- 11 minutes ago
Witches Of Essex - Season 1 Episode 3 -
Manningtree (1645)
Manningtree (1645)
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FunTranscript
00:00i've always been interested in history and i am fascinated by the supernatural but i had no
00:06idea that essex is steeped in horrific stories of persecution and death all down to the pursuit
00:14of witches what did the devil come on i've teamed up with anthropologist professor alice roberts
00:22to investigate what happened and why i mean it's almost like the thought place isn't it yeah it's
00:29very orwellian during the 16th and 17th centuries hundreds of women were tried and executed
00:36for witchcraft what is wrong with these men i couldn't tell you essex became known as the
00:41witch county home to some of the most notorious witch trials in england we want to know how did
00:47these witch trials come about who or what was the driving force behind them and how essex's dark past
00:53is still linked to the present in this episode we jump forward to the mid-17th century and the time
01:01of england's civil war we investigate the rise of matthew hopkins the infamous self-styled witch finder
01:11general hold her still in our incident room we'll put the pieces of the puzzle together
01:18and reveal how hopkins will do whatever it takes to rid essex of witches we root out these women till
01:26every last one is swinging from the gallows our cold case is now open
01:40this time our investigation is centered on the town of manningtree
01:45this old trading port is located in the northeast of essex and sits on the banks of the river stower
01:51today it's a quaint little commuter bolt hole but this sleepy town has a dark past
01:58so welcome to gorgeous manningtree thank you it is really lovely it's pretty it is it's a very pretty
02:03town once actually claimed to be the smallest town though we can't uphold those claims um and a little fun
02:08fact for you this is where margaret thatcher lived when she was a chemist before she was prime minister
02:13i've got another fun fact of course you have in the 17th century it was home to matthew hopkins who
02:19started one of the most infamous witch hunts and witch trials in history really yeah let's go find out more
02:27this witch hunt dates back to 1645 during the height of england's bloody civil war
02:40chaos reigns and communities are torn apart as sides are chosen between the king
02:46charles the first and oliver cromwell's parliamentarians the english civil war has
02:52been raging for three years and has torn the country up war triggers paranoia it triggers anxiety
03:02every town every settlement is constantly worrying about people among their own who might be on the
03:10enemy side the parliamentary cause is being led by puritans who were extraordinarily religious
03:17extraordinarily suspicious and they were very concerned about witchcraft and rooting out the devil
03:27into this hotbed of paranoia steps 25 year old matthew hopkins and his associate john stern both are
03:35hardline followers of witch-finding manuals obsessed with macabre methods of identifying witches
03:42john john john listen to this part god has appointed that water should refuse to receive them into her
03:48bosom a witch denies their baptism when they covenant with the devil don't you see we can reveal a
03:56witch by swimming a water trial if you like they'd be bound of course wrist tangles if they sink they're
04:04innocent and should they drown they'll pass on to heaven and if they float they're being rejected by
04:11the water this proves they're a witch sink or swim it's perfect trial by divine intervention
04:21hopkins favorite witch-finding guide is called demonology written nearly 50 years prior at the turn
04:27of the century by the king's father james the first the fact that a king wrote a book about witch hunting
04:34is really useful for future witch hunters like matthew hopkins it urges on good christians to hunt witches
04:42and it provides hot tips on ways in which to do it including the swimming test matthew uses the book of
04:51demonology as a blueprint to both find and discover which is but also to then persecute them
05:01in our incident room we're investigating how an impressionable young man became the deadliest
05:07witch hunter in english history so alice i'd like you to meet matthew hopkins 25 year old is the son of a
05:16puritan preacher so religion plays heavily in his life he's quite well off he's got an inheritance you
05:23know i wouldn't say he's poor by any means but i wouldn't say he's ultra rich now this is his friend
05:29john stern these two young men seem to have a bit of time on their hands they do and not only do they
05:36have a bit of time on their hands they've got a little bit of i think it's safe to say an obsession
05:40yeah with a certain publication which i think you'll be familiar with yeah so this is demonology this is
