Margaret Aitken (witch)

After being accused of witchcraft Aitken confessed but then identified hundreds of women as other witches to save her own life.

[7][8] Under the threat of extreme torture and to spare her own life,[6] during her confession she claimed to be able to recognise other witches[9] by looking for a special mark in their eyes.

[7] Following a final confession, where Aitken admitted to falsifying her powers, Marion Walker (an active resistor of John Cowper's witch hunts) distributed Aitken's confession, which ultimately brought the period to an end - leading to James I rendering the existing commissions at Falkland Palace invalid.

[14] Robert Bowes, the English ambassador in Edinburgh, wrote to Lord Burghley in August 1597 that the king was "lately pestered and many ways troubled in the examination of the witches which swarm in exceeding number and (as is credibly reported) in many thousands".

After this disastrous episode, James VI revoked the existing commissions on 12 August 1597 via a proclamation by the privy council at Falkland.

[6] The outcry over the Aitken affair meant that Scotland would not see another panic for another three decades,[12] but James VI's confidence in pursuing offenders was undiminished.