As you may have guessed from last week’s column, I’ve been parked in front of the television quite a lot lately during my down-time.
This is mostly due to a current lack of mobility with my injured knee and, of course, a recent spike in COVID-19 cases around Newcastle.
One show that grabbed my interest on Netflix was called Witches: A Century of Murder.
It investigated the witch hunts that plagued Britain during the 17th Century and examined common myths around their origin.
The two-part series zeroes in on the roles of Matthew Hopkins (1620-1647), a man who claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never officially bestowed upon him.
The anniversary of Hopkins’ death, suspected to be from tuberculosis, took place this week (12 August), and he has been viewed posthumously as an anti-hero.
His methods of investigation were not far removed from torture, often depriving accused witches of sleep for days, before reportedly deciding to conduct the unlawful swimming test, in which suspects were tied to a chair and thrown into the water.
All those who swam (floated) were considered witches.
What I found most interesting was the paranoia and hysteria spread by misinformation and people taking advantage of situations to suit their own agendas – a common theme throughout history, and one that continues today.
