How royal panic led to Europe's deadliest witch hunts

How Scotland's war on witchcraft started

This 31-minute podcast episode details the beginning of Scotland's witch hunts and their relation to King James VI and I. Between 1589 and 1590, Princess Anne of Denmark set sail for Scotland, where she planned to marry James, the king of Scots in line for the English throne. Storms plague Anne's journey, and Anne's homeland finds the storms suspicious, putting supposed witches on trial for the inclement and threatening weather.

A map of those accused of witchcraft across Scotland

This data visualization pinpoints where accused Scottish witches lived during the witch hunts, of which there were five waves. This map also allows viewers to see the social class of the accused and where they died and were tried. Viewers also can...

Superstitious actors believe ‘Macbeth’ is cursed

Actors playing in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”—a story filled with ghosts, witches, and magic—call it the “Scottish play” out of superstition, a tradition since the play’s first production.

Play 17th-century death roulette

Before modern science and medicine, death was much harder to escape. Using real mortality records from London's Dreadful Visitation–a collection of all the Bills of Mortality from 1665–this interactive game gives you an idea of what may have possibly killed you during the Great Plague. Grow your appreciation for life today as you stumble upon causes of death like “livergrown” and “drowned at St. Katharine’s by the Tower”.

The most haunted locations in the US

This TimeOut guide presents some of the most notorious places in the United States, profiling the creepy histories of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the Waverly Hills Sanitorium in Louisville, Kentucky, and the lingering effects of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

Why the Gunpowder Plot failed, and other questions answered by historians

The 1605 Gunpowder Plot aimed to blow up the English Parliament and King James VI and I. Guy Fawkes, often associated with the plot, was not the mastermind; Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour led it. They selected Parliament as their target due to...

The bubonic plague spread in three waves over 600 years

The Black Death refers to the first wave of the plague, which swept through Europe in the 14th century and killed 25 to 50 million people. Caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis carried by fleas (often on rats), the human toll was roughly one-third of Europe's population at the time.

The deadliest fireworks accident in history was Marie-Antoinette's wedding

In 1770, a fireworks display in Paris celebrating the marriage of Marie-Antoinette to the Dauphin, later known as Louis XVI, resulted in as many as 3,000 deaths. Most casualties were caused by trampling from a panicked crowd of thousands rushing away after some fireworks were blown into the spectators.

The Hungarian countess rumored to have bathed in blood

According to legend, Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory killed up to 600 women to bathe in their blood and preserve her youth. Such allegations have been challenged since the 1980s when Slovakian archivist Josef Kocis published a book detailing new aspects of Báthory's life and included possible evidence of a conspiracy meant to undermine her power as part of Transylvania's ruling dynasty.

In 1951, a small French town was overtaken by the fungus that ultimately led to LSD

During the summer of 1951, the French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit appeared to go mad. Hundreds were treated for hallucinations and delirium, with some reporting ongoing hallucinations a month after the LSD-like symptoms appeared. Some historians argue it was a case of ergotism, better known in the Middle Ages as "burning disease" and "St. Anthony's Fire."

In medieval France, pigs were once put on trial

Pigs are omnivorous animals. There are hundreds of records of pigs killing and eating children in medieval Europe. In France, these tragedies often resulted in trials and then hangings. Some pigs were held in jail for years before being executed.

Christmas was briefly banned in 17th-century England

In the 1640s, Puritans outlawed Christmas, deeming it wasteful and unbiblical. For nearly two decades, celebrations were suppressed and violators fined, though many ignored the ban. The law was repealed in 1660.

Medieval European winters were colder than ours, but peasants stayed warm

Medieval winters were colder than ours today while the continent was mired in the so-called Little Ice Age. Without modern technologies, peasants survived with simple, sometimes genius, solutions, including central, chimney-less fireplaces (vented by small, draftless vents) and decorative handwarmers.

The bloody history of the true crime genre

The true crime genre appears to have crawled out of an unlocked closet between 1550 and 1700. Rising literacy rates and printing technologies during this period led to leaflets and ballads-turned-broadsides that graphically regurgitated the findings. These products often included woodcuts of the crime's "unsavory acts.". Such content was snapped up by the "artisan class and above" as poorer classes lacked the funds to fuel the hobby.

The human cost of creating medieval monsters

The concept and creation of monsters have been used since time immemorial to communicate social norms and the consequences of breaking them. Some so-called monsters were judged as such solely due to having features that would be considered birth defects in modern times. This in-depth article explores the human cost of creating medieval monsters, many of whom were defined by a physical appearance that deviates from the expected.

Parents criticized 'Dungeons & Dragons' during the 'Satanic Panic'

The role-playing game became popular enough to attract the ire of special interest groups, like Bothered About Dungeons & Dragons (or BADD) during the so-called "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s and 1990s, when parents believed the game was corrupting children.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

Stonehenge was part of a continent-wide "henge" boom

While Stonehenge is the most famous, it was one of roughly 1,300 henges built across prehistoric Europe. This piece from the British Museum situates Stonehenge within the broader ceremonial tradition.

The typo that scandalized a continent

One printing mistake in the 17th century proved so unfortunate it cost two men their careers and scandalized religious folks for centuries. Read the story here.

Catalonia and the War of the Spanish Succession

The War of Spanish Succession (1702-1715) was an international and civil war that reshaped Europe’s political landscape and brought Catalonia under Spanish rule. Created by the Museum of the History of Catalonia in Barcelona, this virtual exhibit guides readers through the 13-year war with a specific eye for its effects on Catalonia. Galleries of artwork from the period on the right-hand side of the page help immerse visitors in the history.

One hundred rare, vintage photos of the British royal family

Their power may be in symbol only, but the Royal family commands our attention anyway. Take a look through the last few decades at some of the more choice, unknown shots of the Royal family, from Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III.

Will-o'-the-wisps may be the result of microlightning between bubbles

Methane and air bubbles moving through water can generate small sparks between them, which can ignite gas. The above-ground phenomenon may have historically been the result of passing travelers igniting swamp gas with their lanterns. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

One in five 16th century Spanish ships sank while crossing the Atlantic

Despite the incredibly high rate of catastrophic wrecks, during the Age of Exploration Spanish investors continued to fund voyages. Here, economists break down the incentives that led to increased risk, including short travel seasons and the propensity to overload ships.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

A 101 on the 'Death Cap,' the world's deadliest mushroom

The Death Cap, also known as amanita phalloides, is the most fatal mushroom on the planet, responsible for roughly 90% of the world's mushroom deaths per year. Ingestion of the mushroom wreaks havoc on the liver and kidneys, frequently leading to...

The Illuminati were a real espionage society in the 1770s

Bavarian professor Adam Weishaupt founded the group in 1776 as an anti-clerical, anti-royalist sect that used hierarchy, codes, and surveillance as a proto-spy network. Within a decade, it was suppressed, but the mythology never quite died. Today, it functions as an adaptable conspiracy theory, able to fit any era's anxieties about who really holds power.

London pet detectives set out to prove a spate of cat killings is the work of a serial killer

With dozens of felines turning up dead around London, a pair of pet detectives set out to prove it was the work of a serial killer.

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

See the 25 of the best photos of auroras from around the world.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.