imagine living the shittiest low-class life possible a few hundred years ago and thinking it can't get any worse, then you get a small run of good fortune like winning a medieval scratch ticket or your local landlord dying of tuberculosis or plague and you get accused of witchcraft and drowned
It's always so funny to me how they believed witches had all this power and yet they were never able to save themselves from being murdered by these zealots.
They believed that those persecuting witches were protected by divine intervention since they were doing the Lord's work. Still, your statement is spot on.
Same argument used by the Spanish inquisition which also never persecuted anyone for that. Countries with inquisition like Spain and Italy were spared from witch hunts.
Also, Scottish witches were forced to walk in backwards so they couldn't bewitch the men. In other words, if the men looked in their eyes they could feel empathy/sympathy for the women. The only evil was the torture of these women.
this is my favorite youtube channel, idk who had the idea to license old history tv show episodes to put on youtube but you're a genius, i never would have seen these otherwise as an american and they're all great.
Unfortunately their beliefs was the only way for them to answer questions about illness. If they questioned the church they would be punished for heracy
The history channel used to be just like this! It was up until the mid 2000’s, it used to have these documentaries all the time and now it’s all trash. 😭
@@rebeccascott3551 It was the sucess of Ancient Aliens which turned their eye. Just like Animal Planet when it aired Mermaids The Body Found and broke their viewership records and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had to say that no evidence of aquatic humanoids were ever found due to the large volume of calls they received.
Those people where so afraid of the devil, meanwhile they ARE becoming the devil themselves with all their torturegear and torturemethods, even tho if a woman didn't drown they just give her a wrongfuly trial and executed her anyway.
Tudor 1: “Women are unhappy with their lives and it’s making them turn to the devil!” Tudor 2: “...should we treat them better?” Tudor 1: “lol no let’s kill her”
They would accuse people that were low on the social status often or people that they didn't like. Also for Hopkins it become more a business than gods work in the end
I'll always be dumbfounded as to how the devil has SOOO much power, and these women "trade their virtue for power," yet they helplessly let themselves be tortured and executed. People will tell themselves anything to be part of the status quo. It really is pathetic and sadly still goes on today, just with different subjects.
@@VanillaGrollia.Similar to the ancient ignorant people who feared a biblical demonic devil possessing people. Maybe someday well learn that people are people and the scary devil isn't going to get you.
I feel there's an assumption being made in this show that decent people won't stab an image of loved ones because of a deeply rooted fear of voodoo/magic. Personally, I think people aren't comfortable with it because it's an expression of malice and hostility. And stabbing an image says something about your true feelings for something. Not because bad juju might happen.. >_
Since you seem to know, what is the best way to voodoo/magic stab an image of my sister in law? I seriously hate her. I want bad juju to happen to her. I’m not worried about karma. She seriously deserves it. She’s superstitious, so I’d love to send her a creepy voodoo doll. I’d at least like to make her uncomfortable at least, because she stole her brothers whole inheritance. Every dime. And she didn’t deserve it, believe me. (Parent Alzheimer’s).
@@mangot589 there are karma spells with which you can invoke the muses to do the revenge for you, and you won’t suffer one bit. “What was brought down upon me Be returned but times 3 Head to toe, skin and nerve May you get exactly what you deserve” Saying it once may scare her, but saying it three times makes it work. Should you want something a little bit more imposing “See the cruelty and pain, That you have caused once again, I turn the tables three times three, Bring light to you actions, I will be set free, When light fades and dusk comes through, The pain you caused will come back to you, I say this spell to Karma tonight, I am witch, I stand and fight.” This one must be said “three times three”, or 9, times Both can even be said with two lit spell candles, yellow and purple, to invoke Nemesis for extra effect
@@mangot589 you’re welcome, anyone who cheats someone out of their dues will be treated harshly by karma. What better way to have it happen quicker than to put karma’s eyes right on them?
That's not how I read it, to me they weren't saying people won't do it for fear of bad juju, but that said fear of bad juju comes from the same psychological roots that prevented them from doing so
It’s not that they think stabbing the picture will magically hurt the ones in the photo, it’s the psychological association of harm or ill intent towards their loved ones that makes them u comfortable.
"the devil was the opposite of a good husband" *shows medieval woman in the throes of pleasure with Satan stand-in* Man, if that was a wrong husband, I wouldn't want to be right.
