Poet Laureate Simon Armitage tells the extraordinary tale of a demon-hunting obsessed King, and the witch trials of women from the UK to the US that suffered at the hands of his beliefs.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for her hand for many years and, even as a married man, sparked endless gossip in court with the endless attention that he lavished upon the Queen.
Ironically, however, it wa...

In January 1327 Edward II was forced to abdicate his throne in favour of his 14 year old son Edward III and was then incarcerated at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. He died there 6 months later possibly in the most gruesome of manners.

Tragedy struck the Papal household in 1497 when Pope Alexander VI's favourite son, Juan, was murdered. Aged 23 he was last seen leaving a feast in Rome. The following morning his horse returned riderless. A search party sent out by his frantic father found his body in the Tiber with a slit throat...

In 1483, Edward V, King of England aged 13 was deposed by his uncle,Richard III and soon afterwards disappeared from his heavily guarded royal lodgings in The Tower of London along with his 9 year old brother, Richard, Duke of Norfolk.

In Deptford, London in 1593, aged just 29, the brilliant but controversial young playwright, Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death. Was this simply a drunken brawl over a bill or did Queen Elizabeth I order his assassination over his subversive, atheistic behaviour?

In 1190, aged just 3, Arthur, Duke of Brittany was designated heir to the throne of England by his uncle, Richard I in preference to Richard's own brother John. Upon Richard's death, however, he named John his successor fearing that Arthur was too young to rule. Was Arthur's subsequent death John...