Curses
Witches and witch trials
Between the 15th and 18th centuries tens of thousands of people in Europe and its colonies were accused of witchcraft and tens of thousands were executed. The victims were mostly women: herbalists, widows, neighbours at odds with the rest of the village. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had its own trials and its own legends, such as the burning of fourteen women in Doruchów, and in Reszel in 1811 a woman called Europe's last witch was burned. There is nothing supernatural about these stories – they are a record of fear, superstition and cruelty.
- cases
- 22
- years
- 900–2026
Disputed: 2 Legend: 5 Explained: 15
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9th century
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14th century
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16th century
- 1590–1592 The North Berwick Witches Ruins of St Andrew's Auld Kirk, North Berwick, Scotland, United Kingdom On Halloween night 1590 witches were said to meet the Devil in the church at North Berwick to sink King James VI's ship. The king questioned the accused himself.
- 1594 Gwen ferch Ellis, the first Welshwoman executed for witchcraft Denbigh town square (now Hall Square, by the library), Denbighshire, Wales, United Kingdom A north Wales healer was undone by a paper charm written backwards, found in a gentleman’s parlour. In 1594 she was hanged in Denbigh’s square.
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17th century
- 1609–1614 The Witches of Zugarramurdi Witches' Cave, Zugarramurdi, Navarre, Spain A cave on the Spanish-French border was said to host Basque sabbaths with the Devil in the form of a goat. The Inquisition burned six people – and then began to doubt.
- 1612 The Pendle Witches Lancaster Castle, Lancashire, United Kingdom Nine-year-old Jennet Device testified against her own mother, brother and sister. In 1612 ten people from around Pendle Hill went to the gallows.
- 1621 The Vardø Witch Trials Steilneset Memorial, Vardø, Finnmark, Norway Witches were blamed for the storm that drowned Finnmark fishermen on Christmas Eve 1617. In Norway's far north, pyres began to burn.
- 1626–1631 The Bamberg Witch Trials and the “Witch House” Site of the former Drudenhaus, Franz-Ludwig-Straße, Bamberg, Germany After a May frost in 1626 the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg declared war on witches. Within a few years about 900 people were executed, including the city's mayor.
- 1645–1647 Matthew Hopkins, the “Witchfinder General” Manningtree, Essex, United Kingdom During the Civil War young Matthew Hopkins of Manningtree unleashed the largest witch-hunt in English history. In two years some hundred people went to the gallows.
- 1661 Florence Newton, the witch of Youghal Youghal, County Cork, Ireland An old woman refused a piece of beef by a servant girl stood trial in Cork in 1661, accused of bewitching her and of killing a jailer.
- 1668–present The Brocken and Walpurgis Night Brocken summit, Harz Mountains, Germany On the night of 30 April witches are said to fly to the mist-shrouded summit of the Brocken to revel with the Devil. Goethe immortalised the legend in “Faust.”
- 1670 Major Weir, the West Bow saint who confessed to sorcery West Bow, Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom In 1670 a respected Puritan officer confessed to terrible sins of his own accord and was burned along with his staff. His West Bow house stood empty for a century.
- 1675 Torsåker – 71 Victims in a Single Day Häxberget (Bålberget) near Torsåker, Ångermanland, Sweden The largest witch execution in Swedish history: on a single day in 1675, 71 people, mostly women, were beheaded and burned on the testimony of children.
- 1692–1693 The Salem Witch Trials Salem Witch Trials Memorial, Salem, Massachusetts, United States The strange fits of two girls in a Puritan village unleashed America's most famous witch hunt: more than 200 accused and 20 people executed.
- c. 1698 Moll Dyer, the Witch of Leonardtown Leonardtown, Maryland, United States A solitary herbalist accused of witchcraft was driven from her burning cabin on a freezing night. She was found frozen to a rock that still bears her handprint.
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18th century
- 1711 The Islandmagee witches: Ireland’s last mass witch trial Islandmagee and the court at Carrickfergus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom First a demonic “boy” haunted the Haltridge house; then 18-year-old Mary Dunbar began vomiting pins. Eight women were convicted of witchcraft.
- 1763 La Corriveau – the Woman in the Iron Cage Pointe-Lévy (now Lévis), Quebec, Canada Hanged in 1763 for killing her husband, then displayed in an iron cage by the road. Legend turned her into a poisoner and a witch who accosts travellers at night.
- 1775 The Burning of the Witches of Doruchów Witches' Hill near Doruchów, Greater Poland, Poland According to an account published in 1835, fourteen women accused of bewitching the lady of the manor were burned in Doruchów. Historians dispute how much of it is true.
- 1782 Anna Göldi – Switzerland's “Last Witch” Courthouse, Glarus, Switzerland A maid accused of using witchcraft to put pins into her master's child's milk. Beheaded in 1782, she was exonerated only in 2008.
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19th century
- 1811 Barbara Zdunk – Europe's Last Pyre Reszel, Warmia, Poland In 1811 Barbara Zdunk, whom the townspeople believed to be a witch, was burned at the stake in Reszel. She was the last person in Europe executed this way.
- 1880 Recta Provincia – the Trial of the Warlocks of Chiloé Ancud, Chiloé Island, Chile In 1880 the authorities on Chiloé put a secret brotherhood of warlocks on trial – one with its own king, courts and an underground cave guarded by a monster.
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1920–1929