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A royal obsession with black magic started Europe's most brutal witch hunts
In the 1590s, King James VI of Scotland's fear of witchcraft began stirring up national panics, resulting in the torture and death of thousands.
Toil and Trouble
An engraving reproduces Henry Fuseli’s 1783 painting of the witches from Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. First performed in 1606, the play was a compliment to the newly crowned king of England, James I, who had published a book on witchcraft in 1597.
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