We all think we know what we mean by a witch, but behind the clichés of pointy hats and broomsticks lies a terrifying history that’s been largely forgotten. Four hundred years ago, thousands of ordinary people, the vast majority of them women, were hunted down, tortured and killed in witch hunts across Scotland and England. Lucy Worsley investigates what lay behind these horrifying events.
She begins her investigation in North Berwick, a seaside town not far from Edinburgh, where the witch hunting craze began. The story goes that, in 1590, a coven of witches gathered here to cast a spell to try to kill the King of Scotland, James VI. Using an account from the time called Newes from Scotland and other first-hand sources, Lucy uncovers a web of political intrigue that led to a woman called Agnes Sampson, a faith healer and midwife, being investigated. She was accused of witchcraft and interrogated at Holyrood Castle by King James himself before being tortured and executed.
Agnes was caught in a perfect storm: hardline Protestant reformers wanting to make Scotland devout, a king out to prove himself a righteous leader, and a new ideology which claimed the Devil was actively recruiting women as witches. Under torture, Agnes gave the names of her supposed accomplices, some 59 other innocent people, resulting in the first successful large-scale witch hunt in Scotland. Its brutal success made it the model for trials rolled out across Scotland and England for the next hundred years.
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Robert Cecil is the son of Elizabeth I’s original spymaster. He has been groomed since birth to inherit his father’s network but when he finally steps into his father’s shoes, the Queen’s enemies are stronger than ever and Cecil must also watch his back. The Earl of Essex has established a rival network and is trying to oust Cecil as Elizabeth’s spymaster.
Essex is everything Cecil is not. Cecil is bent-backed and under five foot tall. Essex is an athlete and a war hero who flirts with the Queen. But the two men have known each other since childhood. And now they are locked in a battle that is part court theatrical but which is also a lethal spy war in which people die horrifically violent deaths. The stakes are huge. For the winner, untold power. For the loser a one-way trip to the scaffold.
Cecil is also aware that the sun is setting on the reign of Elizabeth, who is in her sixties. He and Essex are not just battling for control of the Queen, but for control over who will be her successor. For the power to select the next King of England. Essex begins a spy war within the spy war by secretly approaching James VI of Scotland and striking a deal to put him on Elizabeth’s throne when she has passed away. So Cecil must somehow oust Essex from Elizabeth’s court without making an enemy of James who Cecil also wants to inherit the throne.
This is a secret conflict, involving double agents, coded letters, treachery and treason. It is a world that Cecil proves to be an absolute master of. Cecil ruthlessly manoeuvres Essex to the execution block and becomes the man who puts James on the English throne.
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Brian Cox explores the ingredients needed for an intelligent civilisation to evolve in the universe - the need for a benign star, for a habitable planet, for life to spontaneously arise on such a planet and the time required for intelligent life to evolve and build a civilisation. Brian weighs the evidence and arrives at his own provocative answer to the puzzle of our apparent solitude.
4 page worksheet
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Bob Hale and Rattus Rattus guide us through the horrible history of 1914-18. Featuring the soldiers, pilots, civilians, girl guides, suffragettes and even kings who were all caught up in the fighting.
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In a Horizon special, naturalist Sir David Attenborough investigates whether the world is heading for a population crisis.
In his lengthy career, Sir David has watched the human population more than double from 2.5 billion in 1950 to nearly seven billion. He reflects on the profound effects of this rapid growth, both on humans and the environment.
While much of the projected growth in human population is likely to come from the developing world, it is the lifestyle enjoyed by many in the West that has the most impact on the planet. Some experts claim that in the UK consumers use as much as two and a half times their fair share of Earth’s resources.
Sir David examines whether it is the duty of individuals to commit not only to smaller families, but to change the way they live for the sake of humanity and planet Earth.
3 page resource
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Three introductory slides to explain the chronological course of the break down in relationships between Britain and her Thirteen North American Colonies.
Historian Dr Thomas Asbridge explores the BBC’s archive to reveal how television’s telling of the Crusades has changed over the last 60 years. Using footage from Crusade documentaries shot during the Vietnam era, the Palestinian Crisis, the First Gulf War and the more recent War on Terror, he reveals how our interpretation of this medieval story has been influenced by modern political and social change. Thomas highlights the alternative Arabic perspectives on the Crusades, and asks whether this 1,000-year-old story really does cast its long shadow over the modern world, as so many have claimed.
With contributions from Monty Python star and medievalist Terry Jones, Washington economist JK Galbraith, and historians Simon Sebag Montefiore, Dr Peter Frankopan, Prof Konrad Hirschler and Dr Fozia Bora.
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Vanessa Collingridge examines the life of Elizabeth Tudor, with particular interest in how documentary television and the BBC has examined her legacy and interrogated her reign. Using Timewatch and other BBC archive stretching back over 60 years, Vanessa looks at her upbringing, her conflicts with her enemies including Mary, Queen of Scots, and her greatest victory against the Spanish Armada. The programme seeks to understand how Elizabeth I created a legacy that we still live with today, and examines how that legacy has changed over the centuries.
