The witch craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580–c1750 - 4…

The idea

The English Civil War shattered the normal machinery of government in East Anglia. Royal authority collapsed, episcopal church courts ceased to function, and county magistrates were divided by allegiance, so the customary checks on accusation and prosecution weakened. Into this vacuum stepped local committees and Parliament's assize judges, who were willing to hear witchcraft cases. At the same time the war brought severe economic crises: heavy taxation, requisitioning, failed harvests and disrupted trade produced hunger, unemployment and vagrancy. These pressures made communities anxious and suspicious, and they made poor, dependent neighbours easier to scapegoat. The breakdown of authority and economic distress together created the conditions in which Hopkins and Stearne could operate with unusual freedom.

What earns the marks

• Explains how the collapse of royal and episcopal authority removed the church courts and traditional checks on witchcraft prosecution.
• Links the division of county magistrates and local committees to inconsistent or weakened local justice.
• Shows that Parliament's assize judges and local committees were willing to hear witchcraft accusations during the 1640s.
• Connects wartime taxation, requisitioning, failed harvests and disrupted trade to hunger, unemployment and vagrancy.
• Explains how economic distress made poor and dependent neighbours more vulnerable to scapegoating.
• Argues that the breakdown of authority and economic crisis together created the conditions for the East Anglian witch craze.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating the Civil War as only a political event and ignoring its legal and economic consequences.

  Put it right by linking political breakdown to the collapse of church courts and to wartime economic hardship.

• Assuming that all traditional authority vanished everywhere.

  Put it right by explaining that authority fragmented unevenly, with some local officials continuing while others lost power.

• Presenting economic crisis as a direct cause of every accusation.

  Put it right by treating it as a background pressure that made communities more anxious and more willing to scapegoat the poor.

Exam tips

• Anchor answers in the specific period 1645–47 and the East Anglian context rather than generalising about all of Europe.
• Use precise causal language such as 'weakened', 'removed' and 'intensified' to show how each factor operated.
• Integrate political and economic factors in one argument instead of listing them separately.