Episode 31: The Witch Hunter King

Hear ye! Hear ye! There be a hanging in the town square this ev'nin. It's BYOPF (Bring Your Own Pitch Fork). Today's episode is a Skye-led one where she discusses King James (I and VI) and his relationship to witches. Buckle up for some crazy history with some laughs along the way.

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review! Join our community of listeners as we explore the mysteries of the afterlife through the lens of witchcraft.

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Transcript

Skye 0:18

I am not including the blood in McDonald's talk.

Poppy 0:20

Yeah,

River 0:22

boo. Okay.

Poppy 0:23

slide in and be like, all right, well, we don't know how to open this because we were just talking about blood and McDonald's and that's not,

River 0:30

were talking about the viscera of the human body for about 10 minutes. What's good? Good

Poppy 0:35

and how it freaks poppy out and she has to eat ice cream after getting blood drawn.

Skye 0:40

Yeah.

Poppy 0:41

but welcome. Welcome to Death Coven, the Witchcraft Podcast by a death coven. That's us. Uh, we come out every other Thursday, so keep an eye out for us. Um, my name is Poppy. Welcome to the show,

Skye 0:55

I am Sky.

River 0:56

I am River.

Poppy 0:58

and today I have no idea what we're talking about. Listeners, you probably do because you saw it in the title. Sky's got a little mystery history topic for us.

River 1:10

I love a rhyme.

Skye 1:11

Yes. Yes, I do.

Poppy 1:13

Do you wanna reveal or is it like a big reveal later?

Skye 1:17

Well, I'm very excited to talk about this topic, and I'm afraid that once I start talking, I won't be able to stop. So I will tell you both the title of today's episode, which as you've said, the listeners already know, but just to give you a little flavor, but not too much info. The title,

River 1:37

My eyes are three times as large as they used to be.

Poppy 1:41

My ears are three times as large as they used to be.

Skye 1:44

title of today's podcast is The Witch Hunter King.

Poppy 1:49

Hell yeah.

River 1:50

King.

Skye 1:51

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:53

Are we talking like Cotton Mather or like before that?

Skye 1:56

We'll get into it, but get your pitch Forks out and get ready.

Poppy 2:00

Okay.

River 2:00

get your

Poppy 2:01

I've got my bitch forks.

River 2:04

but do you have a bitch wife?

Poppy 2:06

Oh shit. I forgot, I forgot to set up a hypothetical for

River 2:13

God.

Poppy 2:15

but I, I have a couple in the back burner. I have a couple in the back burner. I have some, I was considering for today's episode, like specifically because Sky is going to be presenting a topic. so this one is a little bit of an ode to sky. We are going to meld the worlds of witchcraft and mixology today. So I want us all to create a witchy cocktail that has elements, literally, uh, aspects of all four elements, somehow intermingled in there.

River 2:53

Okay.

Poppy 2:54

So do without what you will. And then I was thinking maybe like at a later date, maybe when we all get together or something, we can make'em, we can try'em out

River 3:03

I, I will say my immediate cocktail recipe on consumable,

Skye 3:08

fine.

River 3:10

dude, you should not drink it.

Skye 3:11

You give it, you give it to me and I can maybe tell you how we can tweak it and make it actually

River 3:16

I can freak that. Yeah. I think with like some like edible garnish

Poppy 3:23

Mm-hmm.

River 3:24

yeah,

Skye 3:25

Because like your earth could be like mint, you know what I mean? Like.

Poppy 3:29

Yeah.

River 3:30

I, I took a different turn, but yes. That's better.

Poppy 3:33

It's Mud

Skye 3:34

full of

River 3:35

gonna be graveyard dirt.

Poppy 3:37

Rivers in there, like in the backyard making potions.

River 3:40

That was my, i my go-to was like, I'm gonna add a frog leg and I'm gonna add some dirt.

Poppy 3:46

Cute.

Skye 3:47

be like a hypothetical

Poppy 3:48

I.

Skye 3:49

like drink, like we don't have to make it.

Poppy 3:51

I could be, yeah.

Skye 3:52

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 3:53

I chose this because Sky is our resident mixologist. She has some years as a bartender under her belt, and whenever we are all hanging out, she's the one that makes the

River 4:04

Can just make them off the cuff too. Doesn't have to look up a recipe or anything. She just has that inherent knowledge.

Poppy 4:11

Best margarita in the

Skye 4:12

Yeah. I think I maybe mentioned to you guys, or maybe I didn't, I don't remember, but I have been, working on and crafting a death coven cocktail.

River 4:23

You have mentioned that.

Poppy 4:24

Oh yeah. Oh, maybe that's why I thought of

Skye 4:26

Maybe

Poppy 4:27

Um.

Skye 4:28

it like 75% of the way done. I've made a couple of good versions, but it just, there's, I haven't quite perfectly nailed it yet, so I need to stray away from that because I want that to be a reveal at a later time.

Poppy 4:45

Mm-hmm.

River 4:47

when it's fully

Skye 4:48

Yeah, that one's not so much elemental as it is me trying to incorporate the three of us and like what the

Poppy 4:54

Mm-hmm. Our

River 4:56

you say like, what our flavors would be individually?

Skye 5:00

Um, I will say that there is blood orange in the cocktail

Poppy 5:05

Okay.

Skye 5:05

and it's tequila based,

River 5:08

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 5:09

Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Skye 5:10

loosely, like the ratios are based off of my Margarita recipe, but I've sort of swapped out different ingredients.

River 5:19

Can't wait to try it. Can't wait to see what we taste like.

Poppy 5:22

Triple sec.

Skye 5:24

No, the, the ratio is still the same. It's the, no.

River 5:28

It's all triple sec with one slice of blood, orange on top.

Skye 5:33

Okay. So I think for a cocktail, I, my brain goes to starting with the water element first because it's a drink.

Poppy 5:43

Mm-hmm.

River 5:43

The liquid.

Skye 5:44

So I think that really, you could probably use any base liquor and say like, this is the water element.

Poppy 5:53

I feel like some base licorice are more, strangely enough, like earth and

River 5:59

Mm-hmm. I feel like,

Poppy 6:01

like a grain, like a

River 6:02

gin would be more earth based just because it's got that like pine flavor

Skye 6:07

Or even like vodka.

Poppy 6:09

I would say air, actually.

Skye 6:11

Vodka.'cause some vodkas are made from potato. Like that's real. That's real earthy.

River 6:16

got the root.

Skye 6:18

Also, if you use like a mezcal tequila that's got more of

River 6:23

Oh, that's fire baby.

Skye 6:24

it could be fire. Yeah, you could look at it. I was gonna say it has sort of like a rich, earthy flavor to it. So you could also kind of say that that's earth. I do just love tequila, so I automatically, I'm like, well, mine's gonna be tequila based.

River 6:38

Yeah.

Skye 6:41

I think for fire, like I would set it on fire. I think that this drink would have

River 6:45

That was my, yeah.

Poppy 6:48

Yeah.

Skye 6:48

Earth.

Poppy 6:49

like you could smoke it.

Skye 6:51

Yeah. It could be smoked.

River 6:52

You could have it under a

Poppy 6:53

a smoked

Skye 6:54

yeah, and I think for Earth, I'm thinking, I'm imagining, I'm like muddling something into the

Poppy 7:00

Mm-hmm. Herbs. Ooh. I love, I don't know about it with tequila, but like rosemary, muddled rosemary in a bev.

River 7:09

Okay.

Skye 7:09

I think that could compliment a tequila depending on what else you put in it. It could,

Poppy 7:16

So what's mezcal

Skye 7:17

it's just a type of tequila.

Poppy 7:19

Okay. Is it like silver versus gold, or

Skye 7:22

think you can probably get both, but I associate it with, I just like silver. I, I'm not a big gold tequila person. For some reason. That usually gives me a headache.

Poppy 7:32

Gives me a hangover. Yeah. It's the tannins.

