Kimberley Parker
The Dark History of the Witch Trials
From fertility potions and love charms to evil spells designed to kill kings of England, certain types of magic became associated with royal women during the Middle Ages. Most supposed witches were usually old women and invariably poor. Any who were unfortunate enough to be ‘crone-like’, snaggle-toothed, sunken cheeked and having a hairy lip were assumed to possess the ‘Evil Eye’! If they also had a cat, this was taken as proof, as witches always had a ‘familiar’, the cat being the most common. Many unfortunate women were condemned on this sort of evidence and hanged after undergoing appalling torture. The ‘pilnie-winks’ (thumb screws) and iron ‘caspie-claws’ (a form of leg irons heated over a brazier) usually got a confession from the supposed witch.
Apple TVThe Dark History of the Witch Trials
From fertility potions and love charms to evil spells designed to kill kings of England, certain types of magic became associated with royal women during the Middle Ages. Most supposed witches were usually old women and invariably poor. Any who were unfortunate enough to be ‘crone-like’, snaggle-toothed, sunken cheeked and having a hairy lip were assumed to possess the ‘Evil Eye’! If they also had a cat, this was taken as proof, as witches always had a ‘familiar’, the cat being the most common. Many unfortunate women were condemned on this sort of evidence and hanged after undergoing appalling torture. The ‘pilnie-winks’ (thumb screws) and iron ‘caspie-claws’ (a form of leg irons heated over a brazier) usually got a confession from the supposed witch.
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The Haunting Conflict of Elizabeth and Mary
Queen Elizabeth I of England and Mary Queen of Scots were two of recorded history's most significant, most legendary rivals—although they never met. Elizabeth was the childless “virgin” queen in one castle: bawdy, brilliant, tactical and cynical. On the other hand, Mary is feminine, charming, romantic and reckless. Their decades-long battle over the English crown would end with Mary’s beheading at Fotheringhay Castle—with Elizabeth’s blessing—in 1587. But the two cousins’ tortured relationship was determined long before, during childhoods, so dissimilar and defining that they would inform both Queens’ characters—and seal Mary’s tragic fate. The rivalry between the two queens was marked by imprisonment, escape and execution.
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