I think a lot of this had to do with horny men who were either lusting after women who weren’t their wives or feeling intimidated by women who were poor but very smart and/or strong willed. I think the more power the man had especially if he had an official title the more fragile he would be if a socially lower woman wasn’t showing him the customary difference. We don’t understand the social dynamics of a heavily classed system any more.
It was all men who felt threatened by women for sure. I bet no women turned in other women because they were jealous and petty. That legitimately has never happened.
The whole reason women started being blamed for witchcraft more than men came from a book called the malleus maleficarum, which was too misogynistic even for the Vatican. The guy who wrote it is exactly the guy you're describing, he was literally exiled from a community by a bishop for obsessing over a woman. However he lied that his book had Vatican approval and it became the basis of medieval witch hunt laws, including the idea that witches should be burned.
It would be like walking on egg shells at all times. If someone didn't like you, all they had to do was tell others you were a witch and you were done for.
Same. I also don’t think I would’ve done well at all with the torture. Especially not what they showed here, or pressing, or...just anything. I’m definitely too much of a weenie.
Unfortunately??? 😂Nah humans was much tougher and not weak and emotional sensitive humans like yourselfs today ok but yeah just a different time and era
You could blame anyone for being a witch. Men and women. So just call the priest a witch and say that he has been slowly murdering God's angels who has been hiding among them.
I only just started watching this channel a few days ago, and so far, everything I've seen is damn fine quality. Hope it continues, his channel is tops!
@@mikkihesson3509 is there a joke or reference I'm not getting? If there's not, I deeply fucking apologize for being an incredibly literal person that never gets a joke that's only slightly nuanced; it's one of my many flaws! Either way, have an incredibly lovely day!
@@mikkihesson3509 wow, I quite literally made it so very very clear in my reply that I don't always get jokes, and then *proactively apologize for it* and you call me a prick for it all... when I apologized ahead of time for my lack of social cues and told you point-blank that I don't understand that stuff. Wow. I'm genuinely sorry for whatever happened in your life that made you such a douche. That said, I'll tell you what I tell my kids: be kind to *everyone* because you don't know if they're in the middle of the worst day of their lives. Be tolerant. Because you don't know what they've suffered between their birth and when you've met them. And be tolerant: because you don't know shit about their culture and every family is different.
I think 16th and 17th centuries is hardly ‘medieval Britain’? Magic may be an older concept but the prime of witch hunts is a lot more recent than medieval times, as one can see by dates mentioned in the video. Anna Göldi, who is thought to be the last person executed in Europe for witchcraft, was decapitated as late as 1782. Moreover, show fails to mention the truth behind witch hunts. It was a very effective tool designed by patriarchy to silence inconvenient women who dared to be independent or speak up for themselves. Sometimes there were also men involved in witch trials, mostly when they decided to defend the accused women. It had less to do with an actual belief in magic or devil and more to do with bullying women into submission.
@@herodotus945 That’s a very interesting point! I’m not an expert on the topic, just an enthusiast, but here are some of my thoughts on that supported by some research I did: In total there were 120 witch trials in Iceland between 1604 and 1720 and 22 of them resulted in execution of the accused person. Out of the executed people, 21 were men and only one was a woman. This disproportion is often connected to pre-Christian Norse tradition, where men were most frequently involved in casting spells and where women enjoyed unusual for that time degree of freedom (for example they could own land or request a divorce!). In contrast, if we look at witch trials globally there were about 50,000 executions and 80% of victims were women. In England (featured in the video) witch trials have resulted in the death of between 500 and 1000 people, 90% of whom were women. Naturally there is a difference between correlation and causation, but it’s extremely interesting that Iceland has been the leading country on the Global Gender Gap Index for 11 years in a row now, followed by other Scandinavian countries on positions from 2 to 4.