Skye 7:35

What are we thinking? Air, missing air. That one could be the smoke

Poppy 7:39

I mean, smoke could be. Mm-hmm. I feel like there are a lot of herbs that could symbolize air as well.

Skye 7:46

could also

Poppy 7:47

Or if you do kind of like a frothing,

Skye 7:50

like an egg white.

Poppy 7:52

a, um, what's it called? Yeah, like an egg white foam.

Skye 7:56

You could also like

River 7:57

egg white foam in my tequila

Skye 7:59

yeah. You could stick a stick of rosemary into the drink and then light it on fire and have that sort of be like earth, fire and air all in one.

Poppy 8:09

and it's cleansing

River 8:10

me out. You stick a straw in it and you blow bubbles into it.

Poppy 8:16

Cute.

River 8:16

That's air, baby.

Poppy 8:18

Or drop, um, what's it called? Uh, drop like dry ice into the bottom. So it bubbles?

Skye 8:23

I think my, my death coven cocktail, I was considering putting dry ice in just for the dramatics of it all.

Poppy 8:30

Yeah.

Skye 8:31

is dangerous to consume though. Just

River 8:34

I was about to say like, can you, is that drinkable?

Skye 8:38

It is. As long as you don't touch or consume the actual ice thing.

River 8:43

God. Dry ice is so scary to me.

Skye 8:46

is.

Poppy 8:47

I was thinking about going in kind of a different direction, doing like a hot bev and maybe just having the ooh or maybe like some kind ooh, Mexican hot chocolate with, what would you put in that? Like bourbon

Skye 9:04

I would put RumChata in it personally.

River 9:07

Mm, that's good.

Poppy 9:08

RumChata, Mexican hot chocolate. little cinnamon stick in there. So that's very fire. That's all very

River 9:16

Yeah. That's hot,

Poppy 9:18

that's hot. That's bithy. could do a cop out. Make the liquid water.

Skye 9:24

Well, if you're making hot chocolate, you could just be like pouring hot water in, you know?

Poppy 9:28

yeah, I feel like the chocolate aspect is very earth already. And then maybe just a, um, kind of like a latte foam on top, like a froth milk

Skye 9:38

you could do that Cool thing. Where have you seen people Great cinnamon, like over fire?

Poppy 9:43

No.

Skye 9:44

'cause cinnamon is like flammable. It like makes little like sparks.

River 9:49

I do love

Poppy 9:50

Have you guys ever lit a cinnamon stick on fire?

River 9:52

Yeah. That shit burns.

Poppy 9:57

You have to like dunk it.

Skye 9:58

yeah.

Poppy 9:59

Mm-hmm.

River 10:00

You can't blow it out.

Poppy 10:01

Probably not. Great to breathe in?

River 10:03

No. Is that your

Skye 10:05

River, are you gonna say what you were thinking about?

River 10:08

Yeah. So much like Poppy, I'm taking a different avenue. I guess mine would be more considered a mocktail because it likely will not have alcohol in it because I am making potions in the backyard. So I was thinking for the water element, I was like, I could get like some spring water or some holy water. That would be fun. Dirt. I already said for earth, some graveyard dirt or just whatever dirt you have around some potting soil or some shit like that. For ground Oreos, you can never go wrong for Earth. I was like, I could just do grass clippings. I could just do like handfuls of grass, you know, that's right there, like some leaves or something. If you find like if you have like a nice patch of like clovers or something in your yard, that could be good. Put some luck in there.

Poppy 11:05

Mm-hmm.

River 11:06

And then for air, again, just like putting a straw in it and blowing bubbles to mix it all up, you know.

Poppy 11:13

Well, if you're outside, I feel like that already you have like that fresh

River 11:16

Yeah, if there's a nice breeze rolling by you just like funnel some of that into the drink, you know?

Poppy 11:24

Maybe instead of drinking it, you can like put it in a little vial and dump it in your bath

River 11:30

I think you could.

Skye 11:31

Nice.

Poppy 11:31

Then you become the mocktail

River 11:33

And then I am the mocktail, and then I turn into a

Poppy 11:36

the little ice cube.

Skye 11:38

Yeah. I think my official answer is just gonna be my traditional margarita and I'm gonna stick a rosemary in it and then light it on fire because I'm gonna consider the lime. The lime juice is the water aspect, and then the rosemary earth, it being on fire, is fire, and then the smoke is the air.

River 11:55

good stuff.

Skye 11:56

I'm kind of just taking a lazy cop out because I've already concocted a perfect cocktail.

River 12:01

Hey, at least yours is drinkable.

Skye 12:04

Yeah. You present your cocktail to me as Mama Sky. You're like, mom, I made this for you.

River 12:11

made you this Nico, thanks so much. You go back outside and play and I'll drink this right now. You dump it

Skye 12:17

Yeah. Did you guys ever make your mom perfume from the backyard? Yeah.

Poppy 12:22

No,

River 12:23

I made perfect. I also would make her like medicine when she was sick and it was just me like pouring juice and dish soap into

Skye 12:31

not dish soap.

Poppy 12:33

Yeah.

River 12:34

She never drank it and I can't blame her

Poppy 12:36

Oh, I used to make shampoos and, and stuff.

Skye 12:38

Do y'all ever pour, um, or spray, Like shaving cream on mirrors and like draw with it?

River 12:44

Mm-hmm. Yeah,

Poppy 12:46

no, that sounds fun

River 12:48

it's pretty fun. We used to do it in elementary school.

Skye 12:51

I did it in my house and my mom didn't love that.

Poppy 12:53

I mean, it's easy to clean up. You can just like wipe it up. Right.

Skye 12:56

In fact, I was helping, I was cleaning in the process. You could argue.

River 12:59

Yeah, it looks better now. You're welcome.

Poppy 13:03

Shiny. But maybe we'll take those, those little recipes and post'em up on our Instagram and we'll leave Rivers for last.

River 13:13

it's like a shaky in the dark picture. Looks like it's in the back rooms

Poppy 13:20

Oh.

River 13:20

and it's like you wanna drink it? I made it for you.

Poppy 13:24

Oh. Sky's shaken out. The sky's warming up. Oh, I thought you were like really getting in the zone about to BB

Skye 13:32

Uh, no.

River 13:33

Tell us about this witch hunter king.

Poppy 13:35

I am so excited. As long as you don't fucking Chef Boyard,

River 13:39

Yeah, you very well could. I wouldn't know.

Skye 13:42

no scouts honor. Everything that I tell you will be factual.

River 13:47

That means a lot to me. As a former girl Scout myself, I take that very seriously.

Skye 13:53

Okay, so the witch Hunter King, let's get into it. So, as you both know, my topic today originally was supposed to be Mary Queen of Scots.

River 14:08

Yes.

Skye 14:09

So I started my research on Mary Queen of Scots, and I came across a little tidbit of information, which is how I came across today's topic.

River 14:19

This was one of your little like rabbit hole

Skye 14:22

yes, this was a rabbit hole thread that turned into its own episode because it just led me further and further and further. And I was like, well, this, obviously it just has to merry Queen of Scott's love you girl, but we gotta put you on the back burner for a second because I have to know what is going on.

River 14:40

I,

Skye 14:40

So

Poppy 14:42

And you also said in the process, wasn't there a second one or no, nevermind. That's something completely

Skye 14:47

yes, and then I came up with a completely third idea, like an or maybe a fourth idea that I was like, or I could do

River 14:53

Your synapses are going fucking insane right now,

Poppy 14:56

Remember when you were having that creative block like not too long ago, and

River 15:01

The damn has broken.

Poppy 15:03

your brain?

Skye 15:04

I like River said the other day, I'm experiencing summertime madness.

River 15:09

Yeah,

Poppy 15:11

The girls are

Skye 15:11

girls

River 15:12

their girls are crazy. The sun is out. The girls are insane and I love that for the girls.

