In the murky history of Stuart England, few topics are as bizarre as King James I’s obsession with witchcraft and demonolgy. During his reign witchunts surged in Britain and the scholar king known for translating the bible and for his support of William Shakespeare wrote a massive treatise on the dark arts: The Demonology of King James.  Yet James’s obsession with witchcraft wasnt just some weird fascination but the result of an incident early in his life that left a lasting fear of the dark arts in the scholar king.

To Say James I of England and VI of Scotland had a rough childhood would be putting it lightly. James’s father Henry Stuart was murdered in a court plot when James was only one. His mother was Mary Queen of Scots who was forced to abdicated and later beheaded by Queen Elizabeth on dubios treason charges. This left the young orphan as King of Scotland at a young age and during his minority the country was governed by a council. 

When James finally became King, he ruled as an absolute monarch in the Scottish tradition. In 1590, James traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark to marry his wife Anne of Denmark. Denmark at the time was fascinated with the dark arts – something that must have rubbed off on the young James. 

During their return to Scotland the voyage was beset by storms. When James’s ships got to the River Forth, massive waves almost sank the ships almost killing the King and leaving Scotland without a monarch. 

Back in Denmark witches were almost immediately blamed for the tempestous storms and multiple witches were condemned in Denmark. Back in Scotland, James started to blame witches for the near disaster and witchunts started like wildfire. The Scottish countryside was amuck with accusations and local officials hunting accused witches became commonplace. Those accused would face James himself for a trial starting a life long passion for witch hunting in the King.

When accusations of witch craft reached North Berwick around Halloween in 1591, a local servant girl named Gillis Duncan was forced to confess to being part of a coven of witches in the area. This led to a massive panic and accusations against many locals. The witchunters soon focused in on a woman named Agnes Sampson – a local healer accused of being a Witch.

Sampson was brought before James who questioned her and during an examination a birthmark was alleged to be a mark from the devil. After Torture, Sampson confessed that she ran a coven and had made a pack with Satan, alledging that he came to her in the form of an attractive man who fornicated with her.

Samspon claimed that she cast a spell to raise a storm on the forth to kill King James. Needless to say, Samspon’s confession led to the rounding up of more suspected witches. As punishment for her alledged crime, Samspon was executed by burning so she could not return on Judgement day.

The trial of Agnes Sampson and the Scottish Witch hunts of the 1590’s had a profound impact on Britain. After Queen Elizabeth I died, James became King of England thus being the first ruler to rule the entire British isles. James brought his fear of witches to England sparking the English Witch hunts that would later lead to the New England Witch hunts of the late 1600’s.

This Post was Authored by Adam Danberg.