Anne Palles

Anne Palles (1619–4 April 1693) was an alleged Danish witch. She was the last person legally executed for sorcery in Denmark.

The trial against Anne Palles started with another case. A woman, Ingeborg Olufsdatter in Nykøbing Falster, had hired the medicine woman Karen from Lommelev to first drug down and, eventually, to murder her abusive and violent husband Oswald Egger. Karen suggested that Egger was to be fed a bone from a corpse at the cometary, so as the dead was to come after and kill him. The lover of Ingeborg, Ole Boesen, acquired the bone, but it did not work, and Egger was instead murdered with poison. Shortly after, Karen from Lommelev was arrested and interrogated. She confessed to practise magic and pointed out five other women as witches. One of them was Anne Palles in Tåderup.

Anne Palles was put on trial in 1692 accused of having enchanted a bailiff, Morten Faxe, by use of magic. The bailiff had taken over a property in Øverup previously owned by Palles and her husband Peder. Before she had left the farm, she was to have "peed bad luck" into it. This had caused the Faxes to feel uncomfortable in the house. Karen claimed to have seen her do this. The property had been a very good one; Anne had inherited it from her first husband, Niels, and it was thought that her second husband had married her because of the property—after they lost it, the marriage had become unhappy.

She was also accused of having murdered a woman by use of magic after her husband had fallen in love with her. In 1691, her husband had danced and flirted with Maren Jacobsdatter and Anne had promised Maren an accident, so that she would no longer be able to dance with other people's spouses and be admired such. Shortly thereafter, Maren had became sick, and eventually, she had died.

Thirdly, she was accused of having spoiled the harvest for a man, Hans Sværke, who was guilty of having forced her son to join the army.

Anne Palles was imprisoned on Nykøbing Slot 31 August 1692. A group of priests began to interrogate her even before the trial had officially begun. When the trial opened 27 September 1692 she confessed following; yes, she was a witch. She had met Satan in the shape of a black cat by the name "Puus", who called her "Annis", and she had given her body and soul to him. She was unsure whether this had happened six years ago, or fifty years ago, when she had been married to her first husband for four years. Her familiar helped her on the farm in the shape of a horse or a sheep and Stan did his part and was fed with oatmeal. She had also been at the Witche's sabbath on Hesnæs with the other accused women; Hans Stang from Hasselø played the drum while Abigael Nielsdatter, by Stan called ”Biegell” danced in the middle; Abigael were also able to travel on a staff to Trondhjem in Norway.

On 2 November 1692, the court, led by judge Morten Faxe, judged her guilty and sentenced her to death. When the matter was to be confirmed by the higher court, Palles withdraw her confession; she said she had only confessed because the priests had tortured her in prison. She had been afraid to withdraw her confession before, because the priest had threathened that if she did so she would have her tongue ripped uout and be burned alive. A majority of the high court in Copenhagen, however, voted for an execution. Of the other women accused, Anne kruse was given the same sentence, but she died in prison before the execution. Abigael Nielsdatter was freed from execution but exiled for her "bad name", and Karen from Lommelev was flogged and banished.

Normally, the method of execution for people sentenced for sorcery in Denmark was to be burned alive, but Palles was spared from the normal punishement by a special permission from the king, who ordered that she was to be decapitated before she was burned. On 4 April 1693, Karen was flogged, the corpse of Anne Kruse was burnt and Anne Palles was decapitated and her body thrown on the stake. On the place of execution, a placet was to be put on a pike with a description of the crime.

Anne Palles was the last person to be legally executed for sorcery in Denmark, but her case was not the last witch trial. The last large witch trial in Denmark, the so called "The obsessions of Thisted" took place in Thisted in 1698, when several people claimed to experience fits caused by magic; several women were pointed out as having caused the fits by sorcery and one was sentenced to be burned at the stake. Soon, however, one of the obsessed women confessed that everything was a lie, and the condemned "witches" were freed, the witnesses were imprisoned and the parish vicar was exiled. After this, the high courts in Denmark was unwilling to confirm any death sentences on the charge of witch craft. When the local court of Schelenburg condemned two women to be burned at the stake in 1708, the sentenced was revoked by the high court. Anne Palles has been called Denmark's last witch, but the very last person to be legally executed for sorcery in Denmark was in fact a soldier, who was executed in Bremerholm in 1722; but he was judged and executed by a military court, and not by the normal courts. The courts also sentenced people guilty of sorcery long after Anne Palles, even if it did not lead to death sentences; in 1733 a student and in 1752 a farmer were sentenced to life imprisonment and forced labour after having ben judged guilty of having made a pact with the Devil, and as late as 1803, two craftsmen were sentenced for the same crime.

Long after the legal courts stopped executing witches, however, the belief in witches led to private trials and lynching of alleged witches. On the country side in Øster Grønning in Salling in 1722, the villagers apprehended a woman, Dorte Jensdatter, whom they suspected of having caused several deaths and problems in the village by magic, and held a private witch trial. When they was convinced, they tied her up in her own home and burned the house down with her in it; several of the villagers were later sentenced to death for the murder of her. The last case is often said to have been that of Anna Klemens, who was pointed out as a witch in Brigsted at Horsens and beaten to death in the year of 1800.

References

* http://www.historie-online.dk/special/sankthans/anne.htm
* http://www.blodarv.org/witch.htm
* http://www.1sen.dk/Hekseafbr%E6nding.html
* http://www.historie-online.dk/special/sankthans/fortsatte.htm
* http://www.furnyt.dk/furnyt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=406&Itemid=39
* http://books.google.se/books?id=fJwCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA170&lpg=RA1-PA170&dq=brita+tott+&source=web&ots=_RKnXnRi9v&sig=QOAlarwwlTFv5RqfcK3Px25bmYA&hl=sv&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result