1 00:00:35,132 --> 00:00:36,937 DR. ROMANY REAGAN: Elizabeth Clarke says that he was lucky 2 00:00:37,015 --> 00:00:39,937 that he hadn't leapt onto his face, squeezed down his throat 3 00:00:40,179 --> 00:00:44,163 and deposited a feast of toads in his belly. I can feel this is 4 00:00:44,164 --> 00:00:46,843 a woman at the end of her rope. She's been kept up for four 5 00:00:46,890 --> 00:00:50,749 days. She's elderly. She has one leg. She's poor. She probably 6 00:00:50,796 --> 00:00:53,859 just wants all this to be over. And I don't like to think about 7 00:00:54,593 --> 00:00:57,312 where she'd gone psychologically to get to that point. 8 00:01:03,604 --> 00:01:06,027 ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: In the UK, more than half of us own a pet, 9 00:01:06,168 --> 00:01:10,230 and I've got a dog, Scout. We feed them, speak to them and 10 00:01:10,289 --> 00:01:14,093 keep them safe. But 400 years ago, doing any one of these 11 00:01:14,132 --> 00:01:18,742 things could have led to your death. We're taking you back to 12 00:01:18,743 --> 00:01:22,297 the 1600s, when keeping a pet could have got you accused of 13 00:01:22,390 --> 00:01:26,922 witchcraft. I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth. Welcome to the Wild 14 00:01:26,984 --> 00:01:29,422 Tale of Witches' Familiars. 15 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,822 Life's hard for regular people in the 1640s. There's political 16 00:01:47,865 --> 00:01:51,705 instability, the English Civil War is raging and communities 17 00:01:51,728 --> 00:01:52,205 are poor. 18 00:01:54,494 --> 00:01:57,830 Life's even harder for older people, particularly if you're a 19 00:01:57,853 --> 00:02:01,205 woman. Because of your age, you might have lost your husband and 20 00:02:01,283 --> 00:02:04,861 live alone. You might find it hard to make friends, so poor 21 00:02:04,877 --> 00:02:06,924 and alone you befriend a stray cat. 22 00:02:07,658 --> 00:02:11,221 You offer it scraps and perhaps give it a safe place to sleep in 23 00:02:11,267 --> 00:02:14,609 exchange for comfort and company. And the next thing you 24 00:02:14,629 --> 00:02:18,515 know, your neighbours are accusing you of witchcraft. And 25 00:02:18,516 --> 00:02:21,913 if you're found guilty, you'll hang. 26 00:02:25,663 --> 00:02:29,241 Situations like this are not so uncommon. Women who are already 27 00:02:29,343 --> 00:02:32,226 outliers in society are suspected of witchcraft if 28 00:02:32,227 --> 00:02:35,663 they're seen to do anything that isn't the norm, which could just 29 00:02:35,710 --> 00:02:40,179 be feeding a cat. But why is this the case? And why are cats 30 00:02:40,210 --> 00:02:44,553 and other animals so linked to witchcraft? Well. To understand 31 00:02:44,613 --> 00:02:48,077 that, we first need to know why the hunt for witches began. 32 00:02:50,319 --> 00:02:52,979 DR. ROMANY REAGAN: My name is Dr. Romany Reagan. I'm a scholar 33 00:02:52,980 --> 00:02:55,807 of what I like to call dark heritage and feminist stories, 34 00:02:55,987 --> 00:02:59,627 untold stories and hidden histories. The stereotypical 35 00:02:59,807 --> 00:03:03,385 idea we have today of a witch is usually of a woman. She's quite 36 00:03:03,510 --> 00:03:05,916 evil. She's on the fringes of society. She isn't very 37 00:03:05,948 --> 00:03:08,479 attractive. She's old. And that is something that was born out 38 00:03:08,494 --> 00:03:09,776 of the later witch trials. 39 00:03:11,323 --> 00:03:14,069 If we look at the long 400 year history, of the witch trials. 