Katarina witch trials

The phenomena of witches abducting children to the Witches' Sabbath of Satan of Blockula, where they were exposed to sexual abuse and forced to sell their souls, caused widespread panic among the parents of the nation, and parents of several parishes, alarmed by the rumours among their children, started to demand that the authorities issue investigations in their parishes.

Among the children and the people engaged to guard them in the wake cottages were the Gävle Boy himself, Lisbeth Carlsdotter, the Myra maids, Kerstin Jacobsdotter, Lisbet Wellendorf and Melcher Olsson, who were all later to be known as the child witnesses.

Finally, 48 concerned parents of the Katarina Parish petitioned the authorities, demanding an investigation in order to protect their children from being abducted by witches.

Anna Månsdotter was an acquaintance of Britta Sippel, who had a rumour for sorcery since several years back, and who had also been mentioned by the children in the wake cottage.

Margareta Matsdotter and Maria Jöransdotter however assured the authorities that they were guilty, and adjusted their own confessions so as to fit in with the statements given by the children.

Margareta Matsdotter, Maria Jöransdotter and Anna Persdotter were the only people in the Katarina witch trials who explicitly confessed themselves guilty of witchcraft.

However, she repeatedly stated during her imprisonment that she deserved to die due to the sins she had committed in life and that she was willing to do so, and the judges interpreted this as her confession of sorcery.

All three had been accused by the child witnesses of the wake cottages, particularly Lisbeth Carlsdotter and the Myra maids, and were charged with having abducted children to Satan.

Margareta Matsdotter "The Dove" was a poor young maidservant who had been accused because her suitor, a tailor, had given her a silk dress, a gift which had made people assume she used sorcery.

Remmer, being married to a city official, belonged to a higher social class: she was fiercely supported by her husband, and defended herself well in court.

Seventeen child witnesses broke down in court and admitted that they had been lying all along, pressed to testify falsely by other children or teenagers.

The court was finally able to identify six main witnesses: the Gävle Boy, Lisbet Carlsdotter, the Myra maids (Agnis Eskilsdotter and Annika Henriksdotter), Maria Nilsdotter and Mikael Jakobsson, as the ring leaders among the child perjurers, who had coached other children to lie.

This included two women (Karin Ambjörnsdotter and Margareta Matsdotter "The Dove") who had been sentenced to death at the time, and awaiting their execution, as well as Margareta Remmer, Jöran Nilsson Galle, Agnis Johansdotter and Karin Fontelius (the last of whom, Fontelius, was actually an accused of the witch trial in Gävle, whose case had been transferred to the capital).

The main child witnesses: the Gävle Boy, Lisbet Carlsdotter, Maria Nilsdotter and one of the Myra maids (Agnis Eskilsdotter) were executed for perjury.

According to the reports of the Witchcraft Commission, the public punishments of the perjuries caused all the remaining child witnesses to suddenly stop talking about witches.

When some of the clergymen protested and insisted that the witches had indeed been guilty and the sorcery real, they were lectured by the Witchcraft Commission and forced to comply.

After 11 September 1676, when the child witnesses admitted to have committed perjury, the entire witch trial was discontinued, which resulted in the acquittal of the remaining prisoners.