05:46james the first book about how to spot a witch and what to do when you find one well we've already
05:52seen him expressing an interest in testing witches i shouldn't say witches i should say testing women
06:00suspected of witchcraft by throwing them into water if you sink oh she weren't a witch she's gone to
06:05heaven what a shame if you do actually float off to the hanging so we're talking about women being
06:12being tortured and killed this is what these two are talking about absolutely what is wrong with
06:16these men i couldn't tell you matthew is raised to be an avid puritan christian his dad dies his mum
06:25remarries another country clergyman following a family tragedy hopkins starts putting his witch hunting
06:32studies into practice when his stepsister susan suffers the loss of her baby son he rushes to comfort his
06:40grieving brother-in-law richard edwards i grieve for your loss who is my sister as expected
06:53be consoled that your son john is now with our lord god in heaven fire burnt within him strange fits
07:01i will pray for his soul i am troubled first your cows then your horse and now this despair could there be
07:13more at play here more than is unseen who was the babe's wet nurse good wife wiles godly woman does she not
07:23live near that cripple best club she does there are rumors wasn't her mother tried for witchcraft no
07:35perhaps there's more to this mother clark than meets the eye
07:39so we're starting to find out a little bit more about matthew's character this is his stepsister
07:45season okay so she's married to richard edwards they've actually lost four children now and so
07:57we see matthew potentially starting to come up with an explanation for why they're losing so many
08:03babies he's sort of saying not just this has happened to your children but things have happened to your
08:08animals to your family maybe it could be something else at work there could be something supernatural
08:12happening infant mortality is rampant at the time but even by the standards of the age this looks unusual
08:21it must have been upsetting to see the baby fall ill and die and to see the grief of richard and susan
08:27and i think he probably felt one of bound to help the people his family he joined
08:34in the taverns of manningtree hopkins starts to listen in to conversations
08:40he's increasingly interested in elizabeth clark known as bess a single mother with one leg and her
08:47young friend rebecca west
08:52oh rivet's wife call me a whore i'll pay her back for that
08:57your vinegar time would help i feed him on milk pottage just to drop a blab
09:02he comes to me as a right proper gentleman i must lie with you he says
09:16well that richard edwards thinks he's lord of the bloody manor
09:20i curse that william cole's wife mouth like a privy old sack and sugar would sort her out
09:26there's definitely something creepy about young matthew hopkins he's an eavesdropper and he especially
09:38seems to eavesdrop on women he is energized by hearing village women discussing animals
09:46and he becomes convinced that these animals are no less than demonic familiars which is familiar is
09:53usually the devil in the shape of an animal so quite commonly they are cats or toads or dogs and the
09:59witch is thought to be able to send them to his or her neighbors in order to hurt them matthew hopkins
10:05seems to be working up to witchcraft accusations keeping score taking notes
10:13hopkins local the red lion is still standing today and it'd be rude not to pop in for a glass of vino
10:20it's so strange to think we're sat here in the same type of setting having a conversation
10:28and if we were two women back then he could have been sitting there listening literally right behind
10:33us writing down everything we're saying well he's coming to a place where people are
10:37letting down their guard yeah that's what people do they come completely drink that's what happens
10:41now let your hair down that's exactly what's happening now i've been through a similar thing where
10:45i've been on a night out enjoying myself with my friends and i get a phone call the following week
10:51that i'm going to be the front page of the paper on sunday because they've got a story made from a
10:56joke i said whilst out with my friends it's awful yeah what is bad is the rumor yeah the rumor
11:03when someone says it and it starts spreading yeah there's no control in it i mean how did he get away
11:08with it i have no idea but we need to find out how did he become so influential i have no idea but we
11:13need to find out and why here in essex i have no idea but we need to find out
11:21if we were looking at a young man like this today who is fiercely fiercely misogynistic we'd be i mean
11:31we'd be talking about incel culture is there anything like this that could be going on with matthew hopkins
11:36when you look at incel culture there's some indication that some of these men were quite fearful
