When Will England Pardon Its Witches?
Between 1566 and 1700, around 500 people were executed in England for the crime of practising witchcraft. To this day, over three hundred years since the last witch was executed on English soil, the convictions still stand.
The first person to be executed for witchcraft in England was Agnes Waterhouse in 1566. Despite the advancements in science and philosophy during the 17th century, the English witch-craze only worsened. It reached a peak in the 1640s, owing to the career of self-professed ‘Witchfinder General’ Matthew Hopkins, but witch trials continued throughout the rest of the 17th century and even though convictions became rarer, popular belief in witchcraft waned at a much lower rate.
In 2013, the Labour Member of Parliament for Exeter, Ben Bradshaw, supported calls for three women who had been executed in 1682 to be pardoned, calling their deaths a “stain on our history”. Convicted and hanged in 1682, their executions are generally viewed as having been a practical response from the local authorities to a ‘popular rage’ against the alleged witches, at a time when most judges were sceptical of witchcraft claims.
In 1998, a similar call was made for the ‘Pendle Witches’, executed in 1612, to be pardoned. However, the Home Secretary at the time, Jack Straw, opposed the idea. A statement from his deputy, Alun Michael…
