Availabilities:
Not offered in 2021
Unit description
Introduces students to the criminalisation and prosecution of witchcraft in England during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries. It will focus on the social background to such allegations, the black letter law governing the crimes, and the pre-trial and trial process by which such cases were determined.
Unit content
Topic 1: Introduction and the Medieval Legacy
Topic 2: Candidates for Witch-hood
Topic 3: A Witch’s Career
Topic 4: Living with the Witch
Topic 5: The Witchcraft Statutes
Topic 6: Specialist Tests for Establishing Witchcraft
Topic 7: Entering the Criminal Justice System
Topic 8: The Witch Trial
Topic 9: Late Jacobean and Caroline Witchcraft Prosecutions
Topic 10: The Civil War and Interregnum
Topic 11: From Restoration to Abolition
Topic 12: General Themes
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | |
|---|---|
| 1 | describe the social environment in which witchcraft allegations arose, and why only a small minority of those suspected of such activity were formally prosecuted |
| 2 | explain the black letter law established by the three major statutes governing the crime of witchcraft |
| 3 | outline the unusual evidential challenges posed by witch trials and investigations, and the unique responses that developed to meet them |
| 4 | identify continuing themes between early-modern witch trials and present-day criminal hearings |
| 5 | demonstrate their skills in legal history research, critical analysis and the written presentation of research and argument |
| 6 | demonstrate knowledge of the history of witchcraft as a felony in England and Wales |
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
- describe the social environment in which witchcraft allegations arose, and why only a small minority of those suspected of such activity were formally prosecuted
- explain the black letter law established by the three major statutes governing the crime of witchcraft
- outline the unusual evidential challenges posed by witch trials and investigations, and the unique responses that developed to meet them
- identify continuing themes between early-modern witch trials and present-day criminal hearings
- demonstrate their skills in legal history research, critical analysis and the written presentation of research and argument
- demonstrate knowledge of the history of witchcraft as a felony in England and Wales
Teaching and assessment
Fee information
Domestic
Commonwealth Supported courses
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