witchcraft

This article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of the participation of sorcerers in the political life of France in the late 14th – early 15th centuries. The immediate reasonforthis wasthe king’s illness, which doctors could not cure. Thenthe Duke of Burgundy Philipthe Brave decided to attract sorcerers so that they, using their connections with demons and devils, would return Charles VI to health. Thus a paradoxical situation arose when the most Christian monarch of Europe began to be treated with the help of evil spirits.

Based on the analysis of the preserved materials of the judicial and investigative cases of Munster in the first half of the XVII century, the article identifies the features of the women’s crime in the city. It is shown that the main types of women’s crimes were witchcraft, infanticide, thefts. The state of the women’s crime was influenced by socio-demographic factors, as well as the lack of financial assistance and the social support from Munster’s authorities.