Witches and their Familiars

By the Early Modern period in England, many people associated witches with their accompanying animals called “familars.” At the bottom of this woodcut you can see “Boy” (also “Boye”) the dog and alleged familiar of the military leader Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who died with his master in battle in 1644.

The familiars of 17th-century were not Disney-esque adorable pets, but chillingly evil beasts who worked the commands of Satan alongside their alleged witches. They were frequently tied to their mistresses (or sometimes masters) through blood, with witches sometimes giving them blood from their fingers. Eventually an idea emerged that these magic users would grow a special teat for their familiars to suck from, and during the witch trials this nipple could be an identifier called “the Devil’s Mark” to condemn someone.

Boye was a rare breed of hunting poodle given to Prince Rupert, who was engaged against the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians witnessed the dog accompanying his owner into battle and engaged in a propaganda campaign to smear Rupert’s reputation. Some of this manifested in published accusations that Boye was a familiar, or even the devil. The anti-Parliamentarian Royalists ridiculed these claims by going over the top with satirical rejoinders, asserting that Boye could catch bullets in his mouth, find hidden treasure, and shapeshift.

Neither Rupert nor his dog had to endure a witch trial. Both were killed in the same battle, Boye having escaped from being safely tied up so that he could join his master in the fray. The second image is from a contemporary woodcut.