The 13 most famous witches in history

There are many legends about these women. Some were perhaps unjustly burned by a society that feared them, as they were capable of things inexplicable for their time, such as knowing how to read, write or knowing the powers of medicinal plants.

Here we present a collection of the best-known witches in history.

1. The Witches of Salem

In seven months of 1692, in the village of Salem (now the state of Massachusetts) 20 people were executed, 200 arrested and 200 more accused of various crimes related to witchcraft.

Four years after the Salem trials, jurors signed a confession of error and pleaded for mercy. This event marked a milestone of intolerance in world history.

What happened to many of those accused of witchcraft was that they ate rye bread, which caused them a kind of epilepsy that made them foam at the mouth.

2. Elly Kedward (Blair Witch)

In 1785 she was accused of tricking several children in her town to draw blood from them.

She was expelled from the village, tied to a wheelbarrow and thus pushed into the woods, where, it is assumed, she died due to the winter. Elly Kedward would later inspire the Blair Witch film.

3. Alice Kyteler

She is the oldest known witch in Ireland and the world; She died in 1324. She was a beautiful and sophisticated woman, who always had a reputation for manipulating men to satisfy her every whim. She was also a very powerful and independent woman, something strange for the time.

Before completing her death sentence she escaped to England and was never heard from again.

4. Joan Wytte

Known as “The Fighting Fairy of Bodmin”. It was said that she was clairvoyant and that people came to her to divine her future and be healed of multiple ailments.

After an argument with her neighbors she was imprisoned and died of pneumonia. It is said that her spirit appeared several times in the museum where her coffin was placed, in 1819.

5. Madame Blavatsky

Ukrainian who from a young age showed great gifts for clairvoyance, being consulted even by members of royalty about their private affairs and by the police regarding some unsolved crimes.

She was co-founder of the Theosophical Society of her country, at the beginning of the 19th century, as well as a tireless traveler who traveled to several countries in search of more knowledge.

6. Mother Shipton

She was an English fortune teller and clairvoyant who lived in the 16th century. However, the first publication of her prophecies appeared in 1641, eighty years after her death.

It is said that he displayed psychic abilities from an early age. Her physical appearance would coincide with the way a witch is normally represented: disproportionate, hunched body, with piercing bulging eyes and a huge aquiline nose. Many of her visions came true.

7. Margaret Jones

8. Dorothy Clutterbuck

Affectionately known as “Old Dorothy.” So little is known about her that many think she did not really exist; However, she has her birth certificate from the late 19th century.

She is described as a wealthy lady who always wore a pearl necklace. She was a witch of the old school, therefore, maintaining secrecy was paramount.

9. Elizabeth Sawyer

Known as “The Witch of Edmonton,” she was accused of bewitching neighbors’ children and livestock when they refused to buy her brooms.

She confessed to being a witch and having seen and caressed the devil, who, according to her, approached her in the form of a dog. She was executed in 1621.

10. Marie Laveau II

He learned the mysteries of voodoo from his mother in his native New Orleans.

He lived during the 19th century. He wore the most diverse amulets that he sold when he performed his services. He killed many people and, it is said, could curse a person up to the fourth generation of him.

The variety of methods he used against his victims was endless.

11. Sara Helen

Known by Peruvians as “the vampire woman.” Born in England, she was known for her obsession with witchcraft and black magic. Murdered in 1893, in her agony she swore to return from the dead to take revenge.

Frightened by this, his body was sent to the coast of Peru and his coffin was deposited in a cemetery in the town of Pisco, where it remains to this day. Some call her Saint Sarah Hellen.

12. Joan of Navarre

Spanish wife of King Henry IV who was accused by her stepson, Henry V, of witchcraft. At her trial, the king himself and a friar testified against her. Her assets were confiscated and she was imprisoned in Leeds Castle. She was later forgiven.

13. Dominica the Lame

Spanish woman accused of making a pact with the devil, making concoctions, murdering children and many other crimes that scandalized the society of her time.

A civil trial was held against her and, after torturing her and making her confess to numerous crimes, she was executed by hanging in 1535.

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