Witches

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

QuizWould you have been accused of witchcraft?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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)

A sweeping history of magic – from witchcraft to shamanism

A stone believed to have magical properties, including the ability to summon rain, from Laraibina village in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of magic. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two girls are tried for witchcraft in a courtroom scene

What were the Salem Witch Trials?

Free downloadYour essential guide to the history of witchcraft. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Download your course certificate. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The dark side: A man summons demons in a 14th-century English encyclopaedia. "Some educated men were determined to contact the spirit world – and took great risks to do so," writes Catherine Rider. (Photo by Bridgeman)

From healing spells to conjuring demons: the medieval obsession with magic. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of an unknown woman, c1490–95. She sports a necklace in a painting from c1485. Coral jewellery was widely believed to ward off evil spirits. (Photo by Getty Images)

Medieval magic at work: 7 spells and charms our ancestors used

Portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach, 1543. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Europe's holy war: how the Reformation convulsed a continent

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes

A woman on a medieval ducking stool

Q&AQ&A: Were ducking stools ever used as punishment for crimes other than witchcraft during the Middle Ages?

This 16th-century woodcut depicts King James VI at the North Berwick witch trials, the case that first sparked his obsession with hunting. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

James VI and I: the king who hunted witches. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Helen Duncan, a 20th-century medium and spiritualist, allegedly summoned spirits draped in ‘ectoplasm’ – organic matter emitted from her body. In the 1930s she was denounced as a fraud, and in 1944 prosecuted under the 1735 Witchcra Act, which forbade conjuring spirits. (Photo courtesy of Ashmolean Museum/University of London)

Conjuring up the dead: Helen Duncan and her ectoplasm spirits

A depiction of a witch on a broomstick. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

QuizHow much do you know about the history of Halloween?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Historical fact and fiction. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In this painting from c1650, a witch wields a broomstick as demons and 'familiars' (helpers of witches) congregate before her. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

History quiz – witchcraft and superstition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of black cat – unlucky for some? (Photo by Getty Images)

Q&AWhy are black cats unlucky?

11 shocking moments in history

Professor Ronald Hutton © Jeni Nott

Witchcraft through the ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Woodcut of a meal shared at a witches' Sabbath. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Ronald Hutton on the Witch. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

German astronomer Johannes Kepler c1620. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

The astronomer and the witch: Johannes Kepler’s fight to save his mother from execution

Witch trials and feuding queens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Video: Tracy Borman on the Witches of Belvoir

A woodcut depicting a witch hanging in England, c17th Century. (Bettmann via Getty Images)

Witches in the dock: 10 of Britain’s most infamous witch trials

Afternoon sunlight casting shadows on the hills, Lancashire, England UK (Getty Images)

The war on witches. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.