European witchcraft The article currently fails to address the very significant differences between the English experience of witchcraft and the wider European one and the role that religious strife between Protestants and Catholics in the late 16th and early 17th century played as the case of the Samlesbury witches demonstrates Except for the brief career of Matthew Hopkins in East Anglia there were none of the witchhunts so common in continental Europe and some English counties like Cheshire had rather few witch trials and only about 11 executions for witchcraft in total IIRC Protestants in England did not share all the same views as their counterparts in continental Europe being somewhat influenced by the views of King James I Fatuorum