Poppy 15:18

I am full of D as in vitamin.

Skye 15:21

and something else maybe, but I saw one sentence that led me into this rabbit hole of our topic today, which was that Mary Queen of Scott's son, James, who we did talk about briefly in my Celtic ancestry episode, hated witches, hated them. So I was like, what?'cause I was like, oh, James, that guy, that's my guy. I know who you are. Starting the Jacobite, Jacobian era, whatever, hated witches. And I was like, oh my God, as a witch. And now I'm like stuck in this family tree. This is aligning all of my interests, bitch.

Poppy 16:08

Well, wasn't he like super religious?

Skye 16:10

I mean, they all were at

Poppy 16:11

Is, does that have something to do with it? Yeah.

Skye 16:15

Okay, so I am going to be talking to you guys today about the witch hunts and witch trials during the 16th and 17th century through the lens of James and his life, because James was extremely an extremely paranoid individual and it really got outta hand. But I really wanted to know why this came about to be, I wanted to understand his lore, his journey, how he got to the conclusion of why he hated them so much, besides just your typical I disagree, sort of, uh, of the time

River 17:09

It's against God or whatever.

Skye 17:11

Right. And there are answers. I just, I discovered answers.

River 17:16

I can't

Skye 17:16

And what, what a guy, what, what a life.

River 17:21

What a fella.

Skye 17:23

Oh, boy. Okay, so let's get into it. So, James, Charles Stewart, the six of Scotland was born on June 19th, 1566 Gemini. Okay.

River 17:36

You can't trust a Gemini editor. Cut that out.

Skye 17:39

I won't.

River 17:40

Shit, my cat's a Gemini. It's okay. I can say that.

Skye 17:44

Yeah, so it was Mel.

River 17:45

So is mouth, his birthday's coming up, right?

Skye 17:48

Yeah.

River 17:50

Yeah.

Poppy 17:50

his 17th

Skye 17:52

His birthday is on June 16th, but he'll be turning 17

River 17:56

so fucking old

Poppy 17:58

Mm. Mm-hmm. Can I just say, I'm now going to be picturing James Charles

River 18:04

Mal

Poppy 18:05

as, as. As James, like

River 18:11

James, Charles.

Poppy 18:12

James Charles because his name is James Charles

Skye 18:16

and I think that you would be more accurate than you think.

Poppy 18:19

Okay. Okay. Beautiful.

River 18:21

Okay.

Skye 18:22

so he was born in Edinburgh Castle. He was the only child to Mary, queen of Scots. He was coronated on July 29th, 1567 as a 13 month old king

River 18:36

That's fucking insane.

Skye 18:38

because

River 18:39

can't even sit

Skye 18:39

Yeah. Well, he can sit upright, he can probably walk, but as most people know, his mother, Mary, queen of s Scott's was exiled and eventually beheaded and a couple of months before his coronation, his dad got blowed up.

River 18:57

what do you mean he got

Skye 18:58

He got blowed up. Dynamite.

Poppy 19:01

Like with, ugh, they had

Skye 19:05

Yeah. Or like gunpowder or whatever,

River 19:08

an explosive type beat.

Skye 19:10

um, and that's a whole separate story of t and gossip that I have to wait for the Mary Queen of Scot's episode to divulge in. Because there's like a scandal related to his death. Yeah. He's an essentially, He's an orphan. Um, he, yeah, he's essentially raised by caretakers and was surrounded by regents who likely had selfish motives and took advantage of power while the king was still a babe. So there are obviously

Poppy 19:40

Yeah, they're grooming him.

Skye 19:42

well, we'll get into that later.

River 19:45

Oh God, no.

Skye 19:48

but he was proclaimed an adult ruler in 1579 at the rip old age of 13.

Poppy 19:54

Mm-hmm.

Skye 19:54

that's when they were like, okay, your cognitive

River 19:59

basically middle

Skye 20:00

Yeah, you're, yeah, you're, you can think for yourself. You can think of military strategy, I guess now. So, so what kind of young man was he? Was he hulking? Brutish, a lady's man? What's going on with James? Uh,

River 20:18

can, I guess

Skye 20:18

yes,

River 20:20

I imagine him sickly and frail, but that's just me personally,

Skye 20:24

okay. He

River 20:25

sort of wimpy.

Skye 20:27

he was not sickly, but he was sort of scrawny and gangly. He was an intellectual who loved studying literature, he loved learning language, writing poetry and love letters.

River 20:43

He's a romantic.

Skye 20:46

And not only is he romantic, not only is he romantic, but he was gay.

River 20:54

Ah, okay. Pride month. Okay.

Poppy 20:57

right. Oh yeah. We're recording this in June, by

Skye 21:00

Happy pride, month. So to get into the grooming aspect now Poppy, so kindly foreshadowed when he was 13, becoming this like adult ruler or whatever, he met his dad's first cousin, which makes him, it's his cousin, first cousin once removed I think. But I'm just gonna refer to him as cousin

River 21:28

Yeah, basically.

Skye 21:29

Esme Stewart, who was a French nobleman. So he came over for like the big celebratory, yay, you're king. You're being introduced to the court, whatever officially. And James was Sumit with this man.

River 21:50

how old is this

Poppy 21:51

With Cousin Esme?

Skye 21:52

So there is a 24 year age gap between the two of them. Esme is in his late thirties, and James is a young teen boy.

River 22:06

Oh no.

Poppy 22:08

so was it

Skye 22:09

It was reciprocated it.

Poppy 22:12

So he's a

Skye 22:13

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Poppy 22:14

Okay. Okay.

Skye 22:14

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 22:15

Oh,

River 22:16

Love that.

Skye 22:17

So they're writing love letters to each other and eventually, you know, and James, throughout his reign would have quote unquote favorites, which were just men who he would promote rapidly throughout his court. So not only at this time did people probably feel some type of way about, you know, homosexuality. But he also was taking advantage of his power, through being sucked off or whatever. And the people didn't like that. The people weren't like, they didn't like

River 22:55

Fair. Yeah.

Poppy 22:56

so we know about this because of the letters, like, because they were openly talking about it in letters.

Skye 23:02

Well, that and

Poppy 23:04

Okay. Sorry.

Skye 23:05

James wasn't exactly, he was like out, like he wasn't exactly hiding the fact

River 23:13

Okay.

Skye 23:13

gay.

River 23:15

Okay. Gay king.

Poppy 23:16

like, I'm the king. I can do whatever the

Skye 23:18

Kinda, yeah.

River 23:20

dick, who's gonna stop me?

Skye 23:21

Yeah. Like that. Okay. So I do have a quote here that says James became quote in such love with him as in the open sight of the people. Often he will clasp him about the neck with his arms and kiss him. End quote.

River 23:36

And this was his cousin.

Poppy 23:39

once

River 23:40

Oh yeah. The once removed means nothing to me.

Poppy 23:44

No, it's still

Skye 23:45

it's still just like a man in his late thirties,

River 23:49

Yeah.

Skye 23:51

so obviously,

Poppy 23:52

like three times

Skye 23:53

yeah. Yeah.

River 23:55

I am feeling very conflicted on one hand, gay rights, on the other hand, pedophilia

Poppy 24:02

a child

Skye 24:03

there weren't gay rights. He just was the king, and so people couldn't really do anything about it.

River 24:09

yeah.

Poppy 24:10

and you know how 13-year-old boys are? They let that power go straight to their heads. He was probably just a terror

River 24:16

Yeah.

Poppy 24:17

around.

River 24:18

Unless you were one of his little boyfriends.

Poppy 24:21

Mm-hmm.

Skye 24:21

And just side note, I looked up his, uh, there was like a list of his favorites and there were little portraits of all of them. And he had a type, they all looked very similar, so they, I, they were all, uh, white, white men, obviously. Yeah,

River 24:37

Obviously

Skye 24:38

they were also like kind of thin and tall. They all were brunettes and they had those like mustaches with like a

River 24:45

knew it was gonna be brunettes with facial hair. I fucking

Skye 24:48

and like a little pointy beard.

