small case studies

• La Neuveville 1611 - 1667

  Population under 1000

  executed 60
• Pays de Naud 1430-1530

  • 3000 executed
  • 90% execution rate
• Nuns of Loudun France 1630-32

  • Urbain Grandier was a womanising priest who was head of a convent of Nuns
  • Got local pastors daughter pregnant
  • 16 young nuns acted possessed and blamed Grandier
  • He was executed in 1634
  • Abnormal - France usually didn't execute and it was a glergy man
• Switzerland - close to the Alps

  • extremely fragmented -- linguistically, religion,, judicial
  • mountainous - supernatural beliefs higher
  • calvinist - dealt with devil temptation more violently
  • 10 000 executed
• Sweden


  • 1593 -- needed 6 witnesses or a confession to convict
  • death sentences reviewed by the royal court at Stockholm
  • Child accusations in Dalmatia 1676 and 1688 -- caused 200 deaths
  • court of Appeals quizzed children
• Dutch Republic


  • 1 million population -- 150 executions
  • less hunts due to being economically advanced and cosmopolitan
  • didn't believe in Diabolic act
  • torture forbidden 1594
  • largest death record in the area was in Groningen being 50
  • dutch reform church denunciations against cunning folk and tried to persuade secular courts
• France 1500-1700


  • most affected areas were on the edge with Spain and HRE = far from central control
  • Central Control - 8 provincial parliaments and a stable monarch
  • sometimes refused to take confessions as evidence
  • good appeal system
  • 3000 prosecutions, 1000 executions
• Mecklenburg - North East Germany 1570-1675

  • atypical - protestant area and past the river Elbe
  • divided into separate duchies, political fragmentation and lutheran preachers
  • followed Carolina 1532 - only tortured 3 times - witchcraft not seen as an exceptional crime
  • 4000 trials
  • 200 000 inhabitants
  • more than half accused executed
• Papenheimer (Germany 1600)


  • worst torture led to the authorities stopping the witch hunts
  • 5 of the 400 accomplices never existed
  • torture: mothers breasts cut off then rubbed around her and her adult childrens mouth as the child watched, father impaled through the anus, burnt alive
• Prattigau (near alps) 1560-1630

  • important example as it started from below -- official reluctant
  • left HRE and joined swiss canton
  • villagers established 3 courts ran by elected judges with a few executions
  • over 100 killed
• Ravensburg 1484


  • triggered by Krammer
  • lost as the woman was a noble (atypical) who hired a lawyer
• What areas in HRE weren't as affected due to a robust economy and favourable climate?

  shores of Lake Constance, which were famous for their high temperatures, and the town of Schwäbisch-Hall, which depended on the most stable salt trade, witnessed comparatively few witch hunts.
• How many witches killed in Hohenberg?

  440 - execution rate of 76%
• What was the population of Hohenberg?

  15 000