40 00:03:14,129 --> 00:03:18,295 Originally it was for acts of heresy. So to be accused of 41 00:03:18,314 --> 00:03:21,076 witchcraft was actually to be against the church using magic 42 00:03:21,154 --> 00:03:25,076 in some sort of way. Whereas later definitions of witchcraft 43 00:03:25,217 --> 00:03:28,139 then became more personal and more against women specifically. 44 00:03:31,029 --> 00:03:33,154 People were losing their children, their crops were 45 00:03:33,201 --> 00:03:37,118 failing. There was political instability. People needed a 46 00:03:37,179 --> 00:03:40,501 reason. And it's much easier to believe that there's someone 47 00:03:40,521 --> 00:03:42,564 inflicting this pain on you than to think that you're out of 48 00:03:42,565 --> 00:03:43,345 control in your life. 49 00:03:44,829 --> 00:03:47,251 Then you get the neighbors accusing their neighbors, and 50 00:03:47,267 --> 00:03:49,353 that was usually the most vulnerable members of society, 51 00:03:49,649 --> 00:03:52,798 which would have been the older women. It's quite sad when you 52 00:03:52,814 --> 00:03:55,782 consider that the people that they were launching all these 53 00:03:55,783 --> 00:03:59,282 complaints against were the ones who had no one to advocate for 54 00:03:59,283 --> 00:03:59,407 them. 55 00:04:00,768 --> 00:04:05,273 ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Between 1542 and 1736, approximately 1,000 56 00:04:05,332 --> 00:04:09,496 people are killed for being so-called witches. Belief in 57 00:04:09,535 --> 00:04:13,379 witchcraft and accusations of it fluctuate in popularity. But 58 00:04:13,402 --> 00:04:16,762 during the height of witchcraft hysteria, self-appointed witch 59 00:04:16,824 --> 00:04:19,731 hunters look for telltale signs of witchery. 60 00:04:27,621 --> 00:04:30,289 One of the signs that someone might be a witch is if they had 61 00:04:30,309 --> 00:04:34,171 an unexpected relationship with an animal, as animals with no 62 00:04:34,273 --> 00:04:37,535 obvious use are suspected of being the devil in disguise, 63 00:04:38,195 --> 00:04:41,179 luring people into the realm of black magic. 64 00:04:42,523 --> 00:04:44,164 DR. ROMANY REAGAN: We love our pets so much, it's really hard 65 00:04:44,165 --> 00:04:46,617 to think of and cast our mind back to what society thought of 66 00:04:46,648 --> 00:04:50,226 animals at that time. Animals belonged in barns, they belonged 67 00:04:50,227 --> 00:04:52,757 in fields, they could not be kept close to humans. When it 68 00:04:52,773 --> 00:04:56,132 comes specifically to the idea of the animal familiar, was this 69 00:04:56,273 --> 00:04:56,836 idea that... 70 00:04:57,669 --> 00:04:59,880 These people being on the fringes of society, they didn't 71 00:04:59,881 --> 00:05:02,072 have friends. They weren't, they didn't have any kind of 72 00:05:02,092 --> 00:05:05,951 opportunity for closeness and companionship. The animal must 73 00:05:05,952 --> 00:05:09,490 be working for you. And if that job isn't necessarily obvious, 74 00:05:09,553 --> 00:05:12,537 then maybe it's something secretive and it's scandalous 75 00:05:12,615 --> 00:05:13,819 and it's probably even satanic. 76 00:05:14,373 --> 00:05:18,170 And especially too, if somebody is seen speaking to these 77 00:05:18,233 --> 00:05:21,951 animals well, the idea of somebody just having a lovely 78 00:05:21,998 --> 00:05:24,217 conversation with their pet cat, which now today we think of as 79 00:05:24,218 --> 00:05:28,639 quite normal, this would be no, no. What was specific about, 80 00:05:29,045 --> 00:05:33,005 about the idea of keeping a familiar was that Satan would 81 00:05:33,165 --> 00:05:34,645 usually come in different forms. 