Poppy 24:51

dad

River 24:51

Yep.

Skye 24:53

Yeah. They all kind of had, yeah, they all kind of had like a conquistador kind of vibe, you know what I mean? They all had that like French nobleman, like that European like,

River 25:03

Yeah. Real colonizer

Skye 25:04

Yes, yes. So anyway, there's all these are signs are pointing to Esme that his cousin are, he's like grooming him. Right. Um, and Esme was distrusted by Scottish Calvinists who noticed the physical displays of affection between him and the king, and they said that. They thought that Esme quote went about to draw the king to carnal lust. They're like, he's trying to fuck this guy. Like he's trying to fuck our

River 25:42

He's trying to fucking nasty style.

Skye 25:45

Yeah. And and to be fair, it seems like James was too, but he

River 25:51

He is 13. They're always trying to

Skye 25:52

He is a

River 25:53

style. Their hormones are going fucking crazy.

Poppy 25:57

And he's probably under so much pressure too, to like be an adult

River 26:01

Yeah. And if you have like an older adult figure that you can like lean on for support and like find guidance in Yeah,

Skye 26:09

yeah. But anyway, this led to some Earls luring James and imprisoning him as a young teen.

Poppy 26:17

They lured him with

Skye 26:18

No, I think they just false

River 26:19

it works. Every

Skye 26:20

They just,

Poppy 26:22

Oh,

Skye 26:22

like whatever her.

Poppy 26:23

okay, okay, okay,

River 26:24

they put some dick under like a box with like a rope and a stick and they're like,

Skye 26:29

I think they were just like, we're gonna hold court and the blah, blah, blah. And then they trapped him. Um, and then this, then they also forced his petto cousin out of Scotland. They were like, you need to get the fuck outta here, dude. Like, what the

River 26:41

Yeah. Get that guy the fuck outta here?

Skye 26:43

but this wasn't necessarily,

Poppy 26:44

was French.

Skye 26:45

he was also French, but he

River 26:46

Not even. Not even bad enough. He's a pedophile. He's also French.

Poppy 26:51

okay. Sorry. Our French listeners, if we have any, we do have some European

Skye 26:55

I know, but he did, he had Scottish ancestry because he was related to James' dad. So he, you know,

River 27:03

Yeah.

Poppy 27:03

right, right. They

Skye 27:04

but him being captured to kick as my out wasn't necessarily all in. It wasn't good for James, is what I'm trying to say. They, they weren't necessarily just looking out for him to kick this pedal out. They also had issues with James because

River 27:22

it wasn't to keep him safe. Yeah.

Poppy 27:24

Mm-hmm.

Skye 27:25

Correct. So after nine months of imprisonment, uh, he eventually escaped and regained control.

Poppy 27:33

Mm-hmm.

Skye 27:35

but all of this, I tell you to say, he was set up for failure from the jump

Poppy 27:40

Yeah.

Skye 27:40

even before he was born when he was. But a twinkle in Mary Queen of Scott's eye, his reign in his life was set up for failure. But I'm not trying to be sympathetic to James. I just wanna know what the fuck's going on and why I, because

Poppy 27:59

Mm-hmm. Doesn't excuse his

Skye 28:02

correct. He, he was. A bad guy. I mean,

River 28:06

yeah,

Skye 28:07

but anyway, I just, his early

River 28:10

it's like a villain origin story. It's like, how did we get here?

Skye 28:16

exactly. So, although James sexually preferred men, he did need to get married to a woman

Poppy 28:24

Yeah.

River 28:25

Yeah.

Poppy 28:25

father

Skye 28:26

reinforce his rule, being a Protestant, he married and of Denmark, who was also a Protestant. So that was gonna sort of reinforce the Protestant nature of his rule. Um, they got married, they had a marriage by proxy, which means that they weren't actually there when their marriage was, official, if that makes sense.

River 28:52

Yeah. Like you just sign over some papers and then you're married.

Skye 28:56

Yeah. They would later go on to have like an official thing, but like they, they were married more or less before they met, but they would write letters to each other. And apparently he, although he's a gay man, apparently from all claims that I saw, he did fawn over her and adored her.

Poppy 29:17

I mean, he could

Skye 29:17

he could be bisexual. It seems like

River 29:20

If you're a romantic, you're a

Skye 29:21

if you're romantic, you're romantic. And maybe he was like, you know what, if I am gonna have a wife and be married, I will give her,

River 29:28

best of it.

Skye 29:29

yeah, I'll give her that love and romantic life that I, that I love to give. But he was 23 and she was 14 when they got married.

Poppy 29:39

Oh God. Blow after blow after blow.

River 29:43

God. They gotta stop doing this.

Poppy 29:46

Oh man. At least. At least he's only twice her age

River 29:49

This time. It's a little bit less of

Poppy 29:51

I guess.

River 29:52

a gown.

Poppy 29:54

Oh, that's still

River 29:55

Yeah. Poor

Skye 29:56

Yeah. So the saga with, yeah, so this period of introducing Anne is sort of where we start getting into why witches.

River 30:09

Okay.

Skye 30:10

So Anne tried to come over to Scotland, but terrible storms came, and James decided he'd come to her. So she's trying to leave Denmark and come to Scotland to be his wife, but she can't get there because of the weather. And I have an excerpt from a letter from Ann to James, which was originally written in French. She says, we have already put out to sea four or five times, but have always been driven back to the harbors from which we sailed. Thanks to contrary winds and other problems that arose at sea, which is the cause, why now? Winter is hastening down on us and fearing greater danger. All this company is forced to our regret and to the regret and high displeasure of your men to make no further attempt at present, but to defer the voyage until spring.

Poppy 31:03

How did the letter get there?

River 31:05

I am

Skye 31:05

I don't know, dude,

Poppy 31:07

Obviously some boats

River 31:09

yeah, it's a paper

Skye 31:10

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know by bird. Like I have no idea.

River 31:15

Yeah. Also, what is him going to her gonna, if there's terrible storms that are like messing up travels, what's,

Poppy 31:27

you an ancient meteorologist

Skye 31:29

know, dude.

River 31:30

Can you tell me what the conditions were like back then?

Skye 31:33

Uh, well, the North Sea during winter, probably not great.

River 31:38

Yeah. Not great. Yeah.

Poppy 31:41

Can you remind me what year it is now? Like what time period are

Skye 31:44

We are in the, we're in the late 15 hundreds. Yeah.

River 31:48

Okay.

Skye 31:49

and in what is called the quote, one romantic episode of his life end quote, James sailed with 300 strong retinue to fetch his wife personally. He got that letter and

River 32:03

a 300 strong strapping men boat.

Poppy 32:09

300 boats.

River 32:11

He said you can't sink us.

Poppy 32:12

That's crazy. Like some of one of us is gonna get over there

Skye 32:18

So he is like, gathering up all of

River 32:21

I'm gonna go get my

Skye 32:22

I'm gonna go get my wife. Yeah.

Poppy 32:24

and you're telling me this man doesn't want pussy.

River 32:26

not even a little

Skye 32:27

They had kids, they had like eight kids or something crazy like they had children.

River 32:33

Damn.

Skye 32:34

again, I don't know if maybe he, this was all for show for the public, do you know what I mean? Like if he

River 32:40

Yeah. Or if he genuinely was like

Skye 32:43

I do also think that because sexuality is a spectrum, like he could be gay, but this was like the one woman that was like the exception for him.

River 32:52

yeah.

Skye 32:53

But anyway, that's neither here nor there. But due to, so James does get there, he goes and meets her over on the mainland and due to whether formal court, blah, blah, blah.'cause he gets there. He can't just scoop her up and then immediately leave. Like he stays there for several

River 33:12

He has to make a big show of it.

Skye 33:14

Meet the parents, travel, meet all the

River 33:18

See the

Skye 33:19

over there.

