Feminazgûl 🕷

The Woman of the Day is Agnes Mylles of Wiltshire, the first West Country woman to be executed as a witch. She was hanged after the Witchcraft Act became law in England in 1562. Scotland passed its own Act the following year. Properly titled an ‘Act agaynst Conjuracons Inchantments and Witchecraftes’, it was England’s second witchcraft statute and formally criminalised a fact-defying nebulous belief that required no definition and no measurable evidence beyond subjective accusation or outrage. The Act directed that anyone believed to "use, practise, or exercise any Witchcraft, Enchantment, Charm, or Sorcery, whereby any person shall happen to be killed or destroyed", was guilty of a felony without benefit of clergy, and was to be put to death. This was during the reign of Elizabeth I when her court was gripped by fear of Catholic plots to topple the Queen. The Act was a consequence. It was fundamental to all of the English witch-trials that followed during that period. Agnes was accused of using witchcraft to murder the infant son of Wiltshire MP Sir Edward Bayntun and his wife, also named Agnes. How the child died is unknown but infant mortality in those days was high and about 30% died before their first birthday. It left Sir Edward without a direct heir, meaning his considerable estate would in time pass to his half brother and wife Dorothy. Agnes was accused of being commissioned jointly by Bayntun’s aunt-by-marriage Dorothy and the Devil himself in order to clear the way for Dorothy’s husband to inherit the Bayntun family fortune. Very little is known about Agnes including what she was supposed to have done or why she was allegedly chosen for the job, but I’d say that she was probably fell foul of a number of politically correct expectations. She was a Catholic, she was a widow, and she was poor and elderly. That would be sufficient in those days to portray her as that most dangerous of women, a witch-for-hire. How did anyone be sure she was responsible? Simple. All that was required was accusation and outrage. The heartbroken parents approached the Bishop of Salisbury and local magistrates with their suspicion that their infant son’s sudden death could only be explained by witchcraft. It was just a suspicion but by luck or chance, someone mentioned to the visiting Assizes judges that Jane Marsh, a widow in Somerset, was “of such skill and knowledge that she could detect persons who used witchcraft”. (That skill in itself sounds remarkably similar to “witchcraft” to me, but I digress…) Mistress Marsh was invited to travel to Salisbury and promptly identified Dorothy Bayntun as the instigator and the hapless Agnes Mylles as the perpetrator. Utterly compelling, don’t you think? It was certainly good enough for the Assizes judges. In April 1564, Agnes was tried, convicted and hanged at Fisherton near Salisbury. Jane Marsh’s reward was to be consigned to prison too while the wealthy Dorothy went free. Had Dorothy been content to enjoy her wealth, nothing more might have been known about the case but in May 1565, she and the Bishop of Salisbury (yes, him again. He keeps popping up) pressured the bereaved parents into complaining to the Court of Chancery about Jane Marsh’s incarceration. After all, she was only helping out. The only way Jane could regain her freedom was to retract her accusation, so she did, but it was thirteen months too late for poor Agnes. Just to bring you full circle, a key apologist for the Elizabethan religious settlement and arguably one of the main movers behind the Witchcraft Act was a bloke called John Jewel. Yes, the Bishop of Salisbury. Witch trials were conducted in England from the 15th century until the 18th century. About five hundred people were executed, about 90% of them women. All you had to do to avoid attention under this all-compassing Act that visited terrible punishment on innocent people on the subjective word of an accuser was to follow the rules. Don’t be older or “crone-like” (for which read: showing signs of age or a hard life); Don’t be poor; Don’t upset anyone; And above all, don’t be a woman. By now, you might well think that I am in any way drawing a parallel with the latest iteration of Conversion Therapy Bill, with its own reliance on a nebulous belief that requires no measurable evidence beyond subjective outrage. That’s purely in your imagination of course. And possibly mine. If it passes in what used to be regarded as the Mother of Parliaments but now seems to be occupied by a large cohort of one-term ideologues with a “progressive and inclusive” agenda, just remember that to avoid accusation, you need to follow the rules: Do not hold or express the lawful view that there are only two sexes and that same-sex orientation is not only valid but really does mean same-sex, not “gender” (whatever that is); Do not be a concerned therapist, social worker, teacher, medical professional or anyone else for whom safeguarding is a duty and a priority; And above all, don’t be a responsible parent who just wants to reassure their confused and vulnerable child that it’s perfectly OK to accept and love the body they’re in.