In this talk, Steven Veerapen will trace King James VI and I’s interest in witchcraft (born and given expression in Scotland’s first national witch panic in 1590/1) and consider its legacy across the British Isles and beyond.

James was feted (and promoted himself) as Rex Pacificus: an international peacemaker who sought British unity, Protestant unity, and Christian harmony. Whilst he objected to sending men to die on the battlefields of Europe, however, he was prepared to wage a spiritual war on ‘witches’: a popular enemy increasingly identified by theologians across the continent as a real and present danger.

Can the king of peace and plenty be reconciled with the inveterate witch hunter? Did the king modify his views as time marched on? Did his writings on the subject cast a spell that enchanted and terrified his realms and colonies for centuries?