Eps. 54 - The Windsor Witches
One dark and, hopefully, stormy night in 1574, Richard Galis went to bed after closing up the Garter Inn for the evening. He blew out the candle but, try though he did, he could not reach a restful slumber. So alone in the blackness, Richard tossed and turned and worked himself into a greater state of anxiety by listing in hishead his many misfortunes. Then around about the hour of midnight it came for him. A huge and terrifying black cat, as large as any dog that Richard had ever seen, appeared through some unknown entry into his bedchamber. It’s black fur stood out and bristled from it’s body as the beast padded silently closer to Richards bed. For a time Richard was paralysed with terror and his limbs were ridged with fear and pain...
Richard is convinced witches must have cursed him and sent one of their familiars to haunt his nights. This starts his one-man persecution of four innocent yet cantankerous old women. Despite rounding up the women in town, tying them with rope and paying children to drag them to the Mayors house in order to have them locked up for witchcraft, Richard was mostly ignored. That is until the Queen is cursed. Things then get serious for the poor old women of Windsor.
This is a story of wicked folk, but the wicked ones aren't the 'witches'.
Scottish word of the week : cannae or canny
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Help support this podcast by buying us a coffee -Buymeacoffee.com/hookedontruecrimeSources used in this episode:
Web
A brief treatise con- taining themost strange and horrible cruelty of Elizabeth Stile alias Rockingham and herconfederates, executed at Abingdon, upon R. Galis. 1579 : Galis, Richard : FreeDownload, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1475-1640_a-brief-treatise-con-ta_galis-richard_1579/page/1/mode/2up]
[TCP] [A brief treatise containingthe most strange and horrible cruelty of Elizabeth Stile alias Rockingham andher confederates, executed at Abingdon, upon R. Galis] [https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12024/A72130/A72130.html?sequence=5&isAllowed=y]
A Case of Witchcraft in ElizabethanWindsor - Windsor Local History Group [https://windsorlocalhistorygroup.org/windlesora/windlesora-27/a-case-of-witchcraft-in-elizabethan-windsor/]
RICHARD GALIS AND THE WITCHES OFWINDSOR | The Library [https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.1093/library/s4-XVIII.3.268?download=true]
Witches in Abingdon – Abingdon MuseumBlog [https://abingdonmuseumblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/witches-in-abingdon/]
Book
“Thou SavageWoman, Female Killers in Early Modern Times” (Blessing Adams)