Karen Roeds
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Karen Roeds (died 1620), was a Danish woman who was executed for witchcraft. She was one of the victims of the great Danish witch hunt of 1617–1625, and a typical example of those accused; almost all of the characteristics of her trial were typical of the trials during the witch hunt of 1617-1625.
In October 1617, the witchcraft act Trolddomsforordningen af 1617 was introduced in Danish law, which made witch persecutions much easier and which was accompanied with an instruction by the king to local authorities and parish vicars to make use of it by investigating any suspected sorcery in their parishes.[1] This resulted in the outbreak of a witch panic and a witch hunt in Denmark lasting for eight years until 1625, the documentation of which are preserved from the region of Jylland.[1]
Karen Roeds was a poor married woman from the peasantry in about sixty years of age, who had been reputed to be involved in witchcraft for many years and who appears to have been named a witch by an already accused "witch" under torture, all of which made her a typical representative of the people who were charged for witchcraft during the great Danish witch hunt of 1617-1625. Her spouse attempted to gather witnesses willing to testify to her defense, but failed because such testimonies would risk them to become incriminated as well, which was also typical.