River 33:19

see all your subjects, yada, yada, yada.

Skye 33:23

Yeah. So he's

River 33:24

Go on Medieval grinder.

Skye 33:26

Mm-hmm. So I do wanna talk about, at this time the witch hunts in general that are being taken place in mainland Europe because it's rampant at this time, especially in Denmark. Yeah, Denmark, it's a big deal. So James is going over there and he's just like, I'm here to meet my wife. I'm having a good time. And he's learning about all these witch hunts going on. And not only that, but he learns that it's suspected that the reason why Ann couldn't make the crossing was because of witches.

River 34:09

I

Skye 34:09

So I have here, there's a short article that I read from the history jar titled Ann of Denmark and The Witches of Copenhagen that says The Danish admiral responsible for conveying and to Norway rather than Edinburgh, blamed a Copenhagen, which rather than bad weather or his own seafaring skills, the woman, Anna Ings was the wife of the Burgess with whom the admiral had quarrel, confessed to being a witch under torture. It was an impressive story. Apparently the witch responsible for the storm has sent little devils and wheelbarrows across the sea. They then climbed up the kes of the fleet, which was transporting Ann and caused the storm. In September, 1590, she was burned to death. 11 other women were also executed because quite clearly transporting demons and empty barrows across the sea would require the efforts of more than one woman. And when James returned to Scotland, his interest in the topic of witches was well and truly a light. Sure.

River 35:17

awfully convenient that he's like, it's not the weather, it's not my shitty seafaring capabilities. It's the

Skye 35:25

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 35:26

I love the imagery of like little demons crawling up the sides of ships

River 35:31

and wheelbarrows.

Poppy 35:32

and little wheelbarrows that somehow weathered

Skye 35:35

yeah, there's an even crazier, um, coming up, like spell that's just so absurd and

River 35:42

Oh, I can't wait to hear it.

Skye 35:45

but that's, that's Denmark. But in Europe in general, the great hunt is going on and it is really hard to get like specific numbers and stuff, but from science.smith.edu, they say between 1560 and 1630, there was a surge in the number of accusations of witchcraft and witch trials called the Great Hunt. During this time, 80,000 people were accused of witchcraft, and of them 40,000 were killed as punishment.

Poppy 36:19

Oh

Skye 36:19

So that's in the entirety of Europe. That's not, you know, but

Poppy 36:24

crazy.

River 36:25

yeah.

Skye 36:26

so it's, we got a lot of it.

River 36:28

Half the people accused are dead and killed.

Skye 36:32

Yeah, that was a statistic I saw repeatedly that was about half of people accused in general across the board, were executed.

River 36:42

Because how are you gonna defend yourself?

Skye 36:44

You have to point the figure at somebody

River 36:46

can you defend yourself? Yeah,

Poppy 36:48

yeah, you say, oh, I didn't do it.

River 36:50

It wasn't me. Yeah.

Poppy 36:53

Ugh.

River 36:54

I crush you with stones.

Skye 36:55

I just remembered something else. I'm so excited to tell you guys about. Okay. We'll get there. We'll get there. So I also, on this topic of witchcraft in general, I want to talk about before versus after James, which is essentially the whole reason why I'm talking about this topic. Um, I wanna talk about the laws about witchcraft during this time. So before King James came to the throne, witch hunts were relatively less popular in both countries, Scotland and England, compared to the period that followed in Scotland. The 16th and 17th C saw a surge in witchcraft trials with roughly 4,000 people accused, many of whom were women. Of course, England, while not as intense, did see a few cases of witch trials, mainly targeting elites or. Those with elite connections, most likely due to political reasons, makes sense. Scotland, they were just going like, you're a witch, fucking kill her. Whereas in England, they're, they're, you know, pointing the finger not wanting certain people. Yeah, yeah.

River 37:59

Yeah.

Skye 38:01

Okay, so bear with me with this section because it's a lot of potentially gobbledygook words, but. hang, hang in there. I've got sort of a point that I'm trying to make. Okay. So,

Poppy 38:15

Old with an e words.

Skye 38:19

anyway, I'm not getting ahead of myself.

River 38:22

I love how every 10 seconds, it's like, we'll get there. We'll get there. Just wait.

Skye 38:25

Yeah. Okay. So, laws against witchcraft in 1562. Early in her reign, Elizabeth passed a law. Elizabeth, the first, who reigned before James in England, passed a law in the form of the Witchcraft Act of 1562. This demanded the death penalty, but only where harm had been caused. Lesser offenses were punishable by a term of imprisonment. The act provided that anyone who should quote. Use practice or exercise any witchcraft, enchantment, charm, or sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed. End quote was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy and was to be put to death. So she was basically like, Hey, as long as you don't kill anybody, like don't let me catch you doing witchcraft. You will like spend a little time in jail, but as long as you don't kill anybody, like that's really only when you're gonna be sentenced to death.

River 39:22

Kill or destroy.

Skye 39:24

Yes, they loved flowery language back then versus James

River 39:30

What's he got to say about

Skye 39:32

pretty much the second he became king in England, he made a new witchcraft act, uh, the Witchcraft Act of 1562, Elizabeth Act, also known as the act. Against Conation, enchantments and witchcraft and the Witchcraft Act of 1603. Jameses officially titled an Act Against Conation Witchcraft and Dealing with Evil and Wicked Spirits differed in their scope and severity of punishment while both acts dealt with witchcraft. The 1603 Act expanded the definition of witchcraft, introducing stricter punishments and making it a capital offense to commune with evil spirits, which was not explicitly covered in the 1562 Act. So James pretty much viewed any witchcraft as communing with demons or the devil, and doing that is punchable by death. So he's going crazy.

River 40:37

He's a really power hungry.

Skye 40:39

so that was me jumping forward a little bit to his England reign just to cover like laws where we're at with witchcraft in Europe And in the

River 40:47

is pre or post when he met his wife

Skye 40:51

So when he met his wife, he was still just the king of Scotland.

River 40:55

I see. I see.

Skye 40:56

Yeah. So I just wanted to cover where we were with which trials in mainland Europe versus the UK and the laws surrounding that. Pre and post James taking Reign in England.

River 41:08

I see. Okay.

Skye 41:09

Yes.

Poppy 41:10

Question. So this is the James of like Jamestown then, right? Like the one that sent.

Skye 41:17

yes.

Poppy 41:18

Yeah, I'm just thinking timeline wise, so I'm like, I wonder how that affected the culture of the early American colonists.

Skye 41:25

Yeah, he was the colonizer James of Jamestown. Yes.

Poppy 41:30

Mm-hmm.

River 41:31

You know it, you'll love it if You live on the East coast. You've probably visited, uh, Jamestown. Yeah.

Skye 41:41

So anyway, flash. So flashing back to him being in Denmark with his new betrothed, Anne, he's gotta go home now. He's gonna take her back home to Scotland to be his queen and his wife. So he goes back to Scotland with Anne and again, has difficulty while sailing due to rough storms. And he's

River 42:06

so crazy.

Skye 42:07

like, oh my God, the witches, we have to kill these bitches. They are my haters. And they were praying for my downfall. Oh my God. So, I have a little excerpt from history extra.com, which is the official website for BBC. History Magazine says, as soon as he reached Scottish Shores, James ordered a witch hunt on a scale never seen before. No fewer than 70 suspects were rounded up in the coastal Scottish town of North Berwick on suspicion of raising a storm to destroy James and his new bride. Most of the suspects soon confessed under torture to concocting a host of bizarre and gruesome spells and rituals in order to whip up the storm. Bear with me here, please

River 42:56

I thought it was the Denmark Witches. I'm so sorry.

Skye 42:59

the Scottish witch were responsible for hi, him not being able to get back into Scotland.

River 43:05

How did they even know when he was gonna be coming back?

