Research into whitchcraft in england

The first record of a witch being burned at the stake in the British isles was in 1324, although there was no law against witchcraft in England until 1542 and that law was repealed in 1547. In 1563 and new law against witchcraft was passed. this could have happened because of the witch craze in Europe at the time, in 1566 a 63 year old woman named Agnes was sentenced to death for bewitching a man to death.

The last witch executed in England was in 1682, where women were hanged, the death penalty of witches in England was then abolished in 1736. Estimates of witches sentenced to death are at about 400, around 90 percent of those sentenced were women.

Although executions of witchcraft have long disappeared from the world, cursing, hexing and causing death by witchcraft still remains powerful and offencive in may nations. Even today i think curses and hexing is still feared, weather people believe in it or not. There are still cults of witchcraft in the world although small and hidden. I think politics and the use of new laws increases fear among people (This applies to anything). if the government implement a new law then most people will abide by these laws, and this increases fear and spread of the superstition of witches. Another factor i think causes fear among people is the unknown, and the fear of what if?

Research:

1.Library. (N/A) Witchcraft in England The Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries. Retrieved from

http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/rare/witchcraft/w-england16&17/w-england16.html
2. SummerLands, Jenny Gibbons (N/A) Stage #9: Sentencing and Execution. Retrieved from http://www.summerlands.com/crossroads/remembrance/_remembrance/sent_execute.htm