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The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750

  • 19 subtopics
  • 57 things to know
  • Paper 3
  • Paper 3 themes option, chosen from sixteen

What The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750 covers

A Paper 3 option combining aspects in breadth on changing beliefs about the natural world and the growth of scepticism with aspects in depth on four episodes of persecution: North Berwick, Pendle, Bamberg and Salem, and on the Hopkins hunts in East Anglia.

Where it is assessed

Paper 3

Themes in breadth with aspects in depth, one option of sixteen.

Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗

The 19 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

How new was demonological witchcraft in Scotland?

Numbers

What was the outcome of the trial?

Key term

Who were the other instigators?

Evaluation

What intellectual movement promoted reason over superstition?

Key term

Which nobleman was accused of being behind the plot?

Key term

What were the two rival accused families called?

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Which prince-bishop drove the Bamberg persecutions?

Key term

What war's disruption helped bring the Bamberg persecutions to an end?

Numbers

What 1563 English law made witchcraft a felony?

Key term

During which national conflict did Hopkins's witch hunts occur?

Key term

Who was John Stearne?

Numbers

What 1736 act repealed the witchcraft laws in Britain?

Key term

What phrase describes the waning belief in witchcraft and the supernatural?

Who and when

In which colony did the Salem witch trials take place?

Key term

Who effectively ended the trials by barring spectral evidence?

Key term

What growing scepticism about apparitions as evidence helped end trials?

Key term

What is meant by scepticism about witchcraft?

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What 1584 book by Reginald Scot was sceptical about witchcraft?

Who and when

What did Johann Weyer contribute?

Key term

What worldview replaced magic with fixed natural laws?

Who and when

What did Galileo contribute?

Key term

Which scientific body founded in 1660 promoted empirical enquiry?

Key term

What were the North Berwick witches accused of trying to do to the king?

Key term

Which king personally involved himself in the North Berwick trials?

Key term

Why were Scottish persecutions more severe than English?

Numbers

How many people were executed for witchcraft in Scotland?

Key term

What was the economic condition of the Pendle area?

Key term

Who was Roger Nowell?

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What was the incident with Alizon Device and John Law?

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Who were the judges at the Lancaster assizes?

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What was the religious context of the Bamberg persecutions?

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What economic crises preceded the hunts?

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What nickname was given to this witch-hunting bishop?

Key term

What special body did the prince-bishop set up to try the Bamberg accused?

Who and when

What 1647 pamphlet did Hopkins write defending his methods?

Key term

How many people were executed as a result of the Salem trials?

Numbers

What was Memorable Providences?

Who and when

Why did Phips act when he did?

Numbers

What was the case of Jane Wenham?

Numbers

What did Friedrich Spee argue?

Key term

Why is it misleading to see science as simply defeating witchcraft?

Numbers

What did Balthasar Bekker argue in The World Bewitched?

Key term

Which servant's confession helped begin the panic?

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Who was Euphame MacCalzean?

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What was the 1597 great hunt?

Who and when

How did family rivalry shape the Pendle case?

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By what name was the matriarch Elizabeth Southerns known?

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Why was Jennet Device's evidence so significant?

Key term

Why were witches blamed for the weather?

Numbers

Who was Georg Haan?

Key term

What special prison was built to hold the accused witches?

Numbers

What harsher witchcraft statute did James I introduce in 1604?

Key term

What supposed bodily sign was taken as proof of a pact with the Devil?

Who and when

Why did witch-hunting become too expensive to sustain?

Who and when

How did the 1688 Revolution weaken authority in Massachusetts?

Key term

What was Mather's position on spectral evidence?

Key term

What was the final toll at Salem?

Take The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750 further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What growing scepticism about apparitions as evidence helped end trials?

    Model answer

    Doubt over spectral evidence.

  2. 2

    What is meant by scepticism about witchcraft?

    Model answer

    Doubt not usually about whether the Devil existed, but about whether particular accusations could be proved and whether the courts' methods produced reliable evidence.

  3. 3

    What happened to William Perry, the boy from Bilson?

    Model answer

    William Perry's fraudulent possession was exposed in 1620 by Bishop Morton, who tricked him into revealing his deception, and it became a standard example of imposture.

  4. 4

    What was the Bury St Edmunds trial of 1662?

    Model answer

    A trial at which Sir Thomas Browne testified for the prosecution and two women were hanged; it was later cited both as precedent and as a warning.

  5. 5

    What was the case of Jane Wenham?

    Model answer

    The last person condemned for witchcraft in England, in 1712; the judge secured her a pardon and the case provoked a pamphlet war that discredited prosecution.

  6. 6

    Why did frauds damage the credibility of witchcraft prosecution?

    Model answer

    Every exposed imposture suggested that other accusations rested on the same mixture of malice, suggestion and attention-seeking.

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The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750 revision questions

What does The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750 cover in Edexcel A-Level History?
19 subtopics: the existence and growth of scepticism, c1580–c1750, notable sceptic publications, c1580-c1750, making sense of the universe and its impact, c1580–c1750, the changing approach to human understanding and knowledge, c1580–c1750, the origins of the persecution, the widening net of accusation, the extent of persecutions in scotland to 1597, the context of the pendle witch trials, the origins of the case, the pendle trial of 1612, the economic, political and religious context, numbers and social groups affected by the witch hunts, why the bamberg witch hunt ended, economic and political context, geography, numbers, class and gender of victims, the ending of the witch craze, the social, economic and political context of salem, the influence of cotton mather and why the salem witch hunt ended. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is The Witch Craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750 organised?
By the Edexcel 9HI0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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