Skye 43:09

I need you to bear with me while I finish reading this because I'm gonna say some really absurd things. Please hold your reaction until I

River 43:17

mic.

Skye 43:20

Okay. Like I said, a host of bizarre and gruesome spells and rituals in order to whip up the storm, they included binding the severed genitalia and limbs of a dead man to the legs of a cat and then tossing it into the waves where upon there did arise. Such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath not been seen. That's it. You may react now. You may unmute.

River 43:45

I don't even know what to say after that.

Poppy 43:47

To the legs. So they threw the whole cat in with a dick

Skye 43:52

let me repeat. Binding the severed genitalia and limbs of a dead man to the legs of a cat and then tossing it into the waves.

Poppy 44:03

okay.

River 44:04

But no head or torso of a dead man. Just limbs and junk.

Skye 44:08

Or of the cat? It's limbs of a cat. Limbs of a man and

River 44:13

And also a penis for good measure.

Skye 44:15

Bind. Bound up

Poppy 44:17

I wonder how they strapped everything together.

Skye 44:19

twine. Don't know.

Poppy 44:21

Like just in a bundle? Yeah. like, why would that make it storm

Skye 44:25

know.

River 44:26

I whipped up a tempest, the likes of which had never been seen. Dude, I can't make it any more obvious.

Skye 44:31

honestly like all, I don't think that any of these witches at the time actually were doing anything against James. I think that under torture, they genuinely is, are just saying

River 44:40

They said, yeah, I did that. Yeah, for sure I

Skye 44:43

They're just making shit up to like try to maybe get them to stop torturing them or save them or something.

River 44:48

did they ever find, said limbs or genitalia or cat limbs

Skye 44:53

thrown in the sea. How are they gonna find that?

River 44:56

don't know,

Poppy 44:57

I'd be like, who's Dick?

River 44:58

Yeah. Why is there just a torso in a head and a legless cat over here? Why that man got no dick over here?

Poppy 45:05

Oh

Skye 45:06

I dunno, dude, maybe they cut it off a corpse like, I don't know.

River 45:12

I guess maybe it never happened at all.

Skye 45:14

I don't think it happened at all

River 45:16

Hmm. I don't think that sounds right.

Poppy 45:23

The whole time I was gone I was like, wow, that whole spell is such river's bitch. Ex-wife behavior.

River 45:32

would do that type of shit to me to stop me

Poppy 45:34

would

River 45:35

cause she hates my fucking guts. Yeah. I'd see one demon, I'd be like, god dammit. I knew it. I knew its heart's. Got her stink all over it.

Poppy 45:44

Where'd she get that dick?

River 45:46

The old ball ripped it right off me.

Skye 45:52

So James was in Denmark. He's hearing about these witch trials'cause they're going crazy over in Denmark and in the mainland. Europe hears about these Copenhagen witches and how yes.

River 46:08

Was a, was anyone in particular like the driving force behind the Denmark witch trials, or was that just sort of culturally like the vibe going

Skye 46:20

they, na, that guy accused, um, the woman, Anna Ings was the initial person, and then 11 other women got tried. I assume that she turned them in, um, under her

River 46:36

Okay. I see.

Skye 46:38

and because of James's upbringing, if you'll recall, he's an infant king. His parents are dead. Um, he's surrounded, he was imprisoned. He's surrounded by these regents who wanna do their thing and they're trying to like, raise him probably to see, in their vision. So from the beginning everyone's sort of out to get James and that's sort of his mentality of everyone's trying to, because he

River 47:08

paranoia started

Skye 47:09

yeah. So you know, everyone's out to get him in his mind and also kind of in reality because he's king. Uh, that's just sort of part of the gig when you become a royal is that there's always gonna be somebody trying to dethrone you or make you operate in the way that they want you to, et cetera, et cetera. So then he has trouble again coming back, bringing his wife back home, and it is solidified in his mind where he now can take, he now has an avenue to take his sort of paranoia

River 47:42

Now there is a target.

Skye 47:45

Yes. So James conducted trials directly. Uh, which is not common for a king to do.

Poppy 47:55

Mm-hmm.

Skye 47:57

Um, and he questioned people himself. He was in the court and he was pulling these wits out and he was directly questioning them, uh, which was unusual for a king to do. usually leave

River 48:07

He has a vested interest in this.

Poppy 48:09

at this point.

Skye 48:10

oh yeah, he's probably like 25 maybe. Yeah. Um, such as, the biggest case that I saw was with Agnes Sampson. So Agnes Sampson was a local cunning woman, um, in this area that he pulled in. What was the North Berwick? So the North Berwick Witch trials. So she is a cunning woman in the area gathering herbs, healer, midwife, it, et cetera. Naturally she gets accused. Right? and these proceedings were described that I'm about to read to you were described in the 1951 London publication News from Scotland, which is basically like a little ma, like a little, uh, newspaper. Uh, and this gives us a general understanding of what kind of treatment witches we're getting. So imagine, and this is absurd, what I'm about to read to you, imagine people of this time reading this, having tea and Vicky's, okay?

Poppy 49:17

Mm-hmm.

Skye 49:23

You say, darling, the news from Scotland has arrived, and you're just like,

River 49:27

Darling, they're going nuts over

Skye 49:29

darling, they're mad in the north. Okay? This is a modernized, so it's not YY English

Poppy 49:41

Mm-hmm.

Skye 49:41

and it's a little bit long, so please bear with me this. A four said Agnes Sampson, which was the elder witch, was taken and brought to Holly Rude Palace before the King's Majesty and sundry other of the nobility of Scotland where she was straightly examined. But all the persuasions, which the King's Majesty used to her with the rest of his counsel might not provoke or induce her to confess anything but stood stiffly in the denial of all that was laid to her charge, where upon they caused her to be confined. A way to prison there to receive such torture as half been lately, provided for witches in that country. And for as much as by due examination of witchcraft and witches in Scotland, it has lately been found that the devil does generally mark them with a privy mark. By reason, the witches have confessed themselves that the devil doth lick them with his tongue in some private part of their body before he doth receive them to be his servants, which mark commonly is given them under the hair in some part of their body, whereby it may not easily be found out or seen. Although they be searched and generally so long as the mark is not seen to those which searched them so long, the parties that has the mark will never confess anything. Therefore, by a special commandment. Agnes Sampson had all her hair shn off in each part of her body and her head constricted with a rope according to the custom of that country being a pain, most grievous, which she continued almost an hour during which time she would not confess anything until the devil's mark was found upon her privates. Then she immediately confessed Whatsoever, was demanded of her and justifying those persons. A force said to be notorious witches, so they shaved her bald, found a freckle on her pupa, and proclaimed she had been licked by the devil.

River 51:44

I was about to ask like, what is this mark supposed to be? Or

Poppy 51:49

Just

River 51:49

just like

Poppy 51:50

of

River 51:50

whatever suits.

Skye 51:52

Yeah. It's just like a mole.

River 51:53

A birthmark. A freckle, a scar, probably,

Poppy 51:57

Mm-hmm. You just have a melanoma,

River 52:00

yeah.

Skye 52:01

Yeah. They shaved her completely bald all over her entire body. Found one on her privates.

River 52:05

a rope like around her skull or.

Poppy 52:09

her

Skye 52:09

Yeah. They like squeezed her little head. Yeah.

River 52:13

Jesus

Skye 52:14

But then they finally shaved, her little PUIs found a freckle on her pupa and she said, you got me.

River 52:19

and she said, ah, fuck, you got me.

Poppy 52:22

Why is that the thing that finally tipped the scale for her, do you think?

Skye 52:25

I don't know. I can't, Ima,

Poppy 52:28

Because she's just like, I guess now there's no going back.

River 52:31

yeah.

Skye 52:32

yeah.'cause that's like the damning evidence of the time.

River 52:37

yeah. Like you can't deny that you do have a freckle on your pussy. It is just there

Skye 52:42

Yeah. small note, it was noted that sometimes her naked bald ghost can be seen walking around that palace.

