Witch marks fit for a king beguile archaeologists at Knole

[microrobert]

Witch marks fit for a king beguile archaeologists at Knole

Marks discovered during extensive conservation were carved within months of Gunpowder Plot at great house in Sevenoaks for anticipated visit of James I



17th-century witch marks under floorboards at Knole in Sevenoaks, discovered during the National Trust’s extensive conservation project.

The witch marks newly discovered under 17th-century floorboards at Knole must have worked: there is no record of witches flying down any of the scores of chimneys of one of the largest houses in England. Unfortunately, the king they were designed to protect never came either.

The marks were carved at a time of national paranoia – within months of the failed Gunpowder Plot of November 1605 – for the anticipated visit of a king, James I, known to be fascinated by and terrified of witchcraft.

The craftsmen, working against the clock to construct sumptuous new state rooms in a medieval tower, took no chances: archaeologists found the marks not just in the bed chamber prepared for James, but carved into the joists and around the fireplace of the room directly overhead, which would probably have been occupied by one of his sons or a close member of his retinue.

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2...national-trust

[♥ Lily ♥]

Very interesting. I lived in a small cottage in Kent as an infant and the area did seem haunted. My Church of England primary school (Lady Boswell) was directly next to Knole House. Lady Boswell was the last lady to live in Knole House, and when she passed away, she left our school an inheritance. There's a village near Sevenoaks called Pluckley (it's absolutely beautiful... 700 year old cottages and houses, beautiful old pubs and graveyards). It's the second most haunted village in England, after Bramshot in Hampshire. Well I stayed in Pluckley once and some strange things happened.

Protestant King James is responsible for authoring 'Demonologie' (now in the British Library.) In this book, he wrote down ways for his witch-hunters to find a witch. He wrote that signs of someone being a 'witch' included finding a birthmark or a mole on them, someone who keeps a pet dog or cat (familiar) or who doesn't feel any pain in pin-prick tests all over their body. Hundreds of people didn't survive his torture tests in which he would often attend to watch people being tortured. Those who were found guilty of being a witch were burned alive at the stake.

The Pendle Witch Trials, the Essex Trials, and the Dorset Trials across England happened under King James. Trials by physical torture ordeals to determine peoples supposed innocence or guilt were commonplace for 1000 years when the churches ruled over Europe, prior to the European Enlightenment and fair trials in courts.

King James was very superstitious and he also instructed the famous witch-drowning tests. People who accused of being a witch on the basis of superstition would have their hands and legs tied and thrown into a lake. If they floated on the water in his trials, they were deemed as a witch and burned to death. If they drowned (which they inevitably did), their families were consoled by the churches that 'at least they died an innocent person.'

King James was barbaric and cruel. He also ordered Catholics to be killed, which is why Guy Fawkes and his conspirators wanted to blow King James 'back to his Scottish mountains.'

The tyrannical King James who enjoyed torturing people for keeping pets or having a birthmark on them, also sent loads of Irish slaves to the Caribbean. King James of Scotland forced a union between the crowns of Scotland and England and Wales, and was the first ever King to call himself as King of Great Britain.

The worst king ever and a psychotic serial killer. I wish there was a hell for holy mass killing james to burn in for all the people he murdered. He made it his mission to kill all native British Pagans and Witches. The only people he killed really wasn't so much Pagans or real Witches, but those who kept a pet, a birthmark or mole, or those who didn't survive his torture tests of drowning or pins pricked all over their naked bodies, which james attended and enjoyed watching as he was sadistic.

No wonder Guy Fawkes wanted to blow him up. The infamous Pendle Witch Trials under king james are sickening to read about as it involves children in the witch-hunt trials. I love reading books about Pendle and I've visited that Witch-land too in Lancashire.