Witches

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Pod Owen Davies WL

General History

Witchcraft: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Group of people in fancy dress at a festival called Kanaval

Zombies of the Caribbean: your guide to zonbi spirits

A 20th-century image of a witch being burned alive in Munich

General History

8 popular misconceptions about the history of witchcraft in Europe

A group of people surround a stone and place their hands on it

Wicca and modern witchcraft: a history

Suspected witch Mary Sutton is “swum” in a Bedfordshire millpond in 1612

General Early Modern

Witchfinding: what drove the hunters’ cruel crusade and what methods did they use?

Pod Marion Gibson WL

Witch hunters: cynical persecutors or misguided zealots?

Pod Malcolm Gaskill WL

A forgotten witch hunt in New England

John Callow discusses the tragic case of the Bideford witches, the last women in England to be executed for the crime of witchcraft. (Image by Getty Images)

England’s last witches

A scene from the Salem witch trials, depicted in a 19th-century lithograph

When the devil stalked Salem: the story of the Salem witch trials

Will Pooley delves into the strange and surprising history of witchcraft beliefs in France, from the Revolution to the Second World War. (Image by Getty Images)

Bewitched cars & mail-order charms: witchcraft in modern France

Elizabeth Woodville with her husband, Edward IV. According to one medieval document, their marriage only came about “by Sorcerie and Wichecrafte, committed by the said Elizabeth, and her Moder Jaquett Duchess of Bedford”. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Medieval royal witches: from Elizabeth Woodville to Queen Joan of Navarre

17th century engraving showing the execution by hanging of four witches. (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images)

Quiz Would you have been accused of witchcraft?

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

Halloween postcard

10 things you didn’t know about the history (and mystery) of Halloween

Magic stone in Laraibina village in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea on September 27, 2009. This magic stone is hidden in a tree in Laraibina village. It is very useful to call the rain or to make some magic actions on people. It is forbidden to touch it, only the witch doctor can hold it. The same kind of stones exists in Vanuatu. (Photo by Eric LAFFORGUE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A sweeping history of magic – from witchcraft to shamanism