82 00:05:34,965 --> 00:05:37,688 And so he would often appear as animals because the idea was 83 00:05:37,727 --> 00:05:41,094 that in order to seal a pact with a familiar, you would be 84 00:05:41,313 --> 00:05:44,415 feeding them blood to have them perform the evil deeds. But no 85 00:05:44,438 --> 00:05:46,798 one actually saw this. And if something's done in secret, how 86 00:05:46,813 --> 00:05:48,344 can you prove that it is or isn't done? 87 00:05:51,079 --> 00:05:52,829 ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: What's interesting about the idea of 88 00:05:52,876 --> 00:05:56,907 animal familiars at this time is that it's uniquely English. And 89 00:05:56,969 --> 00:05:58,688 this is because of Protestantism. 90 00:06:01,768 --> 00:06:05,251 Witchcraft and religious beliefs are closely entwined, and you 91 00:06:05,252 --> 00:06:08,276 can see this reflected in the way witchcraft was thought to 92 00:06:08,296 --> 00:06:11,495 take place. In Europe, where many people have Catholic 93 00:06:11,558 --> 00:06:14,784 beliefs, witches are thought to go to a specific place to meet 94 00:06:14,785 --> 00:06:16,605 with a familiar and speak with the devil. 95 00:06:17,464 --> 00:06:20,253 This is in parallel with how people would go to church and 96 00:06:20,284 --> 00:06:24,675 meet with a priest and talk to God. In England, where many 97 00:06:24,737 --> 00:06:27,628 people now have Protestant beliefs, the devil is believed 98 00:06:27,629 --> 00:06:31,657 to come to a witch's home in the form of a familiar. In the same 99 00:06:31,697 --> 00:06:34,140 way that regular people might pray to God at home. 100 00:06:47,395 --> 00:06:50,161 So how do animals like cats get people into trouble? 101 00:06:52,317 --> 00:06:55,255 One of the most well-documented cases is that of Elizabeth 102 00:06:55,317 --> 00:06:58,335 Clarke. Who is the first woman to be persecuted by the 103 00:06:58,474 --> 00:07:02,239 self-proclaimed witchfinder general Matthew Hopkins and his 104 00:07:02,259 --> 00:07:03,841 associate John Stern. 105 00:07:08,466 --> 00:07:11,950 At a time of heightened paranoia about witchcraft, Hopkins claims 106 00:07:11,951 --> 00:07:14,294 to have been officially commissioned by Parliament to 107 00:07:14,356 --> 00:07:19,356 uncover and prosecute witches. He and Stern are the driving 108 00:07:19,419 --> 00:07:25,316 force for the witch hunts between 1645 and 1647. Elizabeth 109 00:07:25,356 --> 00:07:28,878 Clarke herself is believed to be from a family of witches. So 110 00:07:29,097 --> 00:07:32,038 when a woman in the village becomes unwell, her husband 111 00:07:32,097 --> 00:07:33,077 blames Elizabeth. 112 00:07:35,179 --> 00:07:37,101 DR. ROMANY REAGAN: She was very elderly, very poor, and she was 113 00:07:37,140 --> 00:07:40,382 living on parish charity. He was the first to accuse her, and the 114 00:07:40,383 --> 00:07:43,437 rest of the community were very quick to fall on board as well 115 00:07:43,483 --> 00:07:45,937 in any kind of grievances they could think of. They harassed 116 00:07:45,938 --> 00:07:47,562 her so much that she actually confessed to it. 117 00:07:47,796 --> 00:07:50,405 She said, yes, absolutely, I have had dealings with the devil 118 00:07:50,483 --> 00:07:53,724 and many witches besides, but she refused to name any of these 119 00:07:53,764 --> 00:07:56,967 witches. I think she was just kind of talking a bit of trash, 120 00:07:57,008 --> 00:07:58,910 actually, just to get them off her lawn. That's what I think. 