1. A World Before Reason

The court has declared you innocent. You're free to go. But there's just one problem. You still have to go home.What happens when you return to the very people who accused you of being in league with the Devil? Can you ever clear your name? And what happens to your family when suspicion becomes something you can inherit?In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, Jon Briggs is joined by historians Robin Briggs, Dr Jan Machielsen and Professor Alison Rowlands to explore the lives of those who survived the witch trials.But did survival mean freedom? Could an accusation become a weapon in the hands of the accused? And how did the terrifying figure of the village witch eventually find her way into children's bedtime stories?Because a court could close a case. A village was under no such obligation.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

They've spent their careers investigating some of the darkest chapters in human history. But what actually frightens the people who study witches?For this special Halloween edition of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, Jon Briggs turns the tables on our five historians: Robin Briggs, Jan Machielsen, Julian Goodare, Alison Rowlands and Marion Gibson.First, he invites them to throw their most hated witchcraft myths onto a Halloween bonfire. Then he ask sthem to venture into the darker corners of their research and reveal the discoveries that have genuinely disturbed them.Some of their answers are chilling. Others are deeply unsettling. And what they tell him raises an uncomfortable question: have we really left the age of witch hunts behind us?Finally, there's one question he's been saving for Halloween. And their answers might surprise you.Five historians. some two and a half centuries of expertise. This Halloween, it's the experts' turn to be frightened as Jon discovers why the most frightening things about witches may have nothing to do with witchcraft at all.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

For centuries, thousands of people across Europe were accused, tortured and executed for crimes we now know were impossible. And then, it stopped.But why? Did science finally triumph over superstition? Did governments develop a conscience? Did judges begin to question the evidence? Or did hunting witches simply become very unfashionable?In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, Jon Briggs is joined by historians Robin Briggs and Professor Julian Goodare to unravel one of the most surprising chapters in the story of European witch persecution.Discover why the witch hunts ended at different times in different places, who dared to challenge them, and why some of the people who helped bring them to an end still believed witches were real.Because stopping the executions was one thing. Stopping people believing in witches was quite another.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

There’s a witch in your village. Now what?Who do you call on? How do you know who to suspect? What exactly are you looking for? And what happens when the person who arrives has no official authority whatsoever?Matthew Hopkins called himself the Witch Finder General. But who appointed him? What did he actually do? And how did he "find" witches?Jon Briggs and Robin Briggs are joined by historians Marion Gibson and Alison Rowlands to follow the witch hunters across England and Europe, where suspicion, strange tests, children’s accusations and  tell-tale marks could all become evidence.There’s a witch in your village. The really frightening question is who decides what happens now?Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

Witches flying through the night. Secret gatherings. Feasting, dancing, sex with demons and worshipping the Devil. There was just one problem with the witches’ Sabbats: they almost certainly never happened. However your invitation isn't lost in the post - it's right here - so do you know what to wear?Jon and Robin Briggs are joined by Professor Julian Goodare to discover why people confessed to attending these extraordinary gatherings, what they claimed went on there, and how an imaginary party could lead to very real arrests, trials and deaths.Expect flying witches, fairy queens, terrible food, discordant music, the Devil himself... and a surprisingly important chicken.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

Your child falls ill. Your cow stops giving milk. You suspect a witch. Who do you call? Across early modern Europe, cunning folk claimed to heal the sick, identify witches, recover stolen property and even send curses back to whoever cast them.Fresh from publishing her new book Witchland - Jon and Robin Briggs are joined by historian and author Professor Marion Gibson to explore the extraordinary world of supernatural problem-solving, from witch bottles and healing charms to magical side-hustles, dubious doctors and the surprisingly dangerous business of being good at magic.Because the difference between being the village healer and the village witch was sometimes simply a question of whether the cure worked or not. Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

What if witches weren’t discovered at all... but invented? For centuries, Europeans feared magic, demons and heretics. But somewhere along the way, those separate fears were stitched together into something new: the witch, a servant of the Devil and member of a secret conspiracy threatening Christian society.Jon Briggs is joined by historian Robin Briggs and demonology expert Dr Jan Machielsen to uncover how that extraordinary idea took shape, why medieval scholars were summoning demons of their own, what “God’s hunting dogs” had to do with it, and whether anyone actually believed the notorious Malleus Maleficarum.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

When you picture a witch, who comes to mind? For most of us, it's an old woman living on the edge of a village. But what if that picture is completely wrong? In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, broadcaster Jon Briggs is joined by Oxford don Robin Briggs and Professor Alison Rowlands to uncover one of the biggest surprises in witchcraft history - the forgotten victims of the witch hunts, the men!We explore why women were still far more likely to be accused, why women often accused other women? And why have the thousands of men who stood trial for witchcraft been almost completely forgotten?The truth is far more complicated, and far more fascinating, than the stereotype.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

How many people were really executed during the witch hunts?The answer is almost certainly not the one you think.In this episode of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, broadcaster Jon Briggs is joined by historians and witchcraft experts Robin Briggs and Dr Jan Machielsen to unravel the myths surrounding Europe's witch trials. From the famous claim that nine million women were burned to the surprising number of men accused of witchcraft, you'll discover why the real history is every bit as fascinating as the fiction.If you think you know the story of the witch hunts... think again.Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production

Imagine living in a world where every illness, every storm and every stroke of bad luck had a supernatural cause.Long before Europe's witch hunts began, people believed the world was filled with unseen forces capable of helping... or harming them.In Episode One of Witches: Truth, Trials and Terrors, broadcaster Jon Briggs, historians and witchcraft specialists Robin Briggs and Professor Alison Rowlands uncover the world in which our ancestors were steeped, a world that made belief in witches seem perfectly rational. Before people believed in witches, they believed in a world where almost nothing happened by accident. A World Before Reason. Send us Fan MailIf you've enjoyed this episode - please follow, subscribe and comment so that we can continue creating more historical highlights. A Showstealers Ltd Production