols were various marks found upon the body - any of what we now refer to

as beauty marks, or even boils, and other slight skin imperfections (including dry skin splotches)

made the witchfinders highly suspicious - these were viewed upon as signs of unholy alliance and

contracts with the Devil. To prove his case, Hopkins would insert a needle into the spot causing

immense pain. In England, witches were often kept awake for days on end until they confessed.

Sleep deprivation is still a technique used by secret police and military forces, as well as in

religious cults, in order to break down a person's will.

Another well know method to discover a witch was to bind the suspect and lower (or drop) them

into water. If they drowned, they were proven to be innocent. If, by some miracle they did not

drown, they were considered guilty - and then drowned deliberately. Other forms of actual

execution were hanging, burning, and drowning.

One of the first documented cases by Hopkins was against a woman named Elizabeth Clarke. She

was a one-legged widow, or so the story says (many who came under suspicion of witchcraft

were widows, or women who had no strong men to protect them). The Witchfinder General

extracted a confession from her which stated she was too familiar with her “familiars” – generally

considered to be demons in the guise of earthly animals (cats, goats, etc). The women were often

searched for a third teat as proof of satanic connections (woe be it to anyone who had a not

terribly uncommon superfluous third nipple) - it was this which nurtured the demon.

So old women and people who lived on their own were easy targets to

accuse of witchcraft. It was easier for people to believe in it as people

would probably rather see such a person be accused than themselves –

so they went along with it!

In all it is suspected that Hopkins was directly or indirectly associated

with perhaps as many as 200 executions.

Finally, some people and institutions began to tire of Hopkins.

Parliament itself published its own pamphlet questioning the practices

of witchfinders in general. Even some brave clergymen went on record

denouncing the rather ridiculous and arbitrary methods used to find

these followers of Satan. They even hinted that Hopkins himself might

be a witch!

Stories vary as to whether or not Hopkins benefited financially from his

evil activities - some say he did, others that he was on a holy quest, and

monies obtained were slight.

Extension Task 2 (GOLD)

Hopkins had many people killed just because he was able to spread rumours which some people

were all too happy to believe and keep spreading. People also gave him too much power so he

was judge, jury and even really executioner. Explain why you think giving too much power to

one person is a dangerous thing. Why do you think we no longer have the death penalty in

our country?

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

Now your job is to either design a

poster to advertise for the job of

being a witchfinder OR a poster by a

witchfinder to show what people

should look for to find a witch. You

can use the box on the next page.

Extension Task 3 – you’ll like this one.

Try and go onto “youtube” and look up Rory McGrath’s TV programme

called “Bloody Britain”. There should be an episode about Matthew

Hopkins – if you cannot find it we could watch it in class as I have a DVD

of his series. It was aired on The Discovery Channel and they quite like

repeating stuff so look out for it on there.

Self Evaluation of my Homework

I believe that my effort and attitude to learning for this booklet is a:

1 2 3 4

I know this because:

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

I am a R____________________ learner. I know this because:

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________