Mary Signed a Vague Witchcraft Law Whose Effects Outlived Her
She thought it would punish only poisoners and curse makers, but its vague wording made anyone accusable.
No One Saw It Coming · The queen behind the witch huntsFor two years, the young queen held her ground. Mary, Queen of Scots, a 21-year-old Catholic ruling a Protestant Scotland, refused to approve laws that would outlaw the pope and Catholic worship and impose death on priests, monks, and nuns.
She wanted religious tolerance for a country worn down by war. John Knox, the powerful Protestant preacher, wanted one religion, and he preached against her for hours each day and called her "That French whore."
Mary answered with soft diplomacy because she hoped for peace. That choice led to a compromise meant to calm Knox, and it turned suspicion of witchcraft from a church matter into the law of the state.
The compromise was the Witchcraft Act of 1563. The act said, "Any act of witchcraft, necromancy, or sorcery shall be punished by death," and it defined none of those words.
Mary understood the law to mean wicked practitioners who cast curses or poisoned people. Knox could see witchcraft in ordinary acts, such as saying blessings while stirring soup.
Kate Forsyth, who recounts this history, said, "Anyone could be accused of being a witch, and how could you prove that you were not a witch when no one knew what a witch was?" Judges and counties applied their own standards, and accusations could become a political weapon against enemies.
The first Scottish witch hunt followed only a few years later. By then Mary was gone, forced at dagger point in 1567 to abdicate, at about 25, in favor of her 13-month-old son.
She fled to England to ask her cousin Elizabeth I, the English queen, for protection. Elizabeth instead imprisoned her for about 20 years over fears about her claim to the English throne, and Mary was beheaded for treason in her mid-40s.
Her son James was raised by followers of Knox, beaten and trained to show contempt for pictures of her. Forsyth said, "He was taught to call his mother a witch and a whore." The boy taught to fear and hate his mother grew up fearing witches, while the vague law his mother had signed lived on without her.
Questions people ask
What was The Hammer of Witches?
The Hammer of Witches was a book published in Germany in the late 1400s that called witchcraft treason against God and devil worship. Before it, many villages relied on healers, herbalists, and protective customs like prayers for crops or charms above a cradle. The book helped turn those folk practices into heresy and sustained almost two centuries of witch hunting in Europe.
How deadly were the Scottish witch hunts?
Historians estimate 2,500 to 4,000 people died across Scotland's witch hunts. One intense persecution under Mary's son James VI killed more than 100 women, most strangled before burning, with some burned alive. Confessions extracted under torture named neighbors, friends, and relatives, which spread the accusations further.
Did Scotland ever reckon with the witch hunts?
Parliament repealed the Witchcraft Act in 1736. In 2020, the Witches of Scotland campaign called for an apology, pardons, and memorials for those accused or executed. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon formally apologized in 2022 for the historic injustice.