11:42of women and felt like a little bit of a victim kind of compared to women there's nothing about
11:47victimhood at all when you look at this character absolutely nothing at all it's complete opposite
11:52oh he's main character he's yeah very much in control of what he's doing there's something
11:57called the dark triad and that's definitely coming through as well so what's the dark triad so
12:01narcissism psychopathy and machiavellianism which would really fit with his character so that's
12:06someone who's really deceitful for their personal gain so it's a very clever very complex kind of
12:12personality really manipulative really highly manipulative and only 25 and he just seems to me
12:18like a really nasty piece of work in the shadow of england's deadly civil war vicar's son and puritan
12:32fanatic matthew hopkins is convinced there are witches in manningtree so we see him then in the red lion
12:41and he's listening in to conversations private conversations in the pub and the people he's
12:47particularly listening to are this woman here so this is best clark so best clark she's a local
12:55woman she's got a disability she's got one leg she has we see her with her crutches and she's talking
13:00to rebecca west and this is just one of her friends yeah a younger woman these women are poor relative to him
13:09and he is already suspicious about best clark he's got ideas about her and it doesn't help because
13:15they're obviously having a bit of a girl's chit chat chatting away just amongst themselves and
13:20there's certain lines that he's hearing and sort of picking up on vinegar tom sack and sugar he's adding
13:25two and two and getting five and he's sort of creating this dossier isn't it because what he thinks
13:29he's doing is collecting evidence against them hopkins isn't the only one with suspicions
13:35best also comes to the attention of local tailor john rivet rivets wife gets sick and rivets consults
13:46a cunning woman or wise woman and the cunning person says yes your wife's been bewitched by two witches
13:53one of whom lives uphill from you and the other downhill now unfortunately for bessie she lives uphill
14:01from the afflicted household we think we know where this all played out we've come back to the
14:08red lion pub which sits in south street the oldest road in manning tree which happens to run up a hill
14:14it's likely that both the tailor and best clark lived here so john rivet whose wife had fallen ill
14:24goes to that cunning woman she accuses or says you should be suspicious about these two women who live
14:30above and below you so i mean it does sound like it all took place right here i genuinely think that
14:36because they mentioned about above and below yeah it goes down that way and it goes a bit more up there
14:42crazy isn't it it's the flimsiest flimsiest bit of evidence it's all hearsay isn't it i want it i want
14:47to trusted the cunning woman above and below give me names darling give me names on the basis of this
14:53dubious accusation hopkins has all the evidence he needs he convinces the magistrate to issue a warrant
15:01his majesty's justice of the peace grants warrant to arrest you and the charge of witchcraft
15:16leave her alone can you see she's crippled rebecca west daughter of van west yes take her as well
15:22so we see best clark get arrested rebecca's caught up in this as well and they're arrested by matthew
15:34it's very very odd let's have a little look at this this is a court account it's a publication
15:39so this is a write-up of what was said in the call this pamphlet gives us a blow-by-blow report
15:46of hopkins investigation and the charges against bess clark it's so tenuous there is no evidence
15:55there's no evidence whatsoever and he's behaving like some kind of vigilante yeah it feels to me
16:02like he's reaching for status in this community i think that's probably a good way to look at it it
16:09also feels very dangerous at this point because his odd ideas are starting to have a real life impact very
16:16much real the more i learn about this man in modern times i would just sit there and say he's a serial
16:25killer via proxy it's a really interesting point so from a pure perspective we couldn't call him a
16:31serial killer because he's not killing anyone himself for me you're looking at someone who has
16:35the key components of a cult leader a cult leader so the key traits that i think you see when you look at
16:42him are narcissism and grandiosity and also that authoritarian manner and they're the key components
16:49of that cult leadership because remember this isn't someone who's just attacking people this is someone
16:55who has to be quite charming and convince people to follow him and to do what he wants them to do
17:01because he gets people to do his bidding he's also feeding into that paranoia that's already there and
17:06that's what people like him do people with that authority can start to otherize people and make