I disagree. There is mountains and mountains of evidence that they truly believed there were witches. Not everyone, of course, but the vast majority of people did. I think especially the judges and those in power believed in witchcraft. And because certain women were independent and spoke their minds and weren't submissive because of that behavior specifically they believed they were of satan. They used that behavior as proof of their alliance with Satan. That behavior was seen as "unnatural" and "heinous". You can't judge people of the past using modern sensibilities and even if you did you would be wrong. Sin eaters were still a common practice back then and people died for their religion all. the. time. Jews Catholics Protestants Muslims Buddhists Hindus they were all at one time targeted by people in the 16th century and killed for it because whoever happened to be in charge of the time truly believe that anyone that didn't follow their religion was worshiping Satan. You can't be serious as to think that people didn't actually believe in witches when there is a huge amount of people even today that STILL believe witches and witchcraft is real. Pagans Muslims Christians and Jews alike. A huge amount of people do still believe in witchcraft and you're an idiot if you think sexism was the sole cause of the witch hunts. It's an incredibly complex and deep subject that can't be summarized by "patriarchy hate women"
@@WhitneyDahlin It’s your absolute right to disagree and I respect your opinion. It’s always interesting to hear another point of view and in a way it is awesome that we live in a different time, when as two women we can discuss our varying opinions publicly isn’t it? But I would appreciate it if you would voice it with more respect instead of calling me an ‘idiot’. I strongly believe that intelligent people can disagree without calling each other names. Obviously, the matter is not black and white. Is anything in this world? I’m not discrediting the whole content of the video. I just think it fails to mention that side of the story. There is also a lot of evidence on people accusing women of being witches for reasons related to money or convenience and I believe it is important to make that a part of the discussion. Additionally, I can think of many examples when system or a group used popular fear or belief to execute their vision, so our opinions are not even mutually exclusive for me. As I mentioned before I’m not an expert on witch hunts but if you would like to learn a bit more about other point of view than the one presented in the video, I can recommend some sources I found interesting, for example ‘Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts’ by Anne Barstow.
They also mention 'Cunningfolk', about 18 min in, who would practice in cities and towns giving people charms and what not. I wonder how many cunning folk were men and how many were women...
The reason salt is considered “holy” is because it’s said multiple times in the Bible, and even by Jesus himself, that those who believe in God (and Christ) will be like the salt of the earth (useful, valuable, necessary). Salt preserves food just like god and Christ preserve the soul. Salt in biblical times was expensive and a valuable commodity, so being compared to salt was like being compared to silver. So, eventually salt became almost like a holy item because of its references in the Bible, it’s symbolic meanings, and the value it had.
My mother grew up in Appalachian Kentucky. Her uncle by marriage was the 7th son of a 7th son, so people went to him to get healing for their ailments. Their community was almost entirely descended from Scottish immigrants, with a very few English here and there. (We come from Clans Henderson and Fraser.) My mother, who was maybe 7 years old at the time, had a wart on her lip. She went to her uncle about it. He took a ball point pen out of his shirt pocket and marked the wart with it. He then told my mother to bury a wash rag under a tree at its roots. She swore that the wart went away almost immediately.
Maybe they were right with the witchcraft thing afterall😂Clearly not all were witches, but something dark has surely happened. There's no smoke without fire
How to remove warts: step 1, rub your feces into the eyes of a sparrow, step 2, then eat a spoonful of peanutbutter while upside down humming "mary had a little lamb". Step 3, apply wart remover to your wart. Your wart will be gone in 3-5 days. I can attest, it works every time. Magic is real
@@willman9567 no it doesn't. Potatoes, especially the modern breeds don't contain any significant amount of toxins in their tubers anymore, so they could never remove warts using that... Warts are prone to spontanious dissapearance, especially when you're young, because they're caused by viruses infecting skin cells and getting them to multiple uncontrollably, like a tumor. But the immune system will eventually catch up and kill the infected cells. From age 9-14, I was covered in about 40 warts on my face, my arms, my hands and legs. And I've tried everything, herbs my father told me about, acid-based wart removers, even one with liquid nitrogen. Nothing worked. By one day when I was 14, two years after I stopped trying, I noticed that they were gone. I didn't do anything, but my immune system would just discover the virus by chance and eradicate it from every wart on my body, killing the cells in the process. It's all just biology, no magic or potato toxin...
@@mapleleaf3803 I don't have any set denomination. I believe in Christ and that he died for my sins. But I believe those who do evil and say it's God's work are absolute monsters.
No need to protect God. He's the Almighty. They were using God's good name to claim evil acts were His will therefore sanctified. Good thing that doesn't happen today......(sarcasm please note sarcasm in last statement)
It's very unfortunate how people use God and the bible to justify their actions. They twist scripture to fit their agenda. I've never understood "Christians" who feel the need to judge everyone, acting all hateful...like it's going to bring people to Jesus. Heck no. Last time I checked, Jesus wasn't hiring.
