Posted : July 2013
Author : the admin
A series of trials famous amongst a host of others local to
17th century England, the Essex witch hunts were largely the brain child of the
infamous Matthew Hopkins ‘Witchfinder General’. Hopkins was an Englishman who led a series of
trials over a period of little over a year, resulting in the deaths of some 300
women. Though the hunts instigated by Hopkins
during the Civil War era (1646/7) were usually exclusive to England’s south
east, they were known to stray into other parts of the country- in turn
influencing a chain of others like them. The Essex witch trials are
particularly interesting on the basis that Hopkins claimed to be an official
representative of the government the whole while, however his title as
‘Witchfinder General’, was never one bestowed onto him by parliament.
9. Doruchow
The last witch-hunt of its kind to take place in the
Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, the Doruchow witch trial took place in the late
18th century in the township of Doruchow, Poland. Original documents place
the trial to 1775 and claim that they resulted in the burning of 14 women, in
turn acting as a catalyst in bringing about the eventual ban on witch burning
in Poland.
However, a recent reassessment concluded the actual year was 1783, the number
of victims 6 and the influence on relevant legislation non-existent.
8. Fulda
Occurring between the years of 1603 and 1606, the Fulda
Witch Trials saw the death of some 250 woman from in and around the central
German city of Fulda.
Following the 20 year exile of the Prince abbot Balthasar von Dernbach, he
returned to power in the region with a strict agenda. Instigating a series of
arrests, trials and executions with the help of his right-hand man Balthasar
Nuss, the Prince abbot’s three year investigation remains infamous in the
region to this day. Ceasing only after Dernbachs death, Nuss was subsequently
imprisoned as a result of allegations that his actions were intended solely to
enrich himself. He was beheaded in 1618.
7. Bamberg
Another example of a prolonged European witch trial, this
one too occurring in central Germany,
and just two decades after the hunt at Fulda,
the Bamberg Witch Trials lasted for four years between 1626 and 1631. Resulting
in the deaths of between 300 and 600 people, the trials at Bamberg were some of
the largest to have occurred during this period, as well as constituting one of
the largest scale executions of the entire Thirty Years War period. Though one
of the largest witch trials to have happened in Europe around the time, Bamberg was in no way an isolated affair, with hundreds of
similar instances happening all over Germany
at the time, as well as in other parts of central and west Europe.
6. Trier
Though trials began in the diocese of Trier around 1581, they did not reach the
city itself until around 1587. Known as being one of the largest cases of mass
execution during peace time in recorded European history, the Witch Trials at Trier remain infamously
notable with Medieval scholars. A huge process, the trials took place between
the years of 1581 and 1593, claiming the lives of an estimated 1,000 people-
both men and women. At this time, the vast majority of modern day Germany was the domain of the Holy
Roman Empire, a fact which made it far more prone to religiously
motivated purges. Before this rooting out of ‘witches’, Trier played host to periods of prolonged
prosecution of both protestants and Jews.
5. Wurzburg
Yet another mass-scale witch hunt to have occurred in Germany, the trials at the Franconian city of Wurzburg occurred between
the years of 1626-1631. Coinciding with the thirty years war, the atrocities
claimed the lives of an estimated 900 men, woman and children all of whom were
charged, tried and executed as witches. Many of those burned were done so
because they were vagrants passing through the city without a good enough
explanation for their presence. The thirty years war was a time of mass
religious hysteria in central Europe, and
witch burning was a commonly turned to option in Kingdoms both catholic and
protestant. The prolonged hunt which enveloped Wurzburg was put to an end by Adolphus of
Sweden following his capturing of the city.
4. Louden
A witch hunt with but one eventual victim, this trial at the
French city of Louden
occurred in 1634. Having made a stir upon his arrival in the vicinity, Catholic
priest Urbain Grandier was soon to fall victim to an extremely elaborate plot
constructed by his very own clergy. A reportedly very handsome man, Grandier
was also very well connected politically and socially, as well as being
extremely rich. As a result, it wasn’t long until he began to make enemies in
his new hometown. Such distaste in the community culminated with a series of
faked possessions carried out by members of Grandiers parish, even including
several nuns, which were of course all blamed on the priest. It didn’t take
long for the poor guy to receive a swift trial and execution by burning as a
result of his so called demonic tendencies.
3. North Berwick
Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, Scotland played host to a very
large number of witch trials in the late Medieval/early modern period. Still a predominantly
Catholic nation at this time, the country was just as susceptible to
religiously motivated hysteria as any of its neighbours. The North Berwick
witch trials are of particular note due to their reputation as being the first
major persecution of their kind to occur in Scotland, as well as holding direct
association with the King of the country at the time, James VI. It is a widely
held opinion that the first trial in the wider hunt which occurred throughout
the county of East Lothian from 1590-92 was curated
directly by the King. Having encountered perilous storms during his return from
Copenhagen,
where he travelled to marry Danish Princess Anne, James believed that known
oppositional nobles were to blame- and soon had them punished accordingly. This
impulsiveness in turn triggered an unstoppable wave of hysteria which took hold
of the area, and later the entire nation. It is believed that some 4,000 people
were burned as witches in Scotland
in decades either side of the infamous trials at North Berwick.
2. Salem
An infamous witch hunt which has since been immortalised in
countless pieces of literature, the Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between
February 1692 and May 1693. Though still a series of colonies at this time, many
of the areas of settlement, particularly those along the eastern seaboard (such
as New England) were of an extremely devout
Puritan faith. With the cases of religious paranoia and demonic hysteria which
were occurring over the Atlantic at the time,
it seems that the baton was at some point passed on to the new world. Amongst a
series of North American witch trials at the time, Salem stands alone as the most notable as a
result of the sheer number of people it incriminated.
1. Pendle
Culminating with trials at both Lancaster and York, the
Pendle witch hunt was centred around the incrimination of some 12 individuals
hailing from the region of Pendle Hill, Lancashire -
North West England.
A region declared as ‘lawless’ around the time, Pendle Hill noted the arrest of
a dozen proposed witches in the summer of 1612, following a number of
allegations made by local residents. It is now known that half of those accused
came from either one of two families, and that the two had been in direct
competition with one another- making a living through ‘healing’ and generally
extorting their respective communities. It is highly likely that each is
responsible for the others eventual incrimination as a result of this fact.
~Blog Admin~
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