17:13them feel like they need to follow him to feel safe the manningtree locals are being influenced by a
17:20cold-blooded narcissist convinced he's doing god's work but why aren't the authorities stepping in
17:27hopkins is not a figure who could have held his own and wielded as much power as he did as a young
17:35man in his early 20s if there weren't complete legal breakdown within the state in 1645 there's no
17:44more law the entire criminal justice system is suspended so you have a complete legal vacuum
17:53with the country in turmoil hopkins manipulates the legal process and gets put in charge of the manningtree
17:59investigation he starts by interrogating rebecca west
18:14mistress west what do you know of a secret meeting of women
18:20my ma said not to speak of it i made an oath
18:23well your ma's life and that your friend best clark may won't depend on you breaking that oath
18:33it would be to your favor to speak openly
18:39we met at best clark's house we
18:42widow anne leach her daughter helen clark mother gooding my ma and me and bess and
18:49best had a book and and we said prayers and then these animals came like kitlins devil spurs
18:59these these imps these satanic familiars and what charge were they sent
19:05speak god i don't know they were just kitlins best said something about mr edward's horse and
19:13helen wanted to hurt someone's hogs what else what revenge did you command
19:21i wished ill on prudent's heart who then suffered the loss of her unborn child
19:30manningtree conceals a covenant of witches which root out these women till every last one is swinging
19:34from the gallows it's heavy to to think about you know all these guys around this young girl
19:41she must have felt very caged in at that point i mean what's she admitting to she's saying yeah we
19:47we get together in each other's homes and what it's just a group of women talking um possibly a
19:52prayer group actually because they've got a book however she does mention something that really pricks
19:58his ears up i think it's when she mentions animals yeah so she mentions these kitlings these kittens
20:04cats i mean they could be they probably are real cats but he is starting to believe that actually
20:12this is evidence of uh supernatural phenomena spirits demons yeah and this is the law that pertains at the
20:20time so this is the 1604 act that james i brought in and under this act in fact you didn't have to harm
20:28anyone to be punished for witchcraft you just had to do it i mean it's almost like the thought police
20:33isn't it yeah it's very orwellian if you're thinking of witchcraft we're going to get you
20:40james passed an act to parliament which made witchcraft and witchery a felony effectively he is
20:47saying that if you are accused of witchery you must be a witch because nobody would accuse you if you
20:54weren't guilty there is no doubt that the ordinary people who bring the accusations are lashing out
21:01in a frenzy of hatred and grief and fear and what the acts do is give them a framework within which they
21:09can make these fears effective this fear of witches wasn't just driven by an act of parliament
21:17it was spread throughout the land as part of entertainment and one particular playwright had a
21:23a lot to answer for oh i've got goosebumps this is amazing we've come to the globe theater to meet
21:30shakespeare expert dr will tosh to learn more so this is an accurate reconstruction of the globe
21:35theater that was built in 1599 by shakespeare and his theater company we're obviously talking about
21:40witches and understanding witchcraft there's a very famous play isn't there that william shakespeare
21:45wrote are we allowed to say the name i think you should because i don't want to be cursed it's macbeth there
21:51it is yeah yeah it's a story about a a medieval scottish king who receives a prophecy from three
21:57witches that he will be king and goes on a kind of killing spree back then there were a lot of people
22:01they were illiterate they didn't read so all of this stuff that was going on about witch trials this
22:07would have been basically some people's news in shakespeare's time 3 000 could squeeze in
22:15london is only 200 000 people at this point oh my goodness up to tens of thousands of people per week
22:20could go to the theater so this was really speaking to the masses this is completely speaking to the
22:25masses the kind of witch element seems to be shakespeare's innovation and so that later iconography
22:31of witchcraft is very much kind of drawing on what we see in in uh in the three witches in macbeth
22:37but i'm left thinking is shakespeare part of the problem he's feeding people back what they
22:44what they want to see what they want to hear you could go away from this play thinking
22:48old women could be malevolent forces yeah i know a couple
22:56the witches seen in macbeth forever linked the supernatural with dark ambition and amid the paranoia
