A Household of Witches? The Leimbach Case and Witch belief

This talk explores our current understanding of the witch-hunts by unpacking a particularly interesting example...

The 1652 trial of the Leimbach household who lived in a village near Rothenburg in Germany. The Leimbachs were accused by a neighbouring child: what motivated the accusation and what does the trial tell us about conflicts in the community? What were the different members accused of, and what does this say about the ways in which witchcraft was imagined at the time? And finally, what was the fate of the family, and what does this tell us about how seriously the city council took the alleged threat of witchcraft? This is a richly detailed story that will challenge and complicate our understanding of early modern witch-hunting in many respects. Dr Alison Rowlands is Senior Lecturer in European History at the University of Essex and a leading scholar in the history of witchcraft. We welcome her to Treadwell's for the first time.

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