Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands

The Witch trials in the Spanish Netherlands (present-day Belgium and Luxembourg minus the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the Duchy of Bouillon and the Princely Abbey of Stavelot-Malmedy) were among the more intense witch-hunts, along with those of the Holy Roman Empire and France.

The Spanish Netherlands is still regarded as a region with a tremendously large number of organised witch hunts.

Namur, Luxembourg, Walloon Flanders, Artois and Cambrai experienced a first serious wave of witch trials already in the first half of the 16th century.

The proximity to the Trier witch trials, where between 1581 and 1591 around 350 people were executed, the influence of the demonological treatises of Peter Binsfeld, and local experts in witch-finding (Hexenausschüsse or Monopoles) who trawled the villages looking for every possible rumour concerning witchcraft, all certainly played a decisive role in these high figures.

The total number of executions is 314, while the population was considerably higher compared to the French- and German speaking area's.

But Luxembourg (75%), Cambrai and Artois (64%) paint a somewhat different picture, although this may also be due to a lack of archival sources.