River 52:53

not her bald ghost. That's so sad, dude.

Poppy 52:59

that's, yeah.

River 53:00

Get that woman a nice dress or a coat or a blanket or something. Get her a nice wig and some. Some Louboutins. Honestly, this whole thing is very on brand for James Charles, the person

Poppy 53:17

we just don't sue us.

River 53:19

I don't fucking hate you, James. You're fucking weird.

Skye 53:24

So we're well in the throes of James' psychosis. Now he, he's in it now, he's going crazy, but he's not just angrily taking revenge out on witches. Remember that he is a learned intellectual individual

Poppy 53:42

Mm-hmm.

Skye 53:43

and he views witchcraft as a form of theology, though he strongly disagrees with it. He does want to know how it works. He does want to know the structure. And because he, he's coming at it from a very, maybe not scientific, but an intellectual angle where he's like, why would cutting a penis off and throwing it into the sea create storms?

River 54:10

What are the mechanisms to

Skye 54:12

Right? So he's trying to figure out like, what is the deal with witchcraft, because obviously it's real. But how, how is it, how does it work? So naturally as a writer, he writes a book called Demonology. this is the printing of the cover of his book

River 54:34

Okay.

Skye 54:37

that obviously was published and shared amongst his people. Um, I do also wanna say it was also not common for a king to write and publish a book at this time.

Poppy 54:48

Mm-hmm.

Skye 54:49

The full title of his book is Demonology in Form of a Dialogue. Divided into three books written by the High and Mighty Prince James, by the Grace of God, king of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. Defender of the Faith.

River 55:07

Shut the fuck up, dude.

Poppy 55:10

Doesn't he have to like rule a country? Like what is he doing? Wasting all of his time

River 55:17

in

Skye 55:17

he also famously hated his parliament and fought with that like he wanted to rule single handedly. He did not wanna push things through Parliament and he, because that's kind of how they did it in Scotland. They didn't really have a parliament at the time, with the Kings said was rule and law, and he just made decisions on his own. So when he became,

Poppy 55:36

Yield.

Skye 55:37

yeah, like he did not want to, parliament was trying to talk to him, be like, you know, this is why this decision shouldn't be made, yada, yada, yada. And he's like, fuck

River 55:45

Hey, that's kind of unwise. Yeah. He said, what the fuck do you mean? I'll kill

Skye 55:51

So as far as ruling goes, he's just kind of like balling out and he's just like, I'm the king. Fuck

River 55:57

and do whatever I want.

Poppy 55:59

It sounds familiar

River 56:00

Mm.

Skye 56:01

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 56:01

times.

River 56:02

That's so crazy. How time is a flat circle.

Skye 56:05

But this book, demonology served as a way for him to inform the public on the realities of witchcraft and the supernatural in general, and sort of served as a how-to, to find and accuse people of witchcraft.

River 56:20

I have a

Skye 56:20

Yes.

River 56:22

What are his credentials to be writing this shit? Or is he just pulling it out of his ass?

Skye 56:28

I mean, I didn't really, it didn't really say, but because he is. Highly intellectual. I assume through his questioning of the witches and because of his time in Denmark, I assume that he discussed with other theologians over there. He sort of is compiling all of his resources and he studied religions and language and what have you. I think that he probably did pull from many sources and his own personal experiences to sort of come to a common denominator conclusion for what the check boxes were to be, to consider someone a witch.

River 57:14

Okay. I didn't know if this was just like his full blown paranoia going and then if this happens, it's because of

Skye 57:19

I mean, it's certainly being driven through a lens of paranoia.

River 57:24

I just didn't know like how,

Skye 57:27

Yeah. It's like, have you ever seen those videos of people who are just kind of so far off the deep end? They're making these like they're using

Poppy 57:36

These

Skye 57:36

Yeah. They're, they're making connections through things that are true, but it's just like a really wild jump to

River 57:44

It's a very skewed perspective.

Skye 57:47

That's sort of what he's doing.

Poppy 57:48

I'm imagining, I'm imagining James Charles, like up on a stage giving a TED talk about

River 57:55

About witches. Yeah. And he goes, if you flop and your career goes down the toilet, it's because witches are out to get you, not because you're a bad person and you've done like really fucked up things with minors,

Skye 58:07

Yeah. He also wrote like another book on politics, on like how to be a good king or something. I don't know. Like he,

Poppy 58:14

Mm.

River 58:14

bro. What? Take care of your eight kids. What are you doing?

Skye 58:18

yeah, I don't know, but.

River 58:20

This is honestly jobless behavior.

Skye 58:24

But yeah, I mean he literally wrote the book on witch hunting. and apparently there's mention of werewolves and vampires in it also.

River 58:33

Just covering all the bases. Yeah.

Poppy 58:35

gotta be

Skye 58:36

So Demonology being a book that was published at this time, pretty popular. A lot of people are reading it'cause they're like, the king wrote a fucking book and it's about this hot topic of witches. So a lot of people read this book and it did inspire one writer. You may know Shakespeare.

Poppy 58:59

who?

Skye 59:00

Who, who was that?

River 59:02

Who My man's Willie Shakes.

Skye 59:04

Willie Shakes. So William Shakespeare read Demonology and he said, I'm gonna write Macbeth about it. I think

Poppy 59:14

Mm-hmm.

Skye 59:15

so, you

River 59:16

I do love

Skye 59:17

Yeah.

Poppy 59:17

I love a paranoid

Skye 59:19

Yeah. So, you know, it's set in Scotland, the influence of the weird sisters and their prophecies promises lies to Macbeth. you know, just generally it's hot goss. At the time, Shakespeare was probably like, this is gonna be a hit because people love witches right

River 59:34

a great fucking story.

Skye 59:36

and it was also likely in part written as a form of flattery towards King James, because of the multiple tragedies, befalling Macbeth, seemingly by outside forces causing his erratic, paranoid behavior. Mirroring James' own

River 59:50

not his own fault.

Skye 59:51

Yes,

River 59:52

Totally. He didn't bring the consequences on himself. It was totally, everyone was working against

Skye 59:57

yes. S. So another potential tie to James and expiring the political side of Macbeth, treason, et cetera, et cetera, is the gunpowder plot. So when James took rain in England, the Catholics were not very pleased with him, and much like his daddy's fate, they tried to blow him, his wife, his heir, and his parliament up.

River 1:00:22

To Smith Marines, you say,

Skye 1:00:26

But they were unsuccessful because there was a whistleblower who informed the authorities who the night before searched the cellar, found the gunpowder, and famously arrested Guy Fox, who turned in his co-conspirators. So they still celebrate Guy Fox Night or Bonfire Night on November 5th of each year, sort of as a, yay. The King's not dead. But they still, it's, it's bonfire night. You know what I mean? So. After James, he died at 58 from a stroke.

River 1:01:00

Damn.

Skye 1:01:01

Um, and although the witch craze would relatively die down towards the end of his life and after he died with his fervor no longer being present, there would be another uptick in witch trials during the 16th and 17th century. Highly influenced by the Protestant Reformation and the rise of Lutheranism and Calvinism, which both take scripture at their word using passages such as Exodus 2218, thou shalt not suffer, which to live literally. But eventually in 1735, parliament passed the last Witchcraft Act. Radically changing the legal status of witchcraft and the fortunes of those affected by the act. In effect, the law reverted to the earlier position of the early medieval church that witchcraft was illusory and deceptive, a sham practiced by people who sought to deceive rather than a genuine display of powers gained through consort with the devil or other powers. So they're like, witchcraft is not real. They're liars. They're doing sleigh of hand tricks. It's not real.

River 1:02:08

Yeah, it's smoke and mirrors. Don't worry about it.

Skye 1:02:11

Yeah.

Poppy 1:02:12

Thank God.