23:03of a deeply divided nation it fanned the flames of witch hysteria yeah this is meant to be really
23:10frightening you are meant to be scaring people this is alarming i should have come with no makeup
23:15oh the arms already started look it's like you're going skiing round about the cauldron go in the
23:23poison entrails through double double toil and trouble fire burn and cauldron bubble excellent
23:34i'm really myself properly terrified actually frightened myself the image of a witch as a woman
23:41who is physically different has endured through the centuries from children's story books to feature films
23:49but in the 17th century these portrayals had dangerous consequences for anyone who stood out
23:57especially bess clark who had one leg deformity was always seen as a sign of sin the fact that she's not
24:05only a woman but a deformed woman means that her sin is really literally almost inscribed for people to
24:15decode and see it's right in front of their eyes and remember that she is a vulnerable
24:22impoverished overawed person to begin with who's used to deferring to authority she doesn't stand a chance
24:37in manning tree witch finder matthew hopkins has taken disabled suspect bess clark into custody
24:45rather than using the swimming test he moved straight to a deeply invasive process called
24:51searching he enlists the help of local midwife mary phillips you're a vile witch best clark
24:59we know your demonic familiars mary searcher we need to find the devil marks where she suckles her ribs
25:06get off me leave me alone hold her still
25:19there master hopkins leave me alone teats between her legs i see them hidden so carefully i'll get the
25:29pins for pricking thank you good wife mary of both children it is natural bastard children your body betrays
25:37you mother clark the truth is plain to see in your devil's teats now our watch begins no no no no no no
25:48now this is so dark but what bess is put through yeah is abhorrent it's disgusting it's horrendous and
26:01that's where we meet this person mary phillips and mary does confirm that she's found something in
26:08bess's groin area they find what they're allegedly looking for so i mean she's a piece of work this
26:13woman as well yeah i don't think we can blame her i mean you know i it's it's the men isn't it well
26:18of course she's she's doing what they're asking her to do it's her it's all horrendous it's all horrendous
26:26so jonathan best clark has been incredibly violated what on earth are they looking for so
26:33essentially they're looking for something that looks like a nipple and then go around the body
26:39looking for these protuberances anything that looks abnormal um that could potentially suckle
26:47one of the imps there's a huge range of normal anatomy there's a huge range but there's also
26:52lots and lots of pathology yes that could have been there so so hemorrhoids are one thing prolapse
26:58prolapse yeah um which is a horrible condition and often these areas were said to be um in sensor you
27:05couldn't feel them and sometimes they'd say well they wouldn't bleed so what they would also do is
27:11they would go around the body and stick a pin into different parts of the body to see if the woman
27:17screamed or not this is the sort of thing oh stop it that they would use these are not witch pins these
27:25are 19th century medical instruments but these were stuck into the witch's body all around and we're
27:31talking intimate areas absolutely all areas after someone's done that so many times you get to
27:38the point where you don't scream anymore no and then exactly this is torture this is not torture this
27:48is witch pricking what is it if it's not physical torture well we'd call it that we'd call it that
27:53back then but back then remember the physical torture was you know on the rack and thumb screws this
28:00was just an inspection to them matthew hopkins is going right to the edge of what is considered to
28:06be acceptable and his in his treatment of these women he knows where the line is doesn't he yes he
28:12knows that he's not allowed to officially torture them yes but that is what he's doing
28:22this is thought of as a godly experiment in how to get people to confess to being witches and to
28:28find out the truth matthew's justification was that the crime of witchery was so inhuman so wicked so
28:36evil that rooting out required all the practices available to man hopkins brutal interrogation methods
28:45knew no bounds and the dungeons at colchester castle provided a suitably nasty environment
28:52i've brought alice to the cells which still exist today
28:59oh ben this is grim so this is the regional jail so before you face trial you are sent to jail and
29:06the main reason colchester castle was chosen by matthew hopkins was because of its reputation it was known to
29:12be so horrific that they brought them specifically here so that they would confess and what was the conditions like in here