@Lotte Yes, I understand that. I was complaining about the documentary in general, which is history of mentalities at the most superficial level, like Victorian era superficial. And they didn't even mention the focus they were taking, they should've at least mention that there were economical, sociological and ideological reasons for this to happen, besides people's believes. In this way it's pretty misinformative.
Keep in mind this is all from the church’s point of view. This is what they THOUGHT witches were. Also, killing these women was a way to keep women out of medicine.
Help why did "Someone in this village is a bloody witch" make me laugh so loud he looked so annoyed and aggravated 😂😂 that shot is great, so are these series!
These “witch hunts” were rather ridiculous, but there are things out there that can’t just be explained away by science also. For centuries man has done unspeakable evils in the name of God.
There are things that can't _yet_ be explained by our understanding of the universe. Just because we don't know how something works in the details yet doesn't leave room to shoehorn in the supernatural. That's called the god-of-the-gaps fallacy.
At 20:00, it’s not that anyone thinks harm would come to their loved ones, but rather it is a sign of disrespect. I’m surprised the word “disrespect” wasn’t mentioned as a reason.
This reminds me of the book Confiteor, where at the same scene it went back and forth to the Spanish Inquisition and Nazi torturers. They both committed horrific acts, because they deeply believed that the end justifies the means.
The Spanish inqusiton never used torture methods that would spill blood or break bones, invented the concept of sanity plea and provide lawyers to the accused who had none. Comparing the inquisition with Nazis is stupid, especially because the inquisition executed only 4000 people in 350 years.
@@herodotus945 I stand by Jaume Cabre's analogy in Confiteor, it makes really compelling reading and I recommend it. As for calling my idea that breaking bones, burning people to the stake or in gas chambers is never justified no matter what ideology you are trying to promote, let's say that we agree to disagree.
Um, I don’t know about his statement that there isn’t a mark on that poor dead chicken because clearly her neck is broken and flopping about like a fish out of water as he’s holding her up in the air by her legs.
'Get the plank guys!' 'Now you've got to get the witch to walk across it without touching the ground.' *ad* *interrupts* 'Play Animal Crossing with no interruptions. Sign up today!' P.S. It's nice for them they found a witch that's such a good sport...
Well, just like people know that gratitude and positivity are how one lives a happy life, manifestation is very potent. A violent act against the image of a loved one is negative vibes no one really wants to put into the world
While there were false accusations of witchcraft, it is important to remember there were also false claims to witchcraft as well. People claimed to have magical powers. Indeed, to this day making potions or pretending to have magical powers is a crime in among other places - Pennsylvania.
it’s illegal to be a fortune teller in PA, but it’s weird because there are many palm readers around, which i’d think is a form of fortune telling. guess not
19:27 I found this fascinating because it made me realize i wouldn't be able to stab an image of a loved one either and i don't remotely believe in supernatural stuff. Very interesting thought experiment!
Because you're a human with emotional attachments, not an unfeeling robot. This experiment doesn't prove we believe in the supernatural, just that sentimental value can be irrational. I get what they were going for but it doesn't prove anything.
I thought that part was particularly interesting because I am a witch and a photographer. I would stab a photo of a loved one with no problem, I just wouldn't do it with ill intent.
I do believe in supernatural things, and I'm of two minds about it. One the one hand, it's just a photo, it wouldn't do anything. One the other hand , it's a representation of my loved ones, what would being able to stab it say about our relationship? I'd like to think that I love and respect them too much to do that. It's like asking "why don't you want to turn graves into toilets? The dead won't care." Well, it's just inappropriate. Some things we refrain from doing less because of what it might mean to others as what it would say about us.
My grandfather John chancellor of shieldhill, tried to kill king James and unfortunately he wasn’t able to do it. But had he gone through with it maybe some of this shit wouldn’t have happened oof
Tony Robinson: explains how people sought for reason what killed a hen and misinterpreting their surroundings and how a witchhunt easily starts snowballing. People in comments: Starting a Witchhunt after making assumptions about the dead hen. Me: *slow clap shaking my head*
another vide where he mist the mark, tottly shafull and sad how thete are only make vides to get views but not to teach histoy with any fact of such events...
In Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the most terrifying event, to me, in a 7 book series involving a homicidal train, a nuclear powered robot willing to explode, telepaths who literally are trying to destroy all realities, and countless other horrors, is at its heart a witch trial. A beloved local girl is basically named as an accomplice for Evil. Add in some normal misfortunes, a staged murder, a speaker who whipped the town into a killing frenzy, and the townsfolk literally burned the girl alive. It was most terrifying to me because, as we see with these witch trials, people do look for a scapegoat and will turn on anyone. So it was the most real horror.
