The Scottish Witchcraft Act

The Scottish Witchcraft Act of 1563 made the practice of witchcraft and consulting with witches capital offenses. James VI played a major part as 'victim' and investigator in the North Berwick witch trials that began in 1589 and were the first major series of trials under the new act. The king published a defense of witch-hunting in the 'Daemonologie' in 1597 but later became increasingly skeptical and took steps to limit prosecutions. Scotland tried an estimate of 6,000 people for witchcraft, where seventy-five per cent of the accused were women and over 1,500 executed.