Palace of Holyrood, Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8DX
During the North Berwick witchcraft panic of 1590-92, some of the interrogations of suspects were carried out in Holyrood Palace, the principal royal residence and also the venue for privy council meetings. King James VI himself took part in some of these interrogations, and even claimed personal credit for having discovered the witches’ guilt. In a speech on 7 June 1591 he boasted: ‘And for these witches, whatsoever hath bene gotten from them hath bene done by me my self’.
©James Gordon of Rothiemay,
Wikimedia Commons
The most important suspect to be interrogated at Holyrood Palace was Agnes Sampson, a ‘wise wife’ and healer from Nether Keith in East Lothian. When she was first brought before the king and his councillors she refused to confess to witchcraft. They ordered her to be taken away and tortured, probably in the Old Tolbooth. There a rope was placed round her head and twisted tightly to cause pain. She also had all her body hair shaved off and was searched for the Devil’s mark; she was told that a mark had been found on her genitals. Broken by this treatment, she was brought back to the palace, where she confessed to everything that she was asked. She was tried, convicted, and executed by burning at Castlehill on 28 January 1591.
Sources:
- Lawrence Normand and Gareth Roberts (eds), Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland : James VI’s Demonology and the North Berwick Witches (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000).
- Wikipedia: Agnes Sampson
- Elizabeth Ewan, Rose Pipes, Jane Rendall and Siân Reynolds (eds.), New Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018), p. 376.