Witch trials within the Netherlands

Throughout the late Center Ages and early fashionable interval, Europe was beneath the spell of witch-hunts and witch trials. Between roughly 1400 and 1700, round 40.000 to 60.000 folks have been accused of practising witchcraft and executed, usually in horrific methods. 80 % of those folks have been ladies, usually poor, older, single and with out energy. Lots of them have been healers and midwives.

The variety of folks placed on trial for witchcraft was the best within the former Holy Roman Empire (50.000), adopted by Poland (15.000), Switzerland (9.000), French-speaking Europe (10.000), Spanish and Italian peninsulas (10.000) and Scandinavia (4.000).

The way it all started

Throughout the Early Center Ages, Christian doctrine believed the existence of witches and witchcraft to be a pagan superstition. In 785, the Germanic Council of Paderborn even outlawed the idea in witches and the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne confirmed the regulation afterward.

Nonetheless, Christian views started to alter in direction of the tip of the Center Ages, influenced by the writings of the poet Dante Alighieri and thinker Thomas Aquinas, amongst others. The idea unfold that witches have been the truth is actual and conspiring with the satan, which marked the start of witch-hunts in Europe.

The Netherlands and witch trials

Whereas the Netherlands additionally performed witch trials in the course of the late Center Ages, the variety of trials and subsequent executions is among the many smallest in Europe. The Netherlands additionally halted their executions sooner than some other European nation. Nonetheless, it’s estimated that between 164 and 200 folks (300 folks when together with deaths in areas that have been beneath Spanish jurisdiction on the time) misplaced their lives in witch trials within the Netherlands. This quantity consists of individuals who have been executed, in addition to those that died of torture earlier than execution and those that died in jail. Out of the 164 documented victims, 155 have been ladies.

Witch trials within the Northern Netherlands

There’s a notable distinction relating to the variety of recorded deaths and the height of the witch trials per province. Many of the trials within the Northern Netherlands (generally known as the Dutch Republic) appeared to have taken place between 1550 and 1575, which is when the witch trials have been solely starting within the Southern Netherlands (comprising of most of Belgium, Luxembourg and small elements of the trendy Netherlands).

Listed here are the recorded deaths per province within the Northern Netherlands:

• Groningen: 50 deaths (peaks in 1540s & 1590)
• Guelders: 46 deaths (peaks in 1540s and 1550s)
• Holland: 39 deaths (peaks in mid 1560s, 1585 and 1591)
• Utrecht: 23 deaths (peaks in 1520s and 1530s)
• Zeeland: 4 deaths
• Drenthe: 1 loss of life
• Oversticht: 1 loss of life

The Southern Netherlands: The Roermond witch trials of 1613

The Roermond witch trials of 1613 are thought of probably the most notorious witch trials that befell in present-day the Netherlands (again then it was beneath Spanish rule). With 64 victims tortured and burned to loss of life in and round Roermond, it was actually the most important.

Nonetheless, varied sources argue the validity of this declare, as this data was taken from a four-page pamphlet that was revealed in Nijmegen round 1613 / 1614. Whereas the occasions talked about within the pamphlet broadly correspond with the documented information, the names, dates, locations and numbers differ drastically. Whether or not we will contemplate the pamphlet as an extra informational supply or a whole fabrication is one thing that we are going to in all probability by no means know for positive.

What most historians can agree on is that in 1613 / 1614, the church and authorities officers in and round Roermond accused dozens of individuals of bewitching others, heresy, and forming a pact with the satan (which after all included dancing and fornication with stated satan). Torture was used to make the accused confess and quit the names of different witches, who then have been arrested and tortured as properly. Round 30 to 64 folks (relying on what supply you consider) have been burned on the stake.

The Oudewater weigh home

You could find a relic of the Dutch witch trials in Oudewater; right here stands the Heksenwaag or the Oudewater weigh home. Thought of the one place in Europe you can get a good trial as a witch again within the day (earlier than the regulation and church sanctioned witch hunts).

Most of the time, as acknowledged above, a confession was tortured out of the accused and the accused was burned on the stake or executed in one other horrible method. However in Oudewater, a possible witch can be weighed on a scale. A scale that was not tampered with. You see, the reasoning was {that a} witch had no soul, so they’d weigh rather a lot lower than the common particular person. This principally meant that in Oudewater, no witches have been ever put to loss of life.

These days, the Heksenwaag is a vacationer attraction the place you’ll be able to be taught concerning the historical past of witch trials within the Netherlands and Europe. You’ll be able to even view and step on the weighing scale, (probably) incomes an official certificates stating that you’re certainly not a witch. 

The final witch trial within the Netherlands

The final particular person to be prosecuted and killed as a witch in what’s now the Netherlands is extensively thought of to be Entgen Luijten. Entgen Luijten was born in 1600 in Lutterade and lived in Limbricht for 44 years, which is the place she was accused of witchcraft in 1674 by the federal government. She was held within the dungeon of Kasteel Limbricht for questioning.

After six days of questioning, she was discovered useless in her cell. The courtroom concluded that it was suicide, whereas the examiner claimed the reason for loss of life was strangulation (so, homicide). Nonetheless, the courtroom thought of her “suicide” to be an act of contrition and ordered her physique to be dragged to the gallows by horses, the place she was buried.

Nationaal Heksenmonument & Nationaal Heksenpardon

The inspiration Nationaal Heksenmonument is petitioning for a nationwide witch monument to honour the reminiscence of the ladies and men within the Netherlands who have been denounced as witches and subsequently tortured to loss of life. Others are petitioning for a Nationaal Heksenpardon (“Nationwide Witch Pardon”), a posthumous acquittal for the tried and executed “witches” within the Netherlands. Go to their web sites for extra data on the witch trials within the Netherlands and their victims.