The Bewitching of Anne Gunter: A Horrible and True Story of Deception, Witchcraft, Murder, and the King of England

In 1604, 20-year-old Anne Gunter was bewitched: she foamed at the mouth, contorted wildly in her bedchamber, went into trances. Her garters and bodices were perpetually unlacing themselves. Her signature symptom was to vomit pins and "she voided some pins downwards as well by her water or otherwise." Somewhat suspiciously, the three women accused of bewitching her were related to two men killed by her father during a rowdy football match years earlier. As Anne's case became ever more celebrated, a number of Oxford dons and other notables weighed in with their opinions, providing us with an extraordinary record of the case. After the three witches were tried and acquitted, Anne's father appealed directly to King James I, a noted witchhunter. The case was re-opened and the ensuing trial in the Star Chamber - with over 50 witnesses - revealed all. The Bewitching of Anne Guntheris a compelling true crime story investigated in all its intricacies for the first time in 400 years. Like StevenOzment'sThe Burgermeister's Daughter, it's a tale of controlling fathers, willful daughters, nosy neighbors, power relations between peasants and aristocrats, and village life in early modern Europe. Above all, it's the highly engaging account of one woman's experience of the greatly misunderstood phenomenon of witchcraft.

James Sharpe is Professor of History at York University in Great Britain.