Medieval folk had long believed that the Devil was carrying out his evil work on earth with the help of his minions, and in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII declared this to be the truth in his papal bull Summis Desiderantes, which promoted the tracking down, torturing and executing of Satan worshippers. However, it was perhaps the reign of the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, James VI of Scotland and I of England that could be described as the ‘age of witchcraft’ in Great Britain. James was a staunch Protestant who had narrowly escaped death in the winter of 1589 during strong winds and huge waves that severely buffeted his ship while on the North Sea. He believed, having been exposed to witch-hunting while in Denmark, that he was the target of a satanic conspiracy by sorcerers and witches who used black magic because of the way the ship behaved in the storm.

Upon his return to Scotland, James began the wholesale persecution of witches, even interrogating some suspects himself. He also wrote a threepart collection of his studies, entitled Daemonologie, which was published in 1597 and became something of a handbook for witch-hunters.

In 1604 he repealed the statute introduced by Elizabeth I, under which hanging was the punishment for those convicted of causing death by witch - craft, and replaced it with a more severe charter, that simply the practice of witchcraft was enough to cause a person to be hanged. Between 1603 and 1625 there were about 20 witchcraft trials a year in Scotland alone – nearly 450 in total. Half of the accused were found guilty and executed.

The legacy of James’s Daemonologie continued throughout the 17th century and led to the torture and execution of hundreds of women in a series of infamous witch trials. No one knows exactly how many died during this period, such as at the famous Pendle trial of 1612, or how many others were killed in cases that never came to court. Witch-hunting was particularly widespread in Essex, which had become a hub of witchcraft activity. Between 1560 and1680 there were over 700 people involved in cases of witchcraft in Essex, either as a suspect or a victim, and of these over 500 were prosecuted at the Assizes, Quarter Sessions, or ecclesiastical courts. In 1645 alone, there were 36 witch trials in Essex.

Political and religious chaos reigned throughout the period of the English civil wars (1642–51) and it was against this background of religious upheaval, caused in part by the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter- Reformation, that the previously unheard-of Mathew Hopkins of Manningtree assumed the title of Witch-finder General in 1645. Witchhunting throughout England was a judicial operation, but occasionally agitated villagers would take justice into their own hands, executing suspected witches in a vigilante style. However, after Hopkins took on the witch hunts, this rarely happened. His reputation spread far and wide and he had a profound impact on those around him. No one was safe from an accusation of witchcraft and marginal - ised women bore the brunt of it. Hopkins made a very lucrative living from it.

Folk magic
Aside from witchcraft per se, folk magic was widely popular in Britain in the late medieval and early modern periods. While many individuals knew some charms and magic spells, the professionals – such as charmers, fortune tellers, astrologers and ‘cunning folk’ – were believed to be able to work with supernatural powers, which greatly increased the effectiveness of their business.

The Witchcraft Act of 1542 made no distinction between witches and cunning folk, and prescribed the death penalty for crimes such as using invo - cations and conjurations to locate treasure or to cast a love spell. The law was, however, repealed in 1547, and for the following few decades the magical practices of the cunning folk remained legal, despite opposition from certain religious authorities. In 1563, Parliament passed a law against ‘Conjurations, Enchantments and Witchcrafts’, and the death penalty was reserved for those who were believed to have conjured an evil spirit or murdered someone through magical means.

The ensuing witch-hunts largely ignored the cunning folk, and in the Essex records for the period 1560– 1603, 42 ‘cunning folk’ are mentioned, of which 28 are male and 14 are female. In answering to charges in connection with witchcraft, two of the women, Margery Skelton of Little Wakering in 1573 and Ursula Kempe of St Osyth in 1582, were found guilty and hanged.

Davy Thurlowe, who was “strangely taken and greatly tormented”, and whose back had twisted, was visited by Ursula Kempe, who employed a combination of counter-magic, after which he allegedly recovered from his torments.

In Britain, the ‘cunning folk’ were most com monly employed to use their magic, charms and spells in order to combat malevolent witchcraft and the curses which these witches had allegedly placed upon people or their animals, or to locate criminals, missing persons or stolen property. They would also earn money fortune-telling, healing, and treasure hunting.

Some cunning folk obtained and used ‘grimoires’ – textbooks of sorcery and magic – when they began to be printed in the English language. These tomes were displayed to impress their clients that they were all-knowledge - able, despite the fact that they may never have made any use of the magical rituals contained within them.

The cunning folk were often tradesmen and farmers, and as such were usually at least semi-literate and of a higher social position than common labourers. In many cases they continued in their ordinary day-to-day work while earning extra money as a professional cunning man or woman as well as gaining power or social prestige within their community, although there were a few charlatans who later admitted in court that they didn’t have powers but were simply pretending that they did in order to fool people for their money.

They operated in quite a competitive market, and their reputations and first impressions were very important. They often worked on their personal promotion: some were known to travel relatively large distances to visit their clients as well as making calls during the night if requested. Some were also known to wear striking costumes or home decorations in order to enhance their reputations as magical individuals. ‘Cunning’ Murrell, the 19th-century cunning man of Hadleigh (see box), wore iron goggles and carried a whalebone umbrella whenever he went out.

The usual method of the cunning folk was to make enquiries into their clients’ circumstances and suspicions so they could gain some prior knowl - edge before they familiarised themselves with their relationships and recent events. If witchcraft was feasible or suspected, it might be diagnosed as the cause of misfortune. They were expected to identify the witch and prescribe action to end the curse. In almost all cases, cunning folk worked either alone, as solitary magical practitioners, or with one other person, such as a spouse or sibling. Although such folk were numerous around the country, few records were kept because their activities were illegal, and both they and their clients would have been open to prosecution.