How can one explain the witch-hunts that swept through europe in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? who were the victims? why were so many of the accused women?

There was much superstition and ignorance in 17th century England. Witchcraft had been illegal since 1563 and hundreds of women were wrongly accused. The witch hunts lasted from 1645, just after the Battle of Naseby, to 1647. Of course, the belief in witchcraft was not something new to the 1640s. People accused of witchcraft were persecuted throughout the medieval and Tudor periods.