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In 1881 Virgil Earp,marshal of Tombstone, suspects Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers of stealing cattle and,backed up by his brothers Wyatt and Morgan and ‘Doc’ Holliday,challenges them to surrender near the OK corral. In the following thirty second shoot-out the suspected and unarmed thieves are shot in the back,leading to the Earps standing trial for murder - though they are exonerated by the judge,who also happens to be a relation. This retelling,along with commentaries,is a far darker version of the story in which the Earps are usually represented as the unequivocally good guys.
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British journalist Rageh Omaar travels to the birthplace of Muhammad, documenting the prophet’s life from his beginnings in Mecca to his death in 632. Over the course of three one-hour episodes, Omaar explores the prophet’s personal life as well as key events like the Night Journey to Jerusalem and his departure from Mecca. Filmed on location in Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, Turkey, Syria, the United States, the United Kingdom and Jordan, the series also addresses Islam’s role in the world today.
Ep1 The Seeker
Ep2 Holy Wars - FREE RESOURCE
Ep3 Holy Peace
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Historian Simon Montefiore follows a chronological journey to trace and illuminate the sacred and peerlessly beautiful history of Jerusalem, one of the oldest cities in the world.
Ep1- Simon Sebag Montefiore begins a history of Jerusalem by exploring how it came into being and how it became so important to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Ep2- Simon Sebag Montefiore continues his history of Jerusalem by discovering the impact of Islam and the crusaders’ attempt to win it back for Christianity.
Ep3- How Jerusalem became the object of rivalry between Christian nations, the focus of the longing of Jews and the site of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
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Kate Humble and Dr. Helen Czerski go on a mission to chronicle the devastating effects of Earth’s movements. By following its voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, 584 million miles, Humble and Czerski discover why the planet tilts and how this results in such weather events as monsoons. They also find that some of the smallest changes in Earth’s movement caused ice ages and that another glacial period could happen in the future.
Ep1- Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, travelling first from July to the December solstice and showing its effect.
Ep2- Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, this time travelling from January to the March equinox.
Ep3-Kate Humble is in the Arctic, where spring arrives with a bang. Helen Czerski chases a tornado to show how the earth’s angle of tilt creates the most extreme weather on the planet. An already free resource on my Shop
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BBC - Twentieth Century Battlefields - Peter and Dan Snow
Historian Peter Snow tells the story of the most important battles of the 20th Century. Armed with his mapcase which presents digital illustrations of his presentations, Snow tells the big picture of these clashes and their impact. Meanwhile, his son, Dan, goes into the field to explore the details of these battles and the part they played in the grand context of history
BBC Twentieth Century Battlefields - Ep7 - The Falklands - Worksheet to support the BBC Documentary
In 1982, Argentina triggered the last battle on British territory when it invaded the Falkland Islands. Peter and Dan Snow fly 8,000 miles to the South Atlantic to tell the story of how the British Task Force fought back to regain control.
With his high-tech graphic mapcase, Peter shows the challenges faced by the British, thousands of miles from home. Dan feels the force of the Sea Harrier fighter jets, so crucial to the survival of the British fleet in these icy waters, and goes on a night-fighting training exercise under live fire to experience for himself the tactics used by the British ground troops in their fight to dislodge the Argentinians.
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BBC - Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey Episode 3
Right now you’re hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour (100,000 kms an hour). In the next year you’ll travel 584 million miles, to end up back where you started.
Presenters Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, to witness the astonishing consequences this journey has for us all.
In this final episode we complete our journey, travelling back from the March equinox to the end of June. Kate Humble is in the Arctic at a place where spring arrives with a bang, whilst Helen Czerski chases a tornado to show how the earth’s angle of tilt creates the most extreme weather on the planet.
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BBC - Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey Episode 2
Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, this time travelling from January to the March equinox.
Right now you’re hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour (100,000 kms an hour). In the next year you’ll travel 584 million miles, to end up back where you started.
Presenters Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, to witness the astonishing consequences this journey has for us all.
In this second episode we travel from January to the March equinox. Kate Humble gets closer to the Sun than she has ever been before, whilst Helen Czerski visits a place that gets some of the biggest and fastest snowstorms on Earth.
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BBC - Orbit: Earth’s Extraordinary Journey Episode 1
Right now you’re hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour (100,000 kms an hour). In the next year you’ll travel 584 million miles, to end up back where you started.
Presenters Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth’s voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, to witness the astonishing consequences this journey has for us all.
In this first episode they travel from July to the December solstice, experiencing spectacular weather and the largest tides on Earth. To show how the Earth’s orbit affects our lives, Helen jumps out of an aeroplane and Kate briefly becomes the fastest driver on Earth.
Written in Publisher and formatted to A3 the resource can be saved as a PDF for A4 printing