The Lancashire Witches

A study of England's biggest and best-known witch trial, which took place in 1612 when ten witches from the forest of Pendle were hanged at Lancaster. A little-known second trial occured in 1633-4, when up to nineteen witches were sentenced to death.

This bestseller presents a remarkable series of new insights into the Lancashire Witch Craze. By placing the events in their wider European context, it explains far more satisfactorily than ever before exactly why these disturbing events occurred.

Thomas Potts' famous account of the Pendle witch trials of 1612 is the only original source of information about the events, and in this new version historian Robert Poole makes the text accessible and usable for 21st-century readers.

This novel is based on the true story of the Pendle witches, who were executed in 1612 for causing harm by witchcraft. The story begins against the backdrop of the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace, an uprising by northern Catholics against the English Reformation instituted by King Henry VIII. John Paslew, Abbot of Whalley tries to organize his forces in preparation for joining the main body of the rebel army, but he collides with Nicholas Demdike, known as the husband of a notorious witch. Demdike foretells the death of abbot, but claims that he can help him if he baptizes Demdike's daughter. The abbot declines, cursing the child to be a witch and the mother of witches. Following story is based largely on the official account of the Lancashire witch trials.

In this ribald comedy, first performed at The Globe in 1634, everything is going wrong at a wedding, and everyone in attendance is eager to believe a local coven is to blame.