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The Copenhagen witch trials of 1590 was the first major witch trial in Denmark. It resulted in the execution of seventeen people by burning. [1] It was closely connected to the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland.
In the winter of 1589, Princess Anne of Denmark departed from Copenhagen to marry King James VI of Scotland. A great storm arose, which almost caused the ship to sink. The ship of the princess eventually harbored in Oslo in the Danish province of Norway, James VI joined her there, and the wedding took place in Norway instead of in Scotland, as had been planned. In the spring of 1590, after a few months at the Danish court, James VI and Anna returned to Scotland. Their voyage from Denmark was also beset by storms. The Danish court at that time was greatly perplexed by witchcraft and the black arts, and this must have impressed on the young King James. [2]
At this point, the number of witch trials had been small in Denmark since the case of Doritte Nippers in 1571, when a law had been put in place, banning local courts from handling witch trials. About this time, however, the interest in witch trials had been revived because of the ongoing gigantic mass process in Germany, Trier witch trials, which was much talked about in Denmark and described in news pamphlets. [3]
The Danish minister of finance, Christoffer Valkendorff, was accused by the Admiral Peder Munk of having equipped the royal ship so insufficiently that it had been unable to withstand the weather. [4] [5]
He defended himself by saying that the storm had been caused by witches in the house of Karen Vaevers ('Karen the Weaver'), who had sent little demons in empty barrels who had climbed up the keels of the ships and caused the storm. [6]
The background to this was a confession made by Ane Koldings. In May 1590, Koldings was imprisoned in Copenhagen. She had already been found guilty of witchcraft in a case unrelated to the royal fleet, and was in prison awaiting her execution. Ane Koldings was considered a very dangerous witch, and referred to as Mother of the Devil. [7] She was treated as somewhat of a celebrity in prison and displayed to visitors. She is known to have confessed to two priests and three female visitors while in prison.
Valkendorff, who was at this point blamed for the fiasco of the royal fleet, asked the Mayor of Copenhagen to question Koldings if she had been involved in bewitching the fleet. [8] During torture, Koldings described how a group of women had gathered in the house of Karen, where they had caused the storm of the princess' ship by sending small devils up the keels of the ship.
Koldings was executed by burning in July 1590. On her confession, her accomplices were arrested the same month. Koldings had named five other women as accomplices, among them Malin, wife of the mayor of Helsingor, and Margrethe Jakob Skrivers. All women were arrested and charged. The spouse of Skrivers unsuccessfully tried to defend her, and was instead arrested and charged himself. [9] Karen was arrested in July. She confessed to have been one of them who, together with Koldings, attended the gathering of witches which caused the storms, which hunted the royal ship, by use of witchcraft, and named other women as accomplices.
When James and Anne reached Scotland, the North Berwick witch trials took place, in which witches were blamed for the royal voyage in the same manner as the witch trials in Copenhagen.
The North Berwick witch trials were the trials in 1590 of a number of people from East Lothian, Scotland, accused of witchcraft in the St Andrew's Auld Kirk in North Berwick on Halloween night. They ran for two years, and implicated over 70 people. These included Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, on charges of high treason.
Christoffer Valkendorff was a Danish-Norwegian statesman and landowner. His early years in the service of Frederick II brought him both to Norway, Ösel and Livland. He later served both as Treasurer and Stadtholder of Copenhagen and finally as Steward of the Realm from 1596 to 1601. He owned Glorup Manor on Funen from 1535 to 1601, whose current main building he constructed, although it has later been adapted in the Neoclassical style. He constructed the old Town Hall in Bergen, and he also constructed Svindinge Church, on Funen, one of the best preserved Renaissance style churches in Denmark. He founded the dormitory Valkendorfs Kollegium in Copenhagen where the street Valkendorfsgade is named after him.
The Torsåker witch trials took place in 1675 in Torsåker parish in Sweden and were the largest witch trials in Swedish history. In a single day 71 people were beheaded and then burned.
Agnes Sampson was a Scottish healer and purported witch. Also known as the "Wise Wife of Keith", Sampson was involved in the North Berwick witch trials in the later part of the sixteenth century.
Brita, "the wife of Jöran Pipare" was an alleged Swedish witch. Her case is a significant one, illustrating a witch trial held when the belief in witchcraft had increased, but the law still did not permit harsh persecution of magic practice.
