Top 10 Most Brutal Witch Hunts in History

In 1612, five executions were conducted in Northampton, England. Several men and women were accused and convicted of witchcraft. While the two main accounts of the trials sometimes differ, the witch trials of Northamptonshire are significant for two reasons. First, it was an unusual case in that more than one person was accused at a time. Six people, men and women were accused of bewitching Elizabeth Belcher and her brother William Avery. Second, it was the first recorded case in which “dunking” was used as a means of ordeal. If the accused floated, it showed she’d sworn off her baptism and was OBVIOUSwLY a witch. If she sank, she was innocent … but that usually meant they would drown.

In the late 16th Century in Chelmsford England, a woman named Elizabeth Francis confessed to witchcraft when confronted. She admitted to using her cat, named Satan by the way, for all sorts of terrible deeds – often at the cat’s suggestion – helping Elizabeth in murder, teaching her how to self-abort a fetus, and crippling her husband. Elizabeth then came out and accused Agnes Waterford, who she gave the cat to. While Agnes swore she had never murdered, a neighbour girl said her cat had turned into a dog with horns, and tormented her. Agnes was found guilty, and became the first woman in England executed for witchcraft. The details of the Chelmsford witches trial were often imitated, and are said to have shaped modern witch lore.

The first of Scotland’s Great Witch Hunts lasted from March to October in the year 1597. About 400 people were accused, and about half of them are thought to have been executed. The first of many, it is also uncertain what prompted the 1597 Hunt; those that occur at later dates – such as the hunts of 1649, and 1661 – maintained better records. However, most likely it was a combination of conflict between the king James VI of Scotland – who was obsessed with killing witches – and various opposing forces. The king was certain witches were out to get him. In 1597 he announced the hunt … right as he published his book on witch detection, “Daemonologie.”

After accusing one of her family’s servants of stealing a drink of milk, Christian Shaw took to fits. She said she was being tormented by witches, and accused a thirty-five people, including the servant. Seven were convicted, six were executed, (one committed suicide before he could be hanged and burned). Two were brothers, boys aged 11 and 14. It was the last mass execution of witches in Western Europe. It would be just another sad story but for one of the accused, Agnes Naismith. Before death, she pledged a curse on the town should her grave be disturbed. In 1960 that very thing happened.

The Pappenheimers were a poor, vagrant family from Bavaria. In the middle of the night, the entire family were pulled from their beds and arrested after a thief claimed they had helped him murder a pregnant woman. Under torture, they confessed to basically every murder and unsolved crimes of recent years, saying they used supernatural means, and were charged with witchcraft. The family was then publicly tortured and humiliated in truly horrific ways before finally being burned at the stake. As this went on, the sheriff forced the ten-year-old Hoel Pappenheimer to watch so he could gauge his reaction. The boy was burned at the stake later that year.

A somewhat convoluted tale of how poison and paranoia led to a high-profile witch hunt. After a French aristocrat was accused of trying to poison her father and brothers in order to gain possession of their estates, paranoia began to surge through the French court. Two years later, another woman was arrested, however she appealed that she had information about other murderers. More finger-pointing ensued, with several nobles and prominent figures mixed up in the affair to be eventually sentenced, expelled from the country, or burned at the stake at the behest of the Chambre Ardent, or “burning court.”

One of the most famous witch trials in England. As mentioned earlier, James VI of Scotland – by 1612 James I of England – was big on witch hunting, and the Pendle trial came at the height of James I's insatiable desire to eradicate witches. Set off by a series of accusations by the members of two rival families, each vying for dominance as local healers, they were arrested by the local magistrate and brought to Lancaster castle. The most dramatic and devastating blow in the trials came when 10-year-old Jennet Device accused her whole family; all were put to death. The trial was well-recorded in Thomas Potts’ “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie Lancaster.”

The Witch Trials of Trier Germany are considered the largest witch trial in European history. No one was spared from accusation. A third executed were nobles and others were respected members of the community. One of the accused, Dietrich Flade, was a university rector and chief judge of the electoral court. He opposed the trials, saying that torture was ineffective. As a result, he was arrested, tortured, and burned. After him, there was no vocal opposition left. Two separated villages were completely cleaned out but for one lone survivor each. The total death toll is listed at 368, but some historians put that number higher, perhaps as many as a 1000.

An attempt by the Spanish Inquisition to stomp out all witchcraft – and if you know your history, you know those guys were not messing around. The hunts began in Logroño, in northern Spain in January of 1609; by the end over 7,000 people had been “examined.” The proceedings were put on hold after the first year so that the inquisitors could gather more evidence. Strangely, no one knows quite what prompted the Basque WitchHunts, and even the inquisitors at the time felt skeptical and didn’t believe there to be evidence of witches in the area. Now, every solstice people gather in a cave in Zugarramurdi to honour the “witches” who were burned near there.

The name Salem is now synonymous with witches, and in North America is certainly the most famous witch trial of them all. The tragedy of Salem occurred when mass hysteria met poor crowd control. After a group of girls began having violent fits and hallucinations, the townsfolk immediately cried ‘witches!’ and the trials began. Unlike some witch hunts, the accused and the accusers in Salem were all previously friends and neighbours. Over the summer, over 150 people were accused, nineteen people were hanged as witches, one man crushed to death, and two dogs were shot. The town owns their history now, but at the time, after the mania passed, the town was horrified by their own acts.