The depths of mankinds crulity is horrific but not surprising . Witch hunts still happen today . Some diluted reasoning and beliefs feed to people . Different forms of tourture. For the same reason cruel selfishness and fear .
It is just the best thing ever to see Baldrick's actor narrating and participating in legit historical pieces. He performs brilliantly and I love every episode! 😍
Wow, I am a nurse and also a Dula (an assistant midwife) and I am genetically intersexed. So though I grew up looking totally female, at puberty I suddenly grew a full beard and chest hair. I am sure I would have been executed as a witch!
I am trying to convince myself it was a really good fake but sadly I think I'm wrong. I thought possibly it was under anesthesia but then he appeared to drop it from a few feet..😬 I hope that guy is haunted by that chicken.
So far, 8 minutes in and I’m seeing huge issues with this historically. One... a woman who danced with the devil very likely was actually raped and of course it would mean she had trauma and wouldn’t want to discuss the details. It’s not as if sexual assault wasn’t prevalent in medieval times. Secondly, the broom was a symbol of a woman’s duty to her family and “riding it” or “flying” was actually based on the idea of liberation from duty. Women definitely had access to mind altering drugs throughout history. Psilocybin, opioids, hensbane, etc. could be found naturally through most of Europe, Scotland, and Scandinavian countries. If a woman wanted to take a trip all she had to do was find a pile of cow dung and eat the little brown shrooms growing there.
The first 'witch' that confessed to flying on a broom was a man, Guillaume Edelin in 1453. That was the first recorded confession of flying on a broom and it spread from there with the concept of 'flying ointment' a few years later. I don't see how consensual sex with the devil equals rape to you. Every record, even the Malleus Maleficarum,the 'witches' themselves in their forced confessions say it's consensual. Maybe the 'witches' were just into temperature play. The sex with devil claim isn't so different than their claims of having animal familiars, chilling with demons and using magic, which was also confessed by these people. These confessions were made from torture and coercion after being accused from nothing, it doesn't mean there's any kind of root in reality. And sexual assault in the medieval era wasn't any more prevalent than it is today, reality isn't Game of Thrones. Medieval historians have debunked that myth many times over. That belief stems from misandry, that idea that 'men are all predators' or 'men are naturally rapists'. Heinrich Kramer, the writer of the Malleus Maleficarum, himself actually got into bad trouble in his day for acting creepy to an accused witch (Helena Scheuberin). He was expelled from the trial and forced to leave the city by the authorities and Helena ended up being acquitted.
Ok. You’re talking about these women who were accused as witches as if that they were actually in league with the devil instead of poor or odd women who were murdered. SMH
Pretty wise not to discount magic completely if we are to believe today's physicists and any cosmologist finding ways to justify dark matter...magic exists
Of course she was a midwife. She understood how to bring life into this world and that made her dangerous so they had to get rid of her by smearing her name :/
"witches are fake" they scream while all of us practicing witchcraft are over here like "am I a joke to you" And they say yes. and we roll our eyes and go back to doing what we've been doing for hundreds of thousands of years.
Oh and of course at this time the church wanted to have ultimate power, wanted its own men to be the knowledgeable one and the doctors. Intelligent and skillful women healers were seen as a threat to church power.
If these witches were so terrifyingly powerful and evil then why weren't they able to smite and destroy their attackers? I think that a lot of people back then just liked having a reason to be arseholes to each other and that it helped people to forget the plight they were in themselves, what a shitty time to be alive, poor buggers.
Witch here, those make no senses. We heal... You can judge i do not care. But we are here and we do practice even now. You can burn us but we are still here healing you. I'm a manager in a store and ALL my staff just comes to me for advices and questions. We are healers so just stop killing us. Some are bad yeah, but just like regular ppl not all of us!
in some modern cities and towns there are still fortune tellers, witch doctors and cunning folk. like in new orleans and in some neighborhoods and street corners of the city of lima, peru. (im from there and i read adds for places where people can get love charms in the newspapers).
Would've appreciated less sensationalist imagery, more focus on the facts, how they were spun into fantasy, who profited from doing so, and why. What social power dynamics (e.g. men vs. women, Christian vs. non-Christian, rich vs. poor, etc.) were in play? Would also be informative to hear how the false beliefs were eventually dismantled.