Skye 1:02:13

So in summary, it's hard to pin down an exact number on how exactly many accusations and executions of witchcraft there were during his reign slash how many were essentially caused by him. But. It's safe to say that one man's paranoia turned hyper fixation led to the devastation of many, many innocent lives. And his influence and biases would continue to trickle down and skew and taint the public's perception on what witchcraft really is to this day. That whole era of religious debauchery in Europe during these witch trials would springboard into events like the 30 years War and so on and so forth. Religion pinning us against each other and pointing the finger at those who are lesser than. It's a tale as old as time, and that still infects our life to this day. last little thing I had, I just had like two little notes about James because he's done a lot of shit. One was the, charters to Virginia Company establishing Jamestown first permanent English settlement in the New World. Hey. Hi. How are you? He's a freaking colonizer. Uh, and also he is the James of the King James Bible.

River 1:03:29

Oh,

Skye 1:03:30

So pretty important guy in history.

River 1:03:34

Did a lot of

Skye 1:03:35

Did a lot of shit.

River 1:03:38

Big influence from this guy.

Skye 1:03:39

Big influence. But he did write a book on witch hunting and he did personally see to it himself on many occasions. But yeah, that was, that was what I wanted to tell you guys about, uh, my boy James Stewart, the sixth of Scotland and the first of England, and how he basically suffered from paranoia and also that he's gay.

River 1:04:05

the jump set up to fail from the very beginning.

Poppy 1:04:10

I wonder how he felt about the Lochness Monster

Skye 1:04:12

don't think that happened yet.

Poppy 1:04:14

Looked it up on Wikipedia. Apparently there were reports of a water beast just going back to 565.

River 1:04:22

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:04:24

Yeah. But it wasn't like, it looks like it didn't really pick up until the 18 hundreds. Yeah.

River 1:04:31

I'm less concerned about that. He said that's just some sort of big fish I got witches to deal with.

Poppy 1:04:36

You know that if it was like as hyped up as it is now, he would've

River 1:04:41

He would be in there himself

Skye 1:04:45

Absolutely.

River 1:04:46

like a spear.

Skye 1:04:48

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Poppy 1:04:50

harpoon,

Skye 1:04:51

yeah, I have been fascinated by this character for like the past couple of weeks doing my studies and I just kept reading things that I was like, and what? And what?

River 1:05:03

And this also

Skye 1:05:05

God, this guy.

Poppy 1:05:08

blow

Skye 1:05:08

Uh, yeah.

River 1:05:09

God.

Skye 1:05:11

Yeah. Um, they were burning witches

Poppy 1:05:16

Yeah.

Skye 1:05:17

mostly hanging hanging and burning. Yeah. Yeah. that's all I got for you on the witch Hunter King and his escapades.

Poppy 1:05:31

Um, RIP to all those innocents that suffered at the hands of his paranoia.

River 1:05:34

real fucked up and that shouldn't have

Skye 1:05:36

Yeah. Just local cunning women and unfortunate things. Befalling James. Um, you know, taking them out on people who were just living their lives and trying to do the best they can at the time.

River 1:05:49

Mm-hmm.

Poppy 1:05:50

You're just trying to make soup, you know, and they

River 1:05:53

I'm just trying to make soup and salves and birth babies over here. I know. I'm getting shaved head to toe.

Poppy 1:06:01

Moles on display.

Skye 1:06:02

Mm-hmm. Yeah,

River 1:06:04

I was gonna ask you guys, do you have freckles? Do you have little birthmarks on your

Skye 1:06:07

I thought about that. I

River 1:06:08

Would you get God as a witch? I don't think I do.

Skye 1:06:14

Ooh, little fpa freckle.

River 1:06:17

No, I do. I'm fucked.

Poppy 1:06:19

Yeah, I've got a freckle and then I've got like a birthmark

River 1:06:22

Mm-hmm. That's all it takes.

Poppy 1:06:25

hip.

Skye 1:06:26

I think I might be okay

River 1:06:28

I think you're safe.

Skye 1:06:29

at a quick glance. I think I'm okay

Poppy 1:06:31

I got a mole cut off recently, like last summer.'cause it was sussy. Yeah, I have a scar there now. No, on my back. On my like lower back. Yeah. Too much time in the sun.

River 1:06:47

Gets you every time.

Skye 1:06:49

So, yeah, I hope you guys loved that.

Poppy 1:06:51

DI did.

River 1:06:53

just so shocked and amazed.'cause uh, one, it was a different time. They didn't have that much fuck like fucking shit going on. So like you could just get up to all this shit'cause you had the time.

Skye 1:07:05

that this really happened. This is real

River 1:07:07

my God, this is a real, and it still influences society today.

Poppy 1:07:13

He had a stroke'cause he was so fucking stressed

River 1:07:15

Yeah. Dog.

Skye 1:07:16

Apparently he had like kidney stones.

Poppy 1:07:20

Oh, that sucks.

Skye 1:07:22

Yeah. He would

River 1:07:23

God, and they had no morphine back

Skye 1:07:25

No, he like suffered from like fainting

River 1:07:26

They had no clean drinking water.

Poppy 1:07:29

damn.

Skye 1:07:30

Yeah, that's him.

Poppy 1:07:33

Wow. Do we have anything else you wanna close up with?

Skye 1:07:37

I will be returning to Mary Queen of Scots. Now that that is done, I will circle back because, and

River 1:07:45

that we've found out about her terrible

Skye 1:07:47

yeah. Yeah.

Poppy 1:07:49

and that's also a crazy

Skye 1:07:50

oh, that one might have to be a two-parter. I'll have to see once I get

River 1:07:54

is so fucked

Skye 1:07:55

I'm intermingled in this family at this point.'cause

River 1:08:00

I'm a friend of the family now,

Skye 1:08:01

it's truly bizarre. Yeah. That's all look forward

River 1:08:06

so whatever happened to the cousin, he just like went back to France and that

Skye 1:08:10

Yeah. I think they just exiled him. He could go be a Petto in France or whatever.

River 1:08:15

Yeah.

Poppy 1:08:16

Yeah.

Skye 1:08:16

And then James just found other little play things and then eventually got married to Anne and I think he still had his little boy toys while he was married. Um,

River 1:08:25

you know, there were royal

Skye 1:08:27

yeah, I think that.

River 1:08:28

There is?

Skye 1:08:28

Uh, he, for the most part was not, I don't think that Anne knew about it, or if she did it was, he didn't think that she knew he wasn't openly gay to Anne, as far as I could tell, but,

Poppy 1:08:41

I'm sure she heard from other people around though if he was like openly

River 1:08:45

Rumors going around. Yeah.

Skye 1:08:48

But yeah, look forward to Mary, queen to Scotts eventually.

Poppy 1:08:51

if you have any stories, listeners about witches, witch trials, witchcraft during this time period, you wanna share, um, I know we do have a handful of European listeners if you wanna email us, about things that you know about witchcraft and the Yeah. Tell us about

Skye 1:09:10

If you're from Denmark, let us know.

River 1:09:14

please. What's it like there today? What's going on over there?

Poppy 1:09:17

I think it's much nicer there today than it was in 1593 or whenever the heck he went over there. But if you wanna reach out to us, you can do that at death coven pod@gmail.com. or you can message us, like us, follow us on Instagram at Death Coven Pod. Maybe we'll post our fun little cocktail recipes on Instagram if you wanna,

River 1:09:41

I would love

Poppy 1:09:42

try and make'em,

River 1:09:43

guys

Poppy 1:09:46

again, we come out every other Thursday, look out for us two weeks from now. But other than that, by the power of three.

Skye 1:09:54

so it is.

River 1:09:55

and so it is.

Poppy 1:09:57

And so it is, I'm gonna go cut the legs off a cat.

River 1:10:03

I'm gonna go cut the dick off a man.

Skye 1:10:07

I guess I'll, I'll do the limbs.

River 1:10:10

I guess so. And together we got a stew

Skye 1:10:12

Mm-hmm.