Saturday 27 October 2018

Could you Survive a Witch Trial? Take the Quiz


I'm off to do some witchcraft in the West Country today - so a few hundred years ago I'd definitely have been considered suspicious. If you want to find out how likely it is you would have been tried as a witch, here's a rather scary little quiz you can do.

Inspired by the Bideford Witch Trials, the last known site for hanging for witchcraft in England, holiday company Stay in Devon has created an interactive test to discover whether you'd survive the trials and what your punishment would be.

Can You Survive the Witch Trials? asks a series of questions to determine your level of guilt and then reveals one of 15 possible punishments. Using information from historical research, the quiz assesses your physical and personality traits and assigns a punishment based on how likely you were to be considered a witch between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Women were four times more likely to be accused of witchcraft than men during the 16th century. Between 1500 and 1600, almost 80,000 suspected witches were sentenced to death in Europe. The youngest victim of the Witch Trials was only five years old.

The quiz outcomes include:

  • No punishment
  • Pricking
  • Stocks
  • Thumbscrews
  • Banishment
  • The boot
  • Iron bar
  • Scalding baths
  • Strappado
  • The rack
  • Ducking
  • Pressing
  • Hanging
  • Pulled apart
  • Burned at the stake

James Starkey, Stay In Devon Marketing Manager, said: “We’re very proud of our history and heritage in Devon – but the area doesn’t half have some gruesome stories to tell as well! Not least the fact that the last ever witch hangings took place in the Little White Town of Bideford back in 1682.

“With Halloween fast-approaching, we wanted to see how people in the modern day would have fared during the height of the witch trials. Our interactive quiz will tell you whether or not you’d have been found guilty of being a witch – and reveals the gruesome punishment you’d have had to endure!”

To find out whether you’d survive the Witch Trials or what your horrific punishment would be, undertake the test at: https://www.stayindevon.co.uk/survive-witch-trials/

Notes: Data gathered from around 45 different sources including National Geographic, Britannica, History.com and Parliament.uk.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems I would have been subjected to a terrible torture called the Strappado.
Norm.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps this may be of some interest:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1720220557