Peter, I've often wondered why everybody knows about the Salem witch trials in America,

but people talk less about witch hunting in Europe, in spite of the fact that it is on a

monumentally bigger scale. Do you think that people really understand the scale and gravity of

what happened here? No, absolutely not. You're right that the

sailing witch trials and the witch hunts that go in the colonies in the United States become incredibly

famous. And that's partly a product of historiography of people thinking about the early history of

the US after the Europeans arrive. But I mean, the stuff that goes on in Europe is absolutely epic.

And actually, some of it I think is, I mean, we're going to talk about it, is a bit connected

to climate and what's happening in the late 1500s and 1600s. But I would like you, Afro,

to start by telling us a story that sets into context. It gives an idea about how widespread and how vicious

persecution of women are going to say rather than witches is in Europe in the kind of late

1500s.

It would seem weird to say nothing would delight me more because there's nothing delightful

about this story.

But I oblige.

Hello and welcome to a new episode of Legacy.

I'm Afwa Hirsch.

I'm Peter Frankipern.

And this is Legacy, the show that explores the lives, events and ideas that have shaped our world

and asks whether they have the original Witch Hunt.

So I do want to start with the story, Peter, and it's about King James the 6th of Scotland,

who would later become James I of England. In 1589, he gets married. So far, so good. His bride to be is Anne of Denmark,

...