121 00:07:59,328 --> 00:08:01,110 But they took this and they ran with it. 122 00:08:01,953 --> 00:08:04,672 They took what Stern had written of her supposed confession, 123 00:08:05,016 --> 00:08:07,461 which to me is just a woman yelling on her porch, and from 124 00:08:07,477 --> 00:08:09,953 there they got a warrant. And this warrant allowed them to 125 00:08:10,156 --> 00:08:12,703 gather the searcher to come and search her. And with them, 126 00:08:12,797 --> 00:08:15,219 Matthew Hopkins and John Stern were able to also watch her. 127 00:08:18,468 --> 00:08:20,168 ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: When someone is accused of witchcraft, 128 00:08:20,248 --> 00:08:22,928 they're tortured until they reveal their otherworldly 129 00:08:23,010 --> 00:08:26,307 powers. They're pricked with needles to see if they bleed. 130 00:08:26,549 --> 00:08:29,713 They're stripped naked and searched for a witch's mark. And 131 00:08:29,714 --> 00:08:31,870 they're kept awake and watched intently. 132 00:08:38,127 --> 00:08:39,815 DR. ROMANY REAGAN: So yeah the prickers and the watchers who 133 00:08:39,831 --> 00:08:41,846 would corral this woman in her home. 134 00:08:43,396 --> 00:08:45,698 For four days and four nights and they sat her on a stool and 135 00:08:45,699 --> 00:08:47,501 they just stared at her basically and they just made 136 00:08:47,520 --> 00:08:50,301 sure that she couldn't sleep you can see the fever dream aspect 137 00:08:50,344 --> 00:08:53,364 of it you've been up for days and you are expecting 138 00:08:53,387 --> 00:08:55,786 malfeasance you know she's a witch you're just waiting for 139 00:08:55,809 --> 00:09:00,668 that proof and she lasted out for two days before she started 140 00:09:00,747 --> 00:09:05,278 to name names then she started to discuss her familiars and you 141 00:09:05,279 --> 00:09:09,137 can understand this now as a kind of fever dream she talks 142 00:09:09,184 --> 00:09:12,262 about the animals that come to her and what their names are. 143 00:09:12,278 --> 00:09:14,734 And you can almost envision her making them up on the spot 144 00:09:14,753 --> 00:09:17,798 because they're bizarre names like Vinegar Tom or Sack and 145 00:09:17,837 --> 00:09:21,560 Sugar. And so eventually when a small cat comes into the house, 146 00:09:22,044 --> 00:09:24,904 oh my gosh, finally, this is the familiar. And so there was a 147 00:09:24,927 --> 00:09:27,865 cat, there was a, there wasn't a cat and there was a dog that, oh 148 00:09:27,866 --> 00:09:28,786 no, it wasn't a dog. 149 00:09:29,365 --> 00:09:31,927 And then eventually there was a, there was a rabbit that came in 150 00:09:31,958 --> 00:09:34,849 and this was, this was Sack and Sugar. And this is when we get a 151 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:39,161 quote from, from Elizabeth Clarke herself. Stern is, is, is 152 00:09:39,193 --> 00:09:41,833 kind of making a joke saying, oh, this, this is your, this is 153 00:09:41,865 --> 00:09:44,753 you're grand familiar. And she says that he was lucky that he 154 00:09:44,774 --> 00:09:47,816 hadn't leapt onto his face, squeezed down his throat, and 155 00:09:47,817 --> 00:09:49,960 deposited a feast of toads in his belly. 