Geske, also known as Horgeske was the central figure of a witch trial in Stockholm. Her trial belonged to the first of the witch trials in Sweden in which the Sabbath of Satan in Blockula, the Devils pact and the Devil's mark were mentioned.
Ane Koldings was an alleged Danish witch. She was a main defendant in the Copenhagen witch trials held during the summer of 1590, which were held as a parallel to the famous North Berwick Witch trials in Edinburgh in Scotland.
Christence (Christenze) Akselsdatter Kruckow was a Danish noblewoman who was executed for witchcraft after having been accused twice. She is one of the most well known victims of the witch hunt in Denmark, and one of few members of the nobility to have been executed for sorcery in Scandinavia, and the only one in Denmark.
Niels Hemmingsen was a Danish Lutheran theologian. He was pastor of the Church of the Holy Ghost, Copenhagen and professor at the University of Copenhagen. The street Niels Hemmingsens Gade in Copenhagen is named in his honor.
Gyde Spandemager was an alleged Danish witch. She was one of the first women executed for sorcery in Denmark and in Scandinavia.
Anne Palles was an alleged Danish witch. She was the last woman to be legally executed for sorcery in Denmark.
Events from the year 1722 in Denmark.
Johan Pistorius, was a Danish grenadier. He was judged guilty of making a Satanic pact, and was the last person executed for witchcraft in Denmark.
Louise Nyholm Kallestrup is a Danish historian. She is a professor at the University of Southern Denmark (Odense) and the director of its Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies who specializes in the Early Modern Period. Best known for her comparative research on witchcraft trials in Denmark and Italy. Kallestrup has also written widely on such related topics as gender in the contexts of legal proceedings and urbanization, and on demonology and is a frequent cultural commentator in the Danish press and on radio.
Peder Munk of Estvadgård (1534–1623), was a Danish navigator, politician, and ambassador, who was in charge of the fleet carrying Anne of Denmark to Scotland. The events of the voyage led to witch trials and executions in Denmark and Scotland.
The Witch trials in Denmark are poorly documented, with the exception of the region of Jylland in the 1609–1687 period. The most intense period in the Danish witchcraft persecutions was the great witch hunt of 1617–1625, when most executions took place, which was affected by a new witchcraft act introduced in 1617.
The witch trials in Norway were the most intense among the Nordic countries. There seems to be around an estimated 277 to 350 executions between 1561 and 1760. Norway was in a union with Denmark during this period, and the witch trials were conducted by instructions from Copenhagen. The authorities and the clergy conducted the trials using demonology handbooks and used interrogation techniques and sometimes torture. After a guilty verdict, the condemned was forced to expose accomplices and commonly deaths occurred due to torture or prison. Witch trials were in decline by the 1670s as judicial and investigative methods were improved. A Norwegian law from 1687 maintained the death penalty for witchcraft, and the last person to be sentenced guilty of witchcraft in Norway was Birgitte Haldorsdatter in 1715. The Witchcraft Act was formally in place until 1842.
Gyldenstierne-sagen was a witch trial which took place in Denmark between 1596 and 1598. Alongside the Nakkebølle-sagen, it was one of two big witchcraft cases in the 1590s which was essentially caused by feuds among the Danish noble families.
Karen Roeds, was a Danish woman who was executed for witchcraft. She was one of the victims of the great Danish witch hunt of 1617–1625, and a typical example of those accused; almost all of the characteristics of her trial were typical of the trials during the witch hunt of 1617-1625.
Anne of Denmark (1574–1619) was the wife of King James VI and I, and as such Queen of Scotland from their marriage by proxy on 20 August 1589 and Queen of England and Ireland from 24 March 1603 until her death in 1619. When Anne intended to sail to Scotland in 1589 her ship was delayed by adverse weather. Contemporary superstition blamed the delays to her voyage and other misfortunes on "contrary winds" summoned by witchcraft. There were witchcraft trials in Denmark and in Scotland. The King's kinsman, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell came into suspicion. The Chancellor of Scotland John Maitland of Thirlestane was thought to be Bothwell's enemy, Maitland was lampooned in a poem Rob Stene's Dream, and Anne of Denmark made Maitland her enemy. Historians continue to investigate these significant events.