Marigje Arriens or Marichgen Ariaens (c. 1520 – 18 December 1591) was an alleged

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...

, long thought to be the last to be executed for sorcery in 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 ...

Biography

Marigje Arriens was born c. 1520, in

Poederoijen Poederoijen is a village in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaltbommel, and lies about 9 km southeast of Gorinchem. Poederoijen was a separate municipality until 1955, when it was merged with Brakel. Loe ...

. Arriens was active in medicine. There are two theories of why Arriens was accused of being a witch. One theory is that she was accused by an unsatisfied patient. The second theory is that a young boy saw Arriens practice witchcraft. The tale goes that she touched the boy's hair and that his hair shrank as a result. She was judged guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be strangled, after which her body was burned to ashes. She was long thought to be among the last people executed for sorcery in the Dutch Republic, a country where the witch hunt ended earlier than in many other European countries. One of the reasons for this misconception was that the year of her death had been believed to be 1597 instead of 1591. Even so, people in the republic were executed for sorcery after 1597; as of 2014, the last known such person was Anna Muggen, who was put to death in the same fashion in

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( or ), also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of Oc ...

in 1608.Maartje Vermeulen
Ariaensdr., Marichgen

Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland ''1001 Vrouwen uit de Nederlandse geschiedenis'' is a compilation of 1001 biographies of famous women of the Netherlands spanning roughly 1700 years. Project The book is the result of a research project called the Digital Women's lexicon of the N ...

, 13 January 2014. However, she was nonetheless among the last people executed for sorcery in the Dutch Republic, where executions for this crime did end around this time. Witch trials and burnings lasted longer 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 ...

, including the 1613

Roermond witch trial The Roermond witch trial, which took place in and around the city of Roermond in the Spanish Netherlands in 1613, was the largest witch trial in present-day The Netherlands.L. Dresen-Coenders, p. 227 It caused the death of sixty four people by bur ...

, where 64 people were burnt at the stake. She died 18 December 1591, in

Schoonhoven Schoonhoven () is a city and former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Since 2015 it has been a part of the municipality of Krimpenerwaard, before it had been an independent municipality. The former municipa ...

Legacy

The song " Born for Burning", by the Swedish black metal band Bathory, was dedicated to Arriens.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arriens, Marigje 1520 births 1591 deaths 16th-century Dutch women Dutch people executed for witchcraft People executed by the Dutch Republic People from Zaltbommel Cunning folk Executed Dutch women

Biography

Legacy

See also

References