page_title: Euphame MacCalzean
section_title: North Berwick Witch Trials of 1590-1591
hierarchical_section_title: Euphame MacCalzean / North Berwick Witch Trials of 1590-1591
caption_attribution_description: English: Suspected witches kneeling before King James; Daemonologie (1597)]]
context_page_description: Euphame MacCalzean was burnt to death as a result of the North Berwick Witch Trials of 1590-1591.
context_section_description: The cause of the events that led to the North Berwick Witch Trials was the behavior of a maid named Geillis Duncan. Duncan had ostensibly cured illnesses, raising suspicions, in November 1590. Her employer became suspicious that she was deriving her powers from the Devil. Duncan confessed, possibly under duress, to witchcraft and she implicated others including John Cane and Euphame MacCalzean.
  MacCalzean, Agnes Sampson and several others were accused of witchcraft. It was alleged that they had killed the Earl of Angus by witchcraft, and planned to murder the first king of England and Scotland, James VI. James was a king by divine right and he was seen as the chief defender against the Devil. James was convinced that magic was involved when Agnes Sampson recounted details of James' first night with his wife Anne of Denmark. The prosecutors cast MacCalzean as a controlling personality who used magic to bewitch her husband. She allegedly tried to cause the deaths of her husband, his father, and his extended family.
  The charges included the accusation that she had used her skills to relieve the God-ordained pain of women giving birth. Macalzean was said to have caused the death of her cousin and her nephew. She had argued with her uncle over the ownership of some land at Cliftonhall in Kirkliston and it was alleged that she had killed his son, her nephew, because of this dispute. MacCalzean was said to have attended an assembly of witches at Acheson's Haven where an image of James VI was given to the devil for the destruction of the king.
caption: North Berwick witch trials
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