Aagt Germonts
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Aagt Germonts (c. 1621–?), was a Dutch woman who was accused of witchcraft.[1]
She was married to a farmer in De Weere in Abbekerk district.
She had three children born dead, and when the foetuses were buried without anyone having seen them, she was suspected of witchcraft, or for having murdered them, and was prosecuted. When the graves of her dead children were exhumed by the court, the bodies were found to be dolls. She was sentenced to death for sorcery, but the death sentenced was commuted to pillorying, holding the three dolls in her hands.
The case against her attracted a lot of attention: witch trials were uncommon in the Netherlands, where no person had been executed for sorcery since Anna Muggen in 1608.
Her case was the subject of a treatise, Mis-geboorte of verhael van 't Abbekerker-wijf haare drie miskramen (1661). The contemporary jurists doubted her guilt and her case was taken as an example of the lack of belief in witchcraft.
References
[edit]- ^ Monika Saelemaekers, Germonts, Aagt, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Germonts [13/01/2014]
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