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Introduction
In 1603, after the death of Queen Elizabeth
I, King James VI of Scotland ascended to the English throne as
James I of England. He had a great hatred of witchcraft, and vowed
to stamp out the practice, and this led to an era of great persecution
of those beleived, rightly or wrongly, to have been practicing
black magic.
It was a time when superstition was rife,
with many people of all classes quick to attribute illness, ill
fate or anything which they did not understand to demons, evil
spirits and witchcraft. King James's zelous witch-hunting gave
opportunity for local magistrates and judges to earn favour with
showpiece trials which played on the fears and beliefs of simple,
peasant people and were more concerned with obtaining convictions
than finding out the truth. This almost certainly seems to have
been the case in the story of the Pendle Witches...
The case mainly involved two local families:
the Demdikes(Devices) and the Chattox's.
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