Malefici-what? Well, here we go...

The title of the play is ‘Maleficium’ which rougly translates from Latin as the “act of doing harm” to somebody.

In the early 17th Century, it wasn’t enough simply to accuse someone of witchcraft. To secure a conviction, the jury had to be convinced that some actual harm had been done – so the prosecution had to prove ‘Maleficium’.

But there’s another reason we chose this title

If we go back to Thomas Potts’ account of the trial, “The Wonderful Discoverie of Witches in the County of Lancaster”, we soon see that it’s not just a record of what happened at the trials, it’s a piece of pure propaganda!

You’d expect that Potts would denounce the witches as evil, but the way he praisies the ‘dedication, fairness, wisdom and zeal’ of the trial judges Altham and Bromley is at times quite vomit inducing.

But then it would be. They commissioned him to write it

And again, it surely can’t be a coincidence that the publication is dedicated to Lord and Lady Knyvet?

Lord Knyvet won his peerage for discovering Guy Fawkes in the cellar of the Houses of Parliament on 5th November 1605. Yes, Guy Fawkes who was going to blow the King, his nobles and probably half of London to kingdom come.

Some of the evidence in the trial concerned a similar plot to blow up Lancaster Castle. So, what better way to draw attention than to dedicate your pamphlet to the hero of the day. The man who’d saved King James. The same King James who was notoriously paranoid about witches!

As a propaganda exercise it certainly worked. The pamphlet went viral, the trial judges benefitted from Royal favour and Potts went on to a number of Royal Appointments. Including ‘Collector of the Forfietures of Royal Sewers’ – don’t ask!

Conspiracy? Quite possibly.

Join us for our performance of Maleficium, a story of the Pendle Witches to discover the full story. Book your tickets now