In 1563 Queen Elizabeth passed the Witchcraft Act bringing witchcraft hysteria its own much later than did continental Europe. Tenants of the Act allowed the death penalty for those whom were found guilty of murder by witchcraft or sorcery.
In 1581 witchcraft Act was passed by James I of England to allow the execution by hanging of anyone fount guilty of trying to cause harm to someone else by means of witchcraft, whether or not the person on the receiving end of the witchcraft had actually died.
The 1640�s were the worst of the English hysteria as the country was gripped by political and social unrest. Matthew Hopkins, the notorious witch-finder, operated during this period in England.
The torture that was seen as a necessary part of these trials was banned in England and witchcraft was regarded as a civil crime. The execution for a witch in England was by hanging, not burning.
In the latter half of the seventeenth century the witchcraft hysteria generally tapered off with the last person executed being Alice Mollard in Exeter in 1684.
