User:Ait6433/Witch Processes in Sweden

The witch processes in Mora. At the bottom, devils and witches. Above, women and children are being interrogated and are given testimony. A prisoner drives a flock of imprisoned witches and wizards. Around the bonfire where the convicted burn, witches are seen carrying children on brooms, goats and debris, while demons in animal debris tumble into the air.German copper engraving from 1670.

Sweden was a country with few witch processes compared to other countries in Europe. In Sweden, about 400 people were executed for witchcraft between 1492 and 1704. Most of these cases (three hundred) occurred during a short but intense period; the eight years between 1668 and 1676, when the witch hysteria called "The Great Noise" erupted, causing a large number of witch processes in the country. It is this infamous period of intensive witch-hunting that is most well-known and explored and is usually described in the history

The first wave - swedish witch processes before 1668

In the Middle Ages, sorcery was not considered a serious crime; Only those who had committed a murder by means of sorcery could be executed,but it is unknown if anyone actually was executed for sorcery in Sweden during the Middle Ages. The first known case derives from Arboga city's notebook in 1471 when Karin and Birgitta Andersdotter were accused of witchcraft, whether or not they were executed, is unknown.[1] The case of Eric Clauesson from the year 1492 can be regarded as a witch process, but also as a heresy process. This law was valid until 1608.

Prior to 1668, some witch processes occurred mainly in Småland and Götaland. During the period from the Reformation in 1527 to 1596, there were about 100 witch trials in Sweden, which in total may have resulted in about ten death sentences. In 1550, Lasse's Birgitta was executed from Öland, which was possibly the first Swedish case. In 1551, Gustav Vasa ordered that those suspected of killing his secretary Clemens Hansson with poison and sorcery should be arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned and tortured, but it does not appear that the order led somewhere. One of these women was offered by the court to swear a 12-month sentence. However, the goal was not raised until 1563, when Hansson's heirs brought it to the king's high council. The woman was then offered to go through the previously proposed oath, with the condition that if she could not, she would be sentenced as guilty, which meant that she would be sentenced to fines "by Sweden's law". In 1571, the priests of the country were ordered to pay attention to all signs of witchcraft in the parishes, and the following year a provision was introduced to exclude those who engaged in witchcraft from the congregation. Several goals in Värmland are also known from this time. In 1575, two women were executed in Fryksdalen and later in 1607-1610 a series of cases were set up, which was submitted to King Karl IX, where torture occurred in several of them.