Witches -A Kings Obsession -by Steven Veerapen
King James VI / I and Witchcraft
Steven Veerapen is a Scottish academic, historian, and successful historical novel writer, focusing largely on the 16th century and early 17th century. His latest book is 'Witches-A king's Obsession' , published by Birlinn, 2025 in hardback.
Steven Veerapen is certainly well qualified to write about the Jacobean era : His previous works include biographies of James VI & I, 'The Wisest Fool (2023) and his wife Anna of Denmark ' Queen in Two Kingdoms (2022). There is a helpful background in this book showing how witchcraft and magic were viewed in past centuries. A turning point was the publication and circulation of the Witch hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer (1487), aided by the rise of the printing press. Then came the shock of The Reformation in re-appraising the nature of evil in within the Christian Faith. A belief in witchcraft was usually held to be contrary to Church teaching, harmful to society and to the rural environment. Now it became treated as both a danger and a crime which needed to be stamped out.
A great challenge for historians concerns how to explain phenomena that they do not believe is possible. In an age where writers and readers do not tend to believe that witches have the power to cause storms, successfully curse mean individuals who will not give money and food to the Poor, wreck crops, curdle milk,etc then it is hard for people today to grasp alleged happenings that appears to be essentially impossible. It is also hard to accept that there were actually clandestine gatherings where Satan himself appeared in various guises. This author takes quite a bold step in explaining why a look at the life and work of King James helps a 21st century readership to try to understand the factors that led to his approval of witch hunting.
After her proxy marriage to King James, Princess Anna of Denmark's journey to Scotland in 1589 was hit by a fierce storm, one that was so ferocious that Anna and her entourage had to take shelter in Norway ( then ruled by Denmark). James gallantly sailed off to Scandinavia to find her and stayed for several months. But their homeward journey was also caught up in quite a severe tempest.
In May 1590, once James and Anna were in Scotland, came news that Agnes Sampson, a known healer and midwife, was being interrogated at Haddington in East Lothian as a suspected witch. Another local woman, Geillis Duncan was accused, and the notorious North Berwick Witch interrogations and trials soon began, as further suspects emerged. Geillis confessed to have conspired with a Danish witch in the middle of the Forth. King James -after some initial scepticism- attributed the cause of such frightful weather that had impaired himself and Anna's travel plans to the work of malevolent forces. He took an active interest in the trial and prosecution of the accused. Almost like a scholar engaged in field work. In fact James most likely began working on his own book Daemonologie (first published in 1597) at this time. James also had met Scandinavian scholars whilst abroad, who believed that witchcraft had caused these storms and now their theories appeared to have been vindicated.
But how does one find evidence of witchcraft? Gossip from neighbours, the 'familiars' such as an obvious pet toad or cat, a quarrel that has taken place between the accused and the accuser, leading to a harmful outcome for the latter. There were instances of witches being 'floated' , dropped into water, where the innocents drown and the guilty float. Examinations could take place looking for marks on the body of the suspects. Yet what really counts are confessions from the accused as validation. The book depicts the whole range of witchcraft interrogations and trials, both in Scotland, and also in England after James took the throne in 1603.
However, the writer observes :
"Yet it is important not to judge him too harshly. James was simply responding to advances in demonological thinking and marching with the vanguard of elite scholars. The real problem was, as with contemporary advances in, for example, early modern medicine, elite views could too easily be built on misunderstandings founded on mouldering fantasies and misconceptions. James might have been aggressively academic, but given what was being taught in academic circles was at best wrong and at worst dangerous, it is uncharitable to blame the accomplished graduate student."
This is the achievement of Witches A Kings Obsession, eloquently presenting the case that King James was operating within the intellectual climate of the time. Indeed, James spoke different languages, and delivered a three hour presentation in Latin to scholars in Denmark. He wrote poetry, became an author, commissioned a version of the Bible and could take part in theological debates, and debate translation. Yet James could also be convinced that the poor wretched accused caught up in a Witch Hunt were capable of feats that defied human logic and capabilities.
It is assumed that King James's view of witchcraft appeared to decline after his first few years of his reign in England,This author suggests that from around the 1605 discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, James insisted that higher standard of proof was needed to prove that a crime had occurred which contravened the Witchcraft Acts. The same year saw the Anne Gunther case, a girl who was manipulated by her father to feign fits and to accuse three women of being witches, appearing in front of King James, who was not convinced by her behaviour.
The Pendle witch trials in Lancashire of 1612 seem to have largely passed King James by, though the writer explains that the king's grief for the loss of Prince Henry that year absorbed him somewhat. In 1616 13 year old John Smith from Bosworth, prone to various seizures, had accused local women of being witches, and some were executed as a result. The lad was taken to meet James, who detected that he was a fraud. Five women awaiting trial due to Smith's antics were then acquitted
Plays such as The Devil Is An Ass ( 1616) by Ben Jonson or Middleton's The Witch ( 1613- 1616) mocked faked witch claims and accusations rather than decried the possibility of actual witchcraft taking place. But as the author points out,King James's obsession in the subject began to call for a higher standard of evidence to indicate that witchcraft was being used to cause harm, This change in approach may have even saved some lives from being lost in the Witch hunts.
The author dismisses the claim that Early Modern Witchcraft was a remnant of a pre-Christian Witch cult, neither does he hold with the idea Witches' 'confessions' were delusions triggered by ergot growths on damp rye crops, theories that have been advanced in recent times.
Ultimately there is so much in this book to lead to further discussion. An important work that will hopefully have an impact concerning how King James's interest in Witchcraft is perceived.
Steven Veerapen -author information
Author Website Books, Blog, and further information.
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Instagram @steven.veerapen.3
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Other Reviews of Steven Veerapen's books from this blog
The Wisest Fool 'The Lavish Life of King James VI and I'
Anna of Denmark 'Queen in Two Kingdoms'
Other Blogs by Michael Bully
World War 2 Poetry Updated most months
Bleak Chesney Wold 19th Century 'dark history' blog , about to be updated in the near future.
Belated Halloween greetings to all visitors to this blog.
Hopefully a further article on the North Berwick Witch Trials will be posted here before too long.
As ever, any errors or schoolboy howlers in this post are the responsibility of the reviewer, and not attributable to the author whose work is being discussed.
Regards
Michael Bully
Worthing
England, 1st November 2025
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