The North Berwick Witch Trials took place in 1590-92.

70 people were rounded up by the Presbyterian Reformation church, tortured, and in many cases killed.

As King James VI and his bride, Anne of Denmark, sailed home from Oslo, they were nearly shipwrecked in a violent storm. Blaming supernatural forces, the king ignited a Witch Hunt – 70 accused women were tortured into confession with sleep deprivation, fingernail extraction, thumbscrew torture, and having their bones crushed.

Revd James Carmichael the minister of Haddington helped to interrogate the North Berwick witches and later advised King James on the writing of his book “Daemonologie.”

“Daemonologie” blended paranoia with theology and became a blueprint for witch-hunting. It was published 5 years later at the height of the 1597 Witch Trials – in which 400 women were tried and nearly 200 executed in 10 months.=