Barbara stood in the dock, her head bowed, half-covered by her long dark hair. Her gown was dishevelled and grubby, her hair partly matted from dampness of the cell in which she'd been held capture. Around her in the dark aok-panelled courtroom the crowd shouted and bayed, caterwauling; calling for blood. No amount of calling for order from Chancellor Maitland quieted them. It was only when the king himself stood up and surveyed the rowdy people that they began to take notice.
'Chancellor Maitland will now deliver his verdict upon our prisoner here. Chancellor do you find Mistress Napier guilty of attending the witch's convention at Haddington Woods this winter gone?' Chancellor Maitland stood up and bowed slightly to James.
'Your Majesty, My Lords, ladies and gentlemen. We the Privy Council find Mistress Barbara Napier guilty of consulting witches and belonging to the Haddington Convention. She is to be taken from to be strangled, thenceforth to burn until she be dead. Long live the King'
Barbara, howled in the dock, she moved forward shouting at the king. 'No my Lord, Your Majesty, I did not consult with witches. I am a loyal subject Your Majesty.'
The King held his hand up for silence before saying 'Take Mistress Napier to the cells whereby she will await her fate.' with that he stood up, bowed to the courtroom and silently made his way to the door.
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She would have been strangled? (I mean, historically speaking?) Yikes. Was this the era also in which one could have been "drawn and quartered?" But that was for betrayal to the crown, rather than witch craft, right?
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I thought there were special punishments for witchcraft, and these were also tests of a sort, such as being plunged in water with the expectation that if you survived, you were not a witch.
HI Faith, and welcome to my blog. Yes indeed witches were strangled until almost dead and then burned at the stake. Often they used gunpowder to make a real spectacle of the whole thing, and of course this made the witch's end rather quicker.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of myth surrounding witches, and certainly the 'ducking stool' or being plunged in water is one of them. Actually those accused of witchcraft were tortured, horribly, by having metal 'hoods' placed on them that had serrated wheels attached. The wheel went inside the mouth, so that any movement would effectively tear the tongue to shreads. The 'Pinnywink' is another torture instrument, which is placed on the thumb and screwed until the bones cracked or broke. pleasant weren't they!
As for the hanging, drawing and quartering, yes you're right this was extreme punishment for treason agsinst the crown and not applied to witches. If you get a chance have a look at the Malleus Maleficarum, it can be found online if you google it, or it is still published actually. Malleus Maleficarum is latin, I think, for Witches Hammer, and was essentially the guidebook on how to search for and deal with witches! interesting reading.
best wishes
Pauline
In writing a historical novel, are you obliged to include this information?
ReplyDeleteI mean, will your ideal reader wonder why you haven't mentioned some of these facts that may have been the ones they recall from history class? (Just to ask...)
no, one is not obliged to mention this information per se. However, in writing a torture scene, for example, it would be incorrect to torture a witch by dipping her in boiling oil. I do have a scene whereby an accused witch, Geillies Duncan is tortured through the use of pinnywinks, or thumbscrews. They want her alive so that she names other witches, chiefly Euphame, who is the one they really want!
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