Witches

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HEXA Witchcraft WK1 Trial pod

Elizabethan witchcraft: a trial that divided a community . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Pod Owen Davies WL

Witchcraft: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Haitians celebrate Kanaval, which takes place in the run-up to Lent. Later, over Easter, Haitian secret societies will use brooms to ‘sweep up’ zonbi spirits. (Photo by Jessica Obert/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Zombies of the Caribbean: your guide to zonbi spirits . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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A 20th-century image depicts a ‘witch’ being burned alive in Munich. In reality, most suspects had already been killed before being set alight (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images)

8 popular misconceptions about the history of witchcraft in Europe . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

As well as practising Wicca, other traditions with Pagan roots – such as celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge – still remain popular. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/AFP via Getty Images)

Wicca and modern witchcraft: a history

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Suspected witch Mary Sutton is “swum” in a Bedfordshire millpond in 1612, as shown in a contemporary illustration. (Picture by Getty Images)

Witchfinding: what drove the hunters’ cruel crusade and what methods did they use? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Pod Marion Gibson WL

Witch hunters: cynical persecutors or misguided zealots? . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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HEXA Witchcraft WK3 Leads6

Malcolm Gaskill The Ruin of All Witches . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Pod Malcolm Gaskill WL

A forgotten witch hunt in New England . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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John Callow discusses the tragic case of the Bideford witches, the last women in England to be executed for the crime of witchcraft. (Image by Getty Images)

England’s last witches . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry, Ron and Hermione on the set of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Photo by Peter Mountain/Warner Bros. Pictures/THA)

The real magic of Harry Potter: 15 details the wizarding world borrows from history

A scene from the Salem witch trials, depicted in a 19th-century lithograph. How two girls’ accusations of witchcraft escalated into one of the darkest episodes in early American history has long puzzled historians. (Image by Alamy)

When the devil stalked Salem: the story of the Salem witch trials

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Will Pooley delves into the strange and surprising history of witchcraft beliefs in France, from the Revolution to the Second World War. (Image by Getty Images)

Bewitched cars & mail-order charms: witchcraft in modern France . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Soldiers of the Third Reich surround a huge bonfire during a winter solstice festival in December 1936. The Nazis attempted to use elements of pagan beliefs to promote a Germanic ‘national religiosity’. (Photo by Getty Images)

Witches, werewolves and vampires: the Nazi’s quest for the supernatural

Elizabeth Woodville with her husband, Edward IV. According to one medieval document, their marriage only came about “by Sorcerie and Wichecrafte, committed by the said Elizabeth, and her Moder Jaquett Duchess of Bedford”. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Medieval royal witches: from Elizabeth Woodville to Queen Joan of Navarre