Paranormal Pajama Party

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Episode 30: Wise Wives and Witch Hunts

Stephanie Summar

The Women Scotland Burned

When King James VI of Scotland had trouble getting his 14-year-old bride across the sea, he blamed witches.

What followed was one of history's most notorious witch hunts – the North Berwick Witch Trials – involving contrary winds, royal bedroom gossip, and a terrifying torture device designed specifically to silence women.

The latest episode of Paranormal Pajama Party covers a dark chapter of Scottish history, unpacking how fragile masculinity and religious patriarchy combined to create a perfect storm, if you will, of misogynistic violence.

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A king's insecurities spark a witch hunt

James VI wasn't your typical 16th-century monarch. Gay, bookish and haunted by complicated relationships with powerful women (including his maybe-murderous mother Mary Queen of Scots and his very murderous cousin Elizabeth I), he had a lot to prove.

When storms repeatedly prevented his new bride, Anne of Denmark, from reaching Scotland, James saw it as a personal attack – not just on him as a king, but on his masculinity and his divine right to rule. His solution? Launch a massive witch hunt to demonstrate his power and connection to God.

The first domino to fall was Gilly Duncan, a young maidservant with an unfortunate talent for healing. Her knowledge of herbs and plants made her successful at curing the sick – too successful. In Protestant Scotland, where Catholic-style miracles were viewed with deep suspicion, Gilly's healing abilities caught the attention of her employer David Seton.

After subjecting her to illegal torture, including the crushing of her fingers with thumbscrews and binding her head with rope, Seton extracted a confession that would doom dozens of others.

Among those named was Agnes Sampson, known as the Wise Wife of Keith. A respected midwife and healer, Agnes’ approach to medicine was intensely spiritual – she would literally take on her patients' pain through prayer, wrestling with it until she could banish it from their bodies. While she saw her work as deeply Christian, her Catholic-influenced practices made her an easy target.

After being stripped, shaved, and subjected to invasive searches for a "witch's mark," Agnes broke under torture. Her confession included elaborate tales of international witch conventions and magical eavesdropping on the royal bedchamber.

James was sceptical until Anny repeated private words he'd spoken to his bride on their wedding night, which convinced the king of her supernatural powers.

The scold's bridle: medieval misogyny's greatest hit

Among the many torture devices employed during the trials, none quite captures the period's systematic oppression of women like the scold's bridle, which was used on Agnes during her imprisonment.

This iron cage for the head featured a spiked plate that would pierce the tongue if the wearer tried to speak. Women were forced to wear it as punishment for being rude, nagging, or simply outspoken. Some were paraded through town with bells attached – a public warning to other women who might dare to speak their minds.

Gilly, Agnes, and the many other women and men accused of witchcraft and brought to trial before the King told James exactly what he wanted to hear, as Marion Gibson notes in her book “Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials.” What choice did they have? These were poor, uneducated women brought before God's earthly representative, socialised from birth to placate powerful men to survive.

Their reward for playing along was being strangled and having their bodies burned at the stake.

Divine punishment and the politics of pain

Perhaps most chilling was the case of Euphame MacCalzean, who committed the apparently unforgivable sin of seeking pain relief during childbirth.

In the eyes of James's court, this wasn't just witchcraft – it was a violation of God's natural order. Women's suffering during childbirth wasn't just expected; it was a sacred covenant between women and God.

The King James Bible, commissioned later by James, would cement this view by translating a word in Genesis 3:16 as “sorrow” and establishing childbirth pain as divine punishment for all women. In fact, when a 19th-century rabbi translated the same verse from Hebrew, he noted that the original text referred specifically to labour and uterine contractions, not spiritual suffering.

This wasn't just about accurate translation – it was about control. The King James Bible wasn't merely another version of scripture; it was a calculated political and theological project designed to consolidate religious and political power and reinforce existing social hierarchies, particularly regarding women's subordination. The same verse continues with “thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” – language that provided theological justification for patriarchal power structures.

For more than 400 years since, these carefully chosen words about women's suffering and subservience have echoed through Western culture, fueling everything from opposition to medical pain relief in childbirth to modern Christian nationalist movements.

By attempting to circumvent her divinely ordained suffering, Euphame was challenging the very system that kept women subservient. Her punishment was fitting for such defiance in the eyes of the court. Rather than the usual strangling before burning, she was burned alive at the stake for committing petty treason – not against the King, but against her “rightful” ruler – her husband.

The legacy lives on

While the witch trials eventually ended, their influence echoes through Western culture to this day. From Shakespeare's Weird Sisters of Macbeth to modern Christian fundamentalism's use of the King James Bible, the fears and prejudices that drove the North Berwick trials continue to shape our world. As Scotland's former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon noted in her 2022 apology to witch trial victims, the deep misogyny that motivated these persecutions hasn't vanished – it's just found new ways to express itself.

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