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Just watching a 2 part documentary on Witch hunts in England/Scotland and had forgotten just what a nasty POS he was.
Hearing the presenter butcher the pronunciation of Aldeburgh was a funny little quirk. But I'd forgotten he had women executed in Dunwich, Yoxford and Gt Glenham so close to where I grew up.
Baffling to think people believed in Witches so sincerely and he was able to make a fortune and several killings from it.
Matthew Hopkins - East Anglia's biggest bastard ever? on 19:52 - Jan 10 by bluelagos
Labelling children as witches still happens in parts of Eastern Nigeria. Then conveniently local priests offer deliverance, for a fee.
Many cases of children abandoned and or having acid thrown at them by people thinking they are possessed.
Dispatches did an expose on it a few years ago, well worth searching out if the topic interests you
Similar to the treatment of Albino kids in parts of Africa too.
Essentially a form of social cleansing innit. Get rid of anyone in the community who is a problem or just disliked and justify it with something people are scared to question.
Matthew Hopkins - East Anglia's biggest bastard ever? on 19:54 - Jan 10 by Mullet
Similar to the treatment of Albino kids in parts of Africa too.
Essentially a form of social cleansing innit. Get rid of anyone in the community who is a problem or just disliked and justify it with something people are scared to question.
Yeah, there are lots of similarities. Seems every society needs it's bogeymen sadly.
Matthew Hopkins - East Anglia's biggest bastard ever? on 19:54 - Jan 10 by Mullet
Similar to the treatment of Albino kids in parts of Africa too.
Essentially a form of social cleansing innit. Get rid of anyone in the community who is a problem or just disliked and justify it with something people are scared to question.
Have a read of Europe's Inner Demons by Norman Cohn. Shows you how the demonisation of women and religious heretics goes back to at least Ancient Eygpt, and how the witch craze (across Europe, not just England and Scotland) developed through the Middle Ages. The characteristics of supposed witches was throughout time were the same - single females, spells, sacrifices, stuff about cats, alleged sexual licentiousness. - And Keith Thomas' Religion and the Decline of Magic - how the rise of Protestantism and scientific rationality worked together to drive 'the old ways' out.
You can probably have a good bet that the ones accusing the witches were often older married women who were afraid of having their men taken from them!
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Matthew Hopkins - East Anglia's biggest bastard ever? on 23:05 - Jan 10 with 1323 views
It was the middle of a civil war, normal order had to some extent broken down. You only have to look at the wild conspiracy theories which sprang up during Covid (injected with Bill Gates' nano-chips anyone?) to see what that kind of societal stress will do to people.
Hopkins was just a psychopath who took advantage of the situation to become a serial killer. There was never an official position of "Witchfinder General", he entirely made that up. He was operating outside all legal frameworks of the time (tho using some aspects of contemporary theory, such as the existence of "witch marks").
Witchcraft trials were never massively widespread in the UK - heresy was a different offence - there were notable aquittals (e.g. the Salmesbury Witch Trial) and the practice went into sharp decline after the mid 17th century, partly as a reaction to events like Hopkins' murderous rampage.
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