Timeline for the Witch Hunts

This timeline includes a selection of events, people, books and more directly and indirectly related to the Witch Hunts. For further explanations, click on the term, or go to List of Important Events for the Witch Hunts.

GENERAL

HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

FRANCE

BRITAIN

THE REST OF EUROPE and AMERICA

	Ellwangen (1611-1618) Emperor Rudolf II (1576-1612) Last execution in the Dutch Netherlands (1610)	Henri Boguet, Discourse on Witches (1602) Aix (1611)	King James I Stuart (1603-1625) of Great Britain: English Witchcraft Law (1604)	Francesco Maria Guazzo, Compendium Maleficarum (1609) Friuli (early 17th cent.) Martn Del Rio, Disquisitiones magicarum (1603)
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)	30 Years War (1618-1648) Bamberg ( John Junius (1628) Wrzburg (1629)	King Louis XIII (1610-1643) Cardinal Richelieu Pierre de Lancre The Devils at Loudun (Urban Grandier) (1636)	Lancashire (1612) Lancashire (1633)	Trial of Marie Cornu (1611) in the Spanish Netherlands Alonso de Salazar Frias (1564-1635) Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639)
	Friedrich Spee, Cautio Criminalis (1631) Peace of Westphalia (1648)		English Civil War (1642-1648) Witch-Finder General Matthew Hopkins (1644-1646)	Trial of Suzanne Gaudry (1652) in the Spanish Netherlands

		King Louis XIV (1643-[1661]-1715)		Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

THE MIDDLE AGES		Caesarius of Arles (ca. 530)	Isadore of Seville, Etymologies (ca. 600)
	Regino of Prüm, Canon Episcopi (ca. 900)	Heretics of Rheims (ca. 1176)

Waldensian and Albigensian Heresies (12th-13th Centuries) Inquisition			Pope Alexander IV (1254-61) Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)


Pope John XXII (1316-1334) Hundred Years War (1337-1453)	Trials of the Templars (1307)	Trial of Lady Alice Kyteler (1324) in Ireland
Black Death (1347-1359) Commercial Revolution (1350-1650)
	University of Paris Pronouncements (1398)		Nicolas Eymeric, Directorium inquisitorum (1376)

RENAISSANCE (1400-1600)	Simmerthal, Switzerland (1395-1405)
Pope Alexander V (1409-1410)
Pope Eugenius IV (1434-1437)		Trial of Joan of Arc (1431) Trial of Gilles de Rais (1440)	Bernardino of Siena (1427) Florence (1427)
Council of Basel (1431-9)	Johannes Nider, Formicarius (1435-1438)	Claude Tholosan, Ut magorum et maleficiorum errores (1437)	Errores Gazariorum (1437)
	Lausanne (1438-1498)	Martin LeFranc, The Defender of Ladies (1440) Trial of Gilles de Rais (1440)

Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks (1453)	printing press (ca. 1450-)	Hunts in Arras (1459-1462)


Pope Innocent VIII, Summis desiderantes (1484)	Trials at Innsbruck (1485)
Discovery of the Americas (1492) Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) French Invasion of Italy (1494)	Henry Krämer (Institoris) and James Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (1486) Ulrich Molitor, De Laniis et pythoncis (1489)		Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834)

REFORMATION (1517-1559)	Martin Luther (1483-1546)		King Henry VIII of England (1509-1549)	Erasmus (1466-1536) Machiavelli, The Prince (1517)
Anabaptists	Emperor Charles V Habsburg (1519-1556)	John Calvin (1509-1564)
	Wars of Charles V (1521-1559)		English Reformation (1534-1559) Anne Boleyn (1536)	Martín de Castañega, Tratado muy sotil y bien fundado (1529)
Holy Office [of the Inquistion] (1542-1965)	Carolina Law Code (1532)
Pope Paul IV (1555-1559)

Scientific Revolution (1543-1687)		French Civil Wars (1562-1598)	Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603)	King Philip II of Spain (1556-1598)
	Johann Weyer, De praestigiis daemonum (1563)	Lambert Daneau, De veneficiis (1564)	1st Chelmsford Witches (1566)
	Styria (1578-1600)	Michel de Montaigne, "Concerning Cripples" (1588)	Spanish Armada (1588)
	70 Years War of Dutch independence (1581-1648)		King James VI Stuart (1567-1625) of Scotland
	Trier (1581-1593) Trial of Walpurga Hausmannin of Dillingen (1587) Dr. Dietrich Flade (1590) Cornelius Loos Quedlinburg 1589 Bavaria (1589-1600) Pappenheimers Noerdlingen (1590) Rebecca Lemp	Jean Bodin, On the Demon-Mania of Witches (1580) Nicholas Rémy, Demonolatry (1595)	2nd Chelmsford (1579) 3rd Chelmsford (1589) Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584) John Dee William Shakespeare Scottish Persecutions (1591	Russian "Time of Troubles" (1584-1613) Trial of Anna Pedersdotter in Norway (1590)

Agricultural Revolution (1650-1800)
	Wrttemburg (1673-1680)	Chambre Ardente Affair (1673)	Scottish Persecutions (1661-1662) Bury St. Edmunds (1661-1662)	Hunt in Mora, Sweden (1668)
ENLIGHTENMENT (1687-1789)	Salzburg (1680)		Isaac Newton (1643-1727)
			Bideford, England (1682)	Balthasar Bekker, The Enchanted World (1691)

"Enlightened Despotism" (18th cent.) War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714)		King Louis XVI (1715-1774)	Joseph Glanvil, Sadducismus Triumphatus (1700); Henry More, Dmon of Tedworth	Grace Sherwood Christian Thomasius (1655-1728) Szeged, Hungary (1728-1729)
	Maria Theresa Habsburg (1740-1780) Frederick II Hohenzollern (1740-1786)	Voltaire (1694-1778)

	Last execution (1775)	Encyclopedia (1751-80)
French Revolution (1789-1815)	Last execution in Switzerland (1782)

Ten Theories about the Causes of the Witch Hunts	Ten Common Errors and Myths about the Witch Hunts	Timeline
Annotated Bibliography	Suffer your own persecution! Try a witch hunt simulation:	Annotated Links


1300	1300	1300


1400	1400	1400


1450	1450	1450


1500	1500	1500

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