Posted on 03/29/2014 8:36:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It took more than 400 years, but the infamous Lancashire Witches have finally got justice.
The city of Lancaster, where 12 were convicted and 10 of them hanged in 1612, corrected one of history’s most celebrated miscarriages of justice with a re-trial in a busy shopping centre. Panels of jurors invited to sit in judgement on the case through the day returned a not guilty verdict.
The “witches” of Pendle, including rival matriarchs Demdike and Chattox, were fitted up. A bit late, maybe. But at least the poor souls who were rounded up around Pendle Hill and subjected to a show trial at Lancaster Castle can finally rest in peace.
The recreation of the trial was part of a full day of events by the Lancaster University’s pioneering Campus in the City project looking at a story which has captured the imagination of generations.
It remains one of the most sensational execution cases in British history and shoppers in the St Nicholas Arcade were given an opportunity to be jurors and right one of British justice’s most notorious wrongs.
Dr Liz Oakley-Brown, senior lecturer in Shakespeare and Renaissance writing, said: “The fascination with this episode of Lancashire’s history shows no signs of waning.
“In the eyes of most Lancastrians the Lancashire Witches have long been pardoned and rehabilitated. Halloween is no longer a night when we fear unquiet souls, but a carnival of fancy dress and ‘trick or treat’. The Pendle Witch trail is a tourist attraction, followed by many visitors on buses, and a few exorcists!”
The university has set up a campus in an empty unit in the shopping arcade in an attempt to strengthen its connections with the community.
I don’t get it. They weighed the same as a duck. It’s a fair cop.
Oh by the way, I liked the story the Mods pulled, your ratio is just fine! ;^ )
Thank You!
You're welcome, you may be one of only a handful I haven't pissed off today! ;^ )
Samantha & Endora & Esmeralda & Uncle Arthur & Dr. Bombay were all guilty.
A nice fair and timely trial!
Not.
Likewise.
The Pendle witches weren't just accused of witchcraft as at Salem. They practiced it.
They boasted of their power to kill and sterilize people with magic - and they gave themselves occult names to deliberately inspire fear in others.
They went on trial when one group of witches denounced another to the authorities hoping to eliminate the competition for lucrative crop and fertility spells.
It backfired, and the authorities tried both sides.
When multiple witnesses have heard you brag that you are responsible for a sudden, explained death or two, you can find yourself in trouble.
It is not the law's job to scientifically prove that you could not have deliberately caused a death that you yourself have publicly boasted of causing.
“Fair Cop” is bringlish for "Righteous Bust".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronological_snobbery
These days we have a much higher tone of misconceptions and prejudices.
King Arthur: "I am Athur, King of the Britons!"
The Wise Sir Bedemere, kneeling: "My Liege..!"
“One second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. ‘Tis a silly place.”
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