29:17absolutely atrocious really so even now you can see how bare they are yeah so no sanitation whatsoever
29:24you'd have just gone in the corner and all sorts of horrible diseases and infections would have been
29:29rife because of the sanitation but also starvation and malnutrition and how many people do you think
29:35would have been in a cell of this size so in a cell like this we know at its maximum you could have
29:41possibly had at least 30 to 35 people so he loved the fact that this place was so horrific for people
29:47yeah he came here first realized what the jail was like and decided that this was going to be his base
29:51of operations hopkins torture of bess clark is relentless he's kept her awake and walking for two days
30:01a technique called watching she's close to breaking please let me sleep we have been charged by the justice
30:14of the peace to watch you for the better discovery of your wicked practices what do you want from me
30:21it's simple call your imps i don't have these imps you speak imps familiars devil spirits call them to
30:31your aid and we will let you sleep well dame and west
30:41she has beasts sent someone to william carl she did she tormented robert oakes his wife
30:51and the cloth ears child
30:56and what of richard edwards
31:01did you send your spirits to kill his baby son
31:07what did the devil come on
31:08what what did the devil come on
31:12the devil the devil run let me lie please
31:16she confesses she admits to lying with the devil
31:30witch hunting vigilante matthew hopkins has been using sleep deprivation to torment disabled woman
31:36bess clark
31:38under extreme duress she gives up names of other women to be added to hopkins growing list
31:46bess remember she's got one leg she's been forced to walk for three days no sleep getting
31:54her to a point of absolute exhaustion she names and west isn't it this is rebecca's mom so perhaps
32:02she's trying to um deflect onto somebody else just to you know encourage matthew hopkins to look
32:09elsewhere he's not allowed to be doing this but this technically not torture
32:14oh and and at the end of that he's actually getting testimony which should not be admissible
32:22in court and he's getting away with it so what's your take on matthew hopkins he is
32:28someone who made his name by being the worst possible guy and destroying other people's lives
32:34yeah do i think that he believed these people were witches sure but i also don't fundamentally care
32:40because he went out of his way to find these women and destroy them destroy their community like he
32:47could have just gone and been a vicar calm down you could save souls that way and so this is a moral
32:52panic that spreads as a result of you know some guy not getting any play why didn't someone stop him
32:58well it was very very difficult to stop him because what do you say in this situation oh well
33:04that guy who's being very holy isn't right that makes sense to us now but when you've got a bandwagon
33:10rolling like that it's very difficult to stop convinced of the righteousness of his cause hopkins
33:17wants one more piece of evidence for his case he wants best to summon her familiars animal familiars are
33:25never real they're never put on trial themselves they're never found they only occur in stories
33:33what matthew hopkins is doing throughout the spirit is creating evidence or an evidence trail for the
33:40trials he is trying to create moments where the witches will call on their familiars three days into
33:49her interrogation bess is finally broken by hopkins extreme methods confess mother clark summon your imps
34:01if you just let me sit if you do me no further hurt i will call them mary bring your soul
34:19there's a kit lan named hulk
34:36a greyhound
34:40he's vinegar tom
34:43another dog
34:44tamara
34:51there's a polecat
34:54one more
34:57a rabbit
35:00name of sac and sugar
35:04john do you see what i see
35:08i do
35:09we must all report to the judge what we have witnessed this night
35:17and may god protect us all
35:18not he's broken her i mean it's understandable she's been effectively tortured yeah for three
35:29days yeah she's sleep deprived she's probably delirious she will say or do anything just to
35:35try and feel some type of comfortable yeah he's leading her to do this tell us their names so she
35:42does she says there's a cat called holt there's a greyhound called vinegar tom
35:49another dog called jamara a polecat yeah a rabbit she says the rabbit's called sac and sugar
35:55it does sound like delirium it sounds like she is just making it up in the moment and she doesn't
36:00know what else to do at this point this is understandable that i can get on board with in her
36:05current state yeah absolutely but something i don't understand is how matthew and these people
36:12believe that they've seen these familiars being conjured up but it might be that what
