Gyde Spandemager

Gyde Spandemager, (died 1543), was an alleged Danish witch. She was one of the first women executed for sorcery in Denmark and in Scandinavia.

In 1543 King Christian III of Denmark equipped a war fleet of 40 ships to hunt an imperial Dutch fleet away from the coast of Norway to the Netherlands. Outside Helsingör the fleet was stuck in a calm and the whole project failed. The failure was explained to be, that Gyde had gathered with a group of witches in a valley outside the city and enchanted the ships. Gyde was arrested, tortured, and burnt at the stake. This was almost the earliest case of witch trial in Denmark, after Karen Grottes and Bodil Lauritzen, who were burnt in Stege in 1539. In 1530, the "wifes of Lars Kylling and Jørgen Olsen" were burned on Bornholm, but the island was ruled by Lübeck in 1525-75 at this point. This was the first of three famous cases where marine catastrophes were blamed on sorcery and resulted in witch trials in Denmark; in 1566, several Danish ships sunk in a storm outside Gotland; women in Copenhagen were blamed for causing the storm to keep some goods which had been placed in their care by one of the captains of the sunken ships, and was arrested and burnt, and in 1589, women in Copenhagen, were blamed for causing the fleet, which was to take Anne of Denmark to the wedding of King James I of England, to turn and go to Norway by making a storm.

See also

* Anna Koldings

References

* http://www.flix.dk/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=4618
* http://sten25.tripod.com/stortorget_radhuset.htm
* http://runeberg.org/dagligt/6/0047.html
* http://www.harteg.dk/peter/?Skriverier:Hekseb%26aring%3Bl_p%26aring%3B_Bornholm