The Tudor's Dynasty podcast.

Hello and welcome back to the show. I'm your host, Rebecca Larson.

Imagine you wake up one morning to find out that you are being accused of killing your neighbor.

Not only that, you did it using witchcraft. And it's also the mid-1500s in England.

This is what happened to Agnes Waterhouse in 1566.

She was accused of using witchcraft to kill her neighbor, William Fine.

She was not a rich woman by any means and was said to have a white cat that she called Satan.

Reports say that Satan could speak in a low and hollow

voice and would do anything for a drop of blood. The Elizabethans lived in a world steeped in magic and

beliefs. They believed that there were agents working for the devil and that they were capable of causing more than just harm to someone.

They were thought to wield forbidden magic, cursing crops, conjuring storms, and even slipping their skin to take form of animals under the moonlight.

Witchcraft was not simply a crime in the minds of the people.

It was a pervasive fear that seeped into the inner of their world.

It was believed that witches had marks called Witch's Marks or Devil's Marks,

which were thought to be a physical sign that they had made a pact with the devil.

These could be moles, scars, or any

unusual growths in the body. In many cases, these marks were discovered by the very accusers who

sought to demonize the women. Once a person was suspected of witchcraft, the idea that they could wield

power of the devil

became an undeniable truth in the eyes of the fearless masses.

The year was 1542, and England's lawmakers etched fear into stone.

The witchcraft act made sorcery not just a sin, but a crime worthy of the noose.

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