Marigje Arriens

Marigje Arriens was born c. 1520, in Poederoijen.

Arriens was active in medicine. There are two theories of why Arriens was accused of being a witch. One theory is that she was accused by an unsatisfied patient. The second theory is that a young boy saw Arriens practice witchcraft. The tale goes that she touched the boy's hair and that his hair shrank as a result. She was judged guilty of sorcery and sentenced to be strangled, after which her body was burned to ashes.[1]

She was long thought to be among the last people executed for sorcery in the Dutch Republic, a country where the witch hunt ended earlier than in many other European countries. One of the reasons for this misconception was that the year of her death had been believed to be 1597 instead of 1591. Even so, people in the republic were executed for sorcery after 1597; as of 2014, the last known such person was Anna Muggen, who was put to death in the same fashion in Gorinchem in 1608.[1] However, she was nonetheless among the last people executed for sorcery in the Dutch Republic, where executions for this crime did end around this time. Witch trials and burnings lasted longer in the Spanish Netherlands, including the 1613 Roermond witch trial, where 64 people were burnt at the stake.

She died 18 December 1591, in Schoonhoven.

The song "Born for Burning", by the Swedish black metal band Bathory, was dedicated to Arriens.

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