36:19we're seeing is a type of delusion so again if the narrative at the time was that witches really
36:25existed it would only take one person to suggest that they see it for the other people to then
36:33be convinced that they could also see the same thing and we know delusions happen and we know
36:38that you can also prime people to see something and we're also talking about a a space where there
36:45there would have been shadows perhaps some strange noises and so if people are expecting there to be
36:53supernatural phenomena expecting there to be animals coming out almost creative i did i did see a
36:59shadow but yeah actually i didn't like now you said that maybe yeah it did look like a little bit
37:03of a cat it's it's that sort of connection that you have with someone yeah and i love the language
37:08that they're using there i saw that did you see that so that kind of discourse is really important
37:12it builds it doesn't it and it kind of makes it more real for you and it's like now that's shared
37:17experience so that's why you have mass delusion that can happen but people are on mass a group can be
37:23deluded that they see the same thing convinced he's seen best clark's demonic familiars hopkins continues
37:31to collect evidence he turns his attention back to rebecca west she's been rotting in colchester jail
37:39for a month suffering starvation and torture master hopkins master hopkins master hopkins please please
37:52master hopkins do you have any bread any crust
38:04do you have more to tell
38:08speak girl and i'll bring you something for the hunger
38:11i've told you of the meeting and the kitlins i broke my oath what else is left
38:17the devil he came to you what did he say what promises were made speak girl
38:27after that prayer meeting the devil did come to me as beast or a man
38:37he was a handsome man he kissed me led me by the hand and said he would marry me protect me defend me
38:46from all harm so long as you deny god and christ jesus yes did you lie with him i couldn't deny him
38:58i'm sorry i i confess it i confess it all
39:03with the civil war raging the law courts are in disarray it would be a further three months until the
39:10women's trial the matthew hopkins witch trials are not conducted by professional judges they're
39:17conducted by blundering local bigwigs to put on trial the growing number of people whom hopkins is
39:25landing in jail when the trial is finally held rebecca west is granted her freedom in exchange for
39:31testimony that condemned five other manning tree women including her own mother and west also among
39:38them was her friend bess clark found guilty of the death of hopkins nephew the baby son of richard and
39:44susan edwards
39:48on the 18th of july 1645 bess is the first to be executed
39:55a witch denies their baptism when they cover the devil
40:00manning tree conceals a covenant of witches which root out these women till every last one is swinging from
40:04the gallows
40:10what do you want from me you're a vile witch mezcla
40:16she confesses she admits to laying with the devil
40:36so this poor woman from manning tree has been executed for witchcraft but rebecca
40:51acquitted he's only just got started over the next 14 months he and john will visit seven counties
41:00and this ends up with more than 200 women being executed for witchcraft it's incredible
41:10to think that this man took this all into his own hands and got away with it and not only that
41:17he titled himself the witch finder general this title wasn't given to him he just made it up himself
41:25and that's what people knew him as he sort of created his own character he's a psychopath
41:31but he's a psychopath who is being allowed to cause this damage society is enabling him
41:42by 1647 matthew and his barbarous methods start to face criticism so he fights back now suffering from tb
41:55he pens a book the discovery of witches thou shall not suffer a witch to live the night she is watched
42:03keep her walking witches deny their baptism when they covenant with the devil
42:08hopkins died in august 1647 but the discovery of witches would inspire future witch hunters
42:16across the world including a small town in america called salem it's a very almost poetic story
42:26the fact that this guy becomes obsessed with a book written by a king and then a town
42:32in the states become obsessed with a book written by matthew and that's where we get
42:38the salem witch trials because they looked up to this guy so witch hunting is exported from essex to the world
42:49our investigation has revealed a fanatical cult leader intent on torturing and destroying those on the
42:56margins all to elevate himself in a society divided by suspicion and grief and leave a legacy of fear
43:04that would spread far beyond the witch county of essex
43:19that is
43:24we're so
43:29so
43:30that's
43:30that's
43:33that's
43:33that's
43:36that's
43:37that's
43:38that's
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