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Discover the history of witch trials in France: 5000 victims, famous trials, and the role of Parliament...
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What if one of your ancestors was burned for witchcraft? This question, which may seem like historical fiction, actually concerns thousands of French families. Between 1390 and 1682, nearly 5,000 people were executed in France for the crime of witchcraft, their names sometimes erased from the records, their property confiscated, their memory deliberately erased.
Behind the numbers lie human stories: healers accused of witchcraft, outcasts designated as scapegoats, women victims of village score-settling. For genealogists, these trials represent both an archival challenge and a unique opportunity to understand the social context in which our ancestors lived.
Let's delve into this dark page of French history, where collective fears, political manipulation, and judicial repression intertwine.
When talking about witch trials, one immediately thinks of the Salem witch trials or the massive persecutions in Germany. However, France also experienced this dark chapter in its history, with specific characteristics that make it a unique case in the European landscape of witchcraft repression.
Contrary to what is often imagined, France experienced less massive repression than other European countries, with about 5,000 executions for witchcraft. At the European level, historians estimate that between 60,000 and 100,000 people were executed between the 15th and 18th centuries. France thus represents a relatively modest proportion of this grim toll.
This relative moderation is largely explained by the role of central power. Repression mainly affected territories where the central state was weak, such as Switzerland or the Holy Roman Empire, while centralized monarchies like France gradually curbed these persecutions.
The first convictions for witchcraft in France date back to the 14th century. On October 29, 1390, Jeanne de Brigue, also known as La Cordière, was tried in the first witch trial by the Parliament of Paris, before being burned alive on August 19, 1391. This young peasant from Seine-et-Marne was known for her healing skills and her ability to find stolen objects.
The construction of witch trials took place in three stages: first, based on a biblical culture denouncing paganism and magic, then by the transformation of the devil's imagery in the 15th and 16th centuries, and finally by treatises on demonology.
The major turning point came with the 1486 publication of the Malleus Maleficarum (the Hammer of Witches) by the inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacques Sprenger, a work that was reprinted more than twenty times in thirty years. This manual described witches, their alleged practices, and the methods to recognize and judge them.
The witch hunts reached their peak between 1560-1580 and 1620-1630. This period corresponds to a time of deep turmoil in Europe, marked by religious wars, climate crises, and epidemics.
At the beginning of the repression, women were not targeted more than men, but a shift occurred around 1500: they then represented two-thirds, then soon three-quarters of the victims. In total, 70% of those condemned were women.
In northern France, in Bouchain, 27 children were accused of witchcraft between 1611 and 1613, illustrating that even minors were not spared from these persecutions.
One of the most resonant trials remains that of Urbain Grandier. In 1632, at the Ursuline convent in Loudun, nuns including Mother Superior Jeanne des Anges claimed to have been bewitched by the priest Urbain Grandier.
A special commission of 12 magistrates was formed, chaired by the state counselor Jean Martin de Laubardemont, with a judgment that could not be appealed to the Parliament of Paris. Urbain Grandier, a charismatic priest and opponent of Richelieu, was burned alive in August 1634 before thousands of spectators.
This affair illustrates the political manipulation orchestrated by Richelieu who, in the name of state reason, spread rumors of supposed bewitchments in order to eliminate a libertine priest deemed too close to Protestants.
The Affair of the Poisons, revealed under Louis XIV between 1676 and 1682, shook the Court of Versailles by uncovering a vast criminal network involving poisonings, illegal abortions, black masses and witchcraft rituals, implicating the French high aristocracy. At the instigation of La Voisin (Catherine Deshayes, wife Monvoisin), former midwife, this scandal reached even Madame de Montespan, the king's favorite, accused of practicing occult rituals and seeking to use poisons to retain royal favors.
Faced with the gravity of the revelations, Louis XIV created the Burning Chamber, an exceptional tribunal that judged 442 people, sentenced over 100, with 34 executions, and dispersed many defendants to royal prisons until their death. To protect the Court, the king eventually suppressed the case, burned the archives and forbade magistrates to use official registers.
Beyond the judicial aspect, the Affair of the Poisons marked a historical turning point: it led to the 1682 edict that decriminalized witchcraft in France, downgrading it to judicial fraud. The archives of the Burning Chamber meticulously document the society of the Grand Siècle and today offer a precious resource to historians and genealogists.
France stands out for the gradual intervention of its central judicial power. Starting in the 1570-1580s, the Paris Parliament systematically overturned convictions handed down in the first instance, due to lack of evidence for these crimes based on confessions. casser les condamnations prononcées en première instance
By the 1620s, the Paris Parliament banned provincial courts from practicing witch hunts, and magistrates and police were even sentenced to death under Louis XIII for burning a sorcerer. This policy marked a decisive turning point. interdit aux juridictions provinciales de pratiquer la chasse aux sorcières
In 1601, the Parliament banned the water test, which involved submerging the accused in holy water to see if their body floated. In 1604, the right to appeal became mandatory in cases of capital punishment for witches. le Parlement interdit l'épreuve de l'eau
The Edict of July 1682 definitely decriminalizes witchcraft in France, attributing it solely to prejudices and superstitions. The text no longer refers to witchcraft, but to alleged magic operations, thus ending over a century and a half of repression.
This evolution is explained by several factors. On the one hand, the hypothesis of the existence of a sect of people capable of interceding for evil slowly collapses, and medicine naturalizes disease and suffering. On the other hand, the stake is seen as a danger to public order, and sovereign power asserts itself against judges.
For genealogists, witch trials are a fascinating but complex historical source. In the 17th century, the execution of a person convicted of witchcraft was accompanied by a symbolic death: their name was erased from civil records, their property confiscated, and their ashes scattered.
Certain signs may alert you to a possible witchcraft case in your lineage:
The witch trials in France represent more than just a page in history: they embody a moment when collective fear, manipulated by power or exacerbated by crises, led to the elimination of thousands of innocents. For genealogists, these trials present a fascinating challenge and a memorial responsibility.
Tracing the trail of an ancestor accused of witchcraft means restoring a memory that was deliberately erased, giving back a name to those who were meant to disappear, understanding the circumstances that turned a healer into a "witch" or a marginal figure into a scapegoat. It also means gauging the weight of the social, political, and religious context on the fate of individuals.
This research requires patience and method: one must delve into judicial archives, cross parochial and notarial sources, and reconstruct the social fabric of a village community. But the reward is immense: discovering not just a name and a date, but an entire human story, with its dramas, injustices, and sometimes acts of resistance or solidarity.
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