156 00:09:51,941 --> 00:09:54,863 I can feel this is a woman at the end of her rope. She's been 157 00:09:54,902 --> 00:09:58,245 kept up for four days. She's elderly. She has one leg. She's 158 00:09:58,324 --> 00:10:01,562 poor. She probably just wants all- this to be over. And I 159 00:10:01,563 --> 00:10:05,727 don't like to think about where she'd gone psychologically to 160 00:10:05,728 --> 00:10:08,531 get to that point. And with regards to her supposed 161 00:10:08,570 --> 00:10:14,117 familiars, we have a small white cat, we have a fat white dog, 162 00:10:14,414 --> 00:10:18,375 then we have a tall, skinnier dog, and then we have a rabbit. 163 00:10:19,594 --> 00:10:22,797 That's it. Maybe they made all this up. But it does seem like 164 00:10:22,828 --> 00:10:25,844 perhaps these animals genuinely were in her house. But it also 165 00:10:25,969 --> 00:10:29,160 seems to me that if you are an elderly woman who's cast, you're 166 00:10:29,161 --> 00:10:31,440 an absolute cast away from your society. You don't have an 167 00:10:31,460 --> 00:10:34,243 opportunity for love and companionship, but you do have a 168 00:10:34,263 --> 00:10:37,220 dog, you have a cat, and you have a rabbit. 169 00:10:39,626 --> 00:10:42,899 And that's that. And that was enough to have her marked for 170 00:10:42,923 --> 00:10:44,884 execution, which she was later that year, so it was quite 171 00:10:44,931 --> 00:10:51,649 swift. And she was hanged for witchcraft in 1645. 172 00:10:51,665 --> 00:10:53,587 ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Elizabeth Clarke isn't the only woman to 173 00:10:53,588 --> 00:10:56,869 be accused of witchcraft, partly because she kept pets. But her 174 00:10:56,989 --> 00:11:00,011 story is one of the most well-documented at the time. 175 00:11:00,972 --> 00:11:03,776 Having said that, familiars are actually more popular in 176 00:11:03,874 --> 00:11:06,858 witch-hunt propaganda than they are in the trials themselves. 177 00:11:08,944 --> 00:11:11,140 The mystery and intrigue surrounding their supposed 178 00:11:11,179 --> 00:11:14,351 relationships with witches fascinates the general public, 179 00:11:15,069 --> 00:11:17,647 which is perhaps why we so commonly see witches with an 180 00:11:17,772 --> 00:11:22,196 animal sidekick in fictional stories today. Cats, owls, 181 00:11:22,297 --> 00:11:25,397 toads, bats and rats are all some of the familiar characters 182 00:11:25,398 --> 00:11:28,518 we see in fiction like Harry Potter, The Worst Witch and 183 00:11:28,577 --> 00:11:29,854 Halloween celebrations. 184 00:11:34,799 --> 00:11:38,463 But behind the folklore and fiction is a much darker truth. 185 00:11:43,823 --> 00:11:47,104 In reality, people are looking for someone to blame for their 186 00:11:47,135 --> 00:11:50,726 hardships. So the truth is twisted to fit a narrative and 187 00:11:50,746 --> 00:11:54,871 explain their misfortunes. Anything seen as out of the norm 188 00:11:54,972 --> 00:11:57,914 can be used against you. And ultimately, if you have the 189 00:11:57,915 --> 00:12:01,078 misfortune of being an animal lover who's seen as an outsider, 190 00:12:01,797 --> 00:12:04,656 you're an easy target for an accusation of witchcraft. 191 00:12:18,068 --> 00:12:21,071 If you'd like to explore objects and links to witches at National 192 00:12:21,112 --> 00:12:24,655 Trust places, head to nationaltrust.org.uk where 193 00:12:24,675 --> 00:12:27,401 you'll also find Halloween events and activities for the 194 00:12:27,417 --> 00:12:30,417 whole family. Thanks for listening to this episode of 195 00:12:30,440 --> 00:12:34,010 Wild Tales. If you've enjoyed it, make sure you follow, rate 196 00:12:34,026 --> 00:12:37,089 and review us on your favourite podcast app. We'll be back in 197 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:40,667 two weeks with another story. See you next time.