How The Largest Witch Trial In History Unfolded In The Basque Region
Public DomainSpanish painter Francisco Goya’s Witches’ Sabbath.
During the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, some 200 people were accused of being witches. That may seem like a lot, but between 1609 and 1614 in the Basque region of Spain, up to 7,000 people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Today, it’s seen as the largest witch hunt in history.
The massive hunt began around 1609 following a different trial that took place across the border in France. In its wake, hundreds of people flooded into the Basque region, triggering panic. Concerned local authorities called in the Spanish Inquisition to investigate, and they quickly got to work hunting witches.
At least one woman who had escaped from France after being arrested and tortured for being a witch found herself once again under suspicion.
Public DomainAnother painting by Francisco Goya depicting a Witches’ Sabbath.
In the end, some 7,000 people were accused of being witches during the Basque witch trials. Of those, 2,000 were investigated and tortured. However, just a handful were actually executed. Smithsonian Magazine reports that only 11 people were killed during the Basque witch trials. Six were burned at the stake; five were tortured to death.
And as the witch trials in the Basque region went on, they took an unexpected turn. In 1611, an investigator from the Spanish Inquisition made his way through the region and collected almost 2,000 confessions (which named even more potential witches) but saw little evidence of witchcraft himself. He reported this to his superiors, who dismissed all the cases in 1614.
Thus, the largest witch hunt in history ended in a whimper. Despite the thousands of accusations that flew through the Basque region between 1609 and 1614, just 11 people were killed. That’s actually less than in Salem, where 19 people accused of being witches were executed.
