The Witch trials in the

Spanish Netherlands Spanish Netherlands (Spanish: Países Bajos Españoles; Dutch: Spaanse Nederlanden; French: Pays-Bas espagnols; German: Spanische Niederlande.) (historically in Spanish: ''Flandes'', the name "Flanders" was used as a ''pars pro toto'') was the Ha ...

(present-day Belgium and Luxembourg minus the

Prince-Bishopric of Liège The Prince-Bishopric of Liège or Principality of Liège was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was situated for the most part in present-day Belgium. It was an Imperial State, Imperial Estate, so the List of ...

, the

Duchy of Bouillon The Duchy of Bouillon (french: Duché de Bouillon) was a duchy comprising Bouillon and adjacent towns and villages in present-day Belgium. The state originated in the 10th century as property of the Lords of Bouillon, owners of Bouillon Castle. ...

and the

Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy The Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy, also Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, sometimes known with its German name Stablo, was an ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Princely power was exercised by the Benedictine abbot of th ...

) belonged to the more intense, along with those of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

and France.Ankarloo, Bengt & Henningsen, Gustav (red.), Skrifter. Bd 13, Häxornas Europa 1400-1700 : historiska och antropologiska studier, Nerenius & Santérus, Stockholm, 1987 In an area recently affected by a religious war, the

Spanish Inquisition The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition ( es, Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition ( es, Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand ...

encouraged witch trials as a method to ensure religious conformity. In this, it was similar to the

Witch trials in Latvia and Estonia Witch trials in Latvia and Estonia were mainly conducted by the Baltic German elite of clergy, nobility and burghers against the indigenous peasantry in order to persecute Paganism by use of Christian demonology and witchcraft ideology.Ankarloo, B ...

. The Spanish Netherlands is still regarded as a region with a tremendously large number of organised witch hunts. At the same time, emphasis is placed on the total contrast between the

Southern Netherlands The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the A ...

on the one hand, and the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

or the Northern Netherlands (now the Kingdom of the Netherlands) on the other, with witchcraft prosecution being comparatively rare in the North. Archival evidence and the number of people executed as witches at first sight seem to support this contrast. The current state of historical research shows that between 1450 and 1685 at least 1,150 to 1,250 individuals were executed as witches in the South – a number that is a great deal higher than the 160 to 200 persons put to death as witches in the Northern Netherlands between 1450 and 1608. However, within the Southern Netherlands, a clear distinction should be made between prosecutions in Dutch-speaking and in French- and German-speaking areas.Dries Vanysacker, "Prosecutions for Sorcery and Witchcraft in Europe" in: Renilde Vervoort, "Bruegel's Witches. Witchcraft Images in the Low Countries between 1450 and 1700" Bruges 2016, 11-17.

Background

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The province of Groningen's first trials were in 1457, leading to the executions of twenty women and a man. In the 1550s the area between Rhine and Meuse was hit hard, while in the 1560s, and particularly in 1564, prosecutions peaked in the

County of Holland The County of Holland was a State of the Holy Roman Empire and from 1433 part of the Burgundian Netherlands, from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands and from 1581 onward the leading province of the Dutch Republic, of which it remained a part ...

. After the Dutch War of Independence, the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

were divided. The Northern Netherlands became a Protestant republic, while the Southern Netherlands remained under Catholic Habsburg Spain. In the Northern Netherlands witch trials were rare but peaked earlier than in the Southern Netherlands. Despite significant losses of archival material, it seems that the Northern Netherlands saw most of their trials for sorcery and witchcraft between 1550 and 1575, when prosecutions in the Southern Netherlands were only just beginning.

History

French- and German-speaking areas - south of the language border

Namur, Luxembourg, Walloon Flanders, Artois and Cambrai experienced a first serious wave of witch trials already in the first half of the 16th century. The persecutions were also much more intense: although the region is mostly rural and therefore far less populous, the number of executed witches makes up for 75% of the total number of executions of the Southern Netherlands. The figures are particularly high for Namur and Luxembourg. The proximity to the

Trier witch trials The Witch Trials of Trier took place in the independent Catholic diocese of Trier in the Holy Roman Empire in present day Germany between 1581 and 1593, and were perhaps the largest documented witch trial in history in view of the executions. T ...

, where between 1581 and 1591 around 350 people were executed, the influence of the demonological treatises of Peter Binsfeld, and local experts in witch-finding (Hexenausschüsse or Monopoles) who trawled the villages looking for every possible rumour concerning witchcraft, all certainly played a decisive role in these high figures. The number of executions in the French-speaking part is estimated at minimum 478 and maximum 578 people, in the German -speaking part - Duchy of Luxembourg - 358 people, bringing the total of this area to 836 to 936.

Dutch-speaking areas - north of the language border

Only around 1589 witch trials really broke through the language boundary, with initial peaks to 1612 (Brabant) and 1628 (Flanders), a ‘revival’ around 1630/45 and – at least for Flanders – the final executions after 1650. The total number of executions is 314, while the population was considerably higher compared to the French- and German speaking area's. In the merchant city of Antwerp only one women was burned at the stake in 1603, a remarkably low number for such an important and populous city. The essential difference between the Dutch-speaking regions of the Southern Netherlands and the Northern Netherlands lays more in the chronology than in the intensity of witchcraft prosecutions.

The end

The Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands gradually became fewer after the 1630s. In 1684, Martha van Wetteren became the last person to be executed for sorcery in Flanders, and after 1692 no more witch trials were held.Rik Opsommer und Jos Monballyu,
Hexenverfolgungen Flandern, Grafschaft
''

Gender

The proportion of women executed as witches in the Southern Netherlands is entirely comparable to those for early modern Europe as a whole with an average is 80% women. In the County of Flanders that was the exact proportion (162 of the 202 executed). In the Dutch-speaking parts of Brabant however 94% of those put to death were women. In Hainaut only women were executed and in Namur 92% of executed were women. But Luxembourg (75%), Cambrai and Artois (64%) paint a somewhat different picture, although this may also be due to a lack of archival sources.

References

{{Europe topic, Witch trials in 16th-century establishments in Europe 16th-century establishments in the Spanish Empire 1692 disestablishments in the Spanish Empire Early Modern law Early Modern politics Legal history of Belgium Political history of Belgium Social history of Belgium Trials in Belgium Witch trials European witchcraft 16th century in the Habsburg Netherlands 17th century in the Habsburg Netherlands Spanish Netherlands Witch trials in Spain