What are the Burning Times?
In the 17th century, Europe was gripped by a strange mania. A conviction grew up - as much among educated people as among superstitious peasants - that their world was under attack from the forces of supernatural evil. The traitors in their midst were witches (or Hexen), ordinary people who had joined a sinister conspiracy to serve the Devil and overthrow Christian civilisation. Many churchmen and political leaders and quite a few entrepreneurs set about identifying these traitors, extract confessions by torture and burning the witches who confessed in a public spectacle of misery and anguish. In the Holy Roman Empire that ruled 17th century Europe, up to 30,000 people died this horrible death.
A lively conspiracy theory grew up in the 20th century that there really were witches in the 16th-18th centuries and they were followers of an ancient pagan religion, being rooted out by intolerant Christians. The neo-pagan writer Gerald Gardner called these centuries 'the burning times' and the name has stuck. The idea of mystical witches fighting back against the witch-burners is fantastic swashbuckling stuff. So it's the theme of my series.
A lively conspiracy theory grew up in the 20th century that there really were witches in the 16th-18th centuries and they were followers of an ancient pagan religion, being rooted out by intolerant Christians. The neo-pagan writer Gerald Gardner called these centuries 'the burning times' and the name has stuck. The idea of mystical witches fighting back against the witch-burners is fantastic swashbuckling stuff. So it's the theme of my series.
Who are the Hexen?
Hexen is just German for 'witches', but the Hexen in The Burning Times are more than that. They are followers of a pagan cult that dates back to pre-Christian times. They worship a Goddess - the Goddess - who they believe is present in the natural world, the cycle of birth and death and especially within wolves, ravens and women. The Goddess of the Hexen is less clearly personified than the Christian God, so the Hexen devote a lot of their energies to serving the Geists. Again, Geist just means 'spirit', but the Geists in The Burning Times are strange, amoral beings that haunt the forests and mountains of Germany. They are linked to the pagan alphabet known as the Runes and demand particularly shocking blood sacrifices in exchange for their assistance. The Hexen are unclear about whether the Geists need these sacrifices (as a sort of power source) or just enjoy them, but most of the Hexen don't question the morality of giving the Geists what they demand. Another important figure in the religion of the Hexen is the Horned Wizard who seems to be a particularly powerful Geist, or perhaps even a masculine partner to the Goddess.
Some of these pagan ideas have a place in history. The Runes are certainly real enough and the pagan Germanic tribes used them for magic. There's some evidence that Bronze Age people worshipped a Goddess and traces of her worship might have survived in the European pagan religion of the Celts and the Norsemen. There's even a Horned Wizard - he can be seen on the Gundestrup Cauldron, a beautiful silver artifact from 250BC that was found in a Danish peat bog. Some scholars call the antlered figure on the bowl a Sorcerer and think he represents a shaman communing with animal spirits. Others link him to 'Cernunnos', a pre-Christian god. I think he looks wonderful, with his torc (jeweled ring) in one hand and a live snake in the other. No one knows whether he's supposed to be sitting cross-legged or dancing, but he dances for me and always will.
Some of these pagan ideas have a place in history. The Runes are certainly real enough and the pagan Germanic tribes used them for magic. There's some evidence that Bronze Age people worshipped a Goddess and traces of her worship might have survived in the European pagan religion of the Celts and the Norsemen. There's even a Horned Wizard - he can be seen on the Gundestrup Cauldron, a beautiful silver artifact from 250BC that was found in a Danish peat bog. Some scholars call the antlered figure on the bowl a Sorcerer and think he represents a shaman communing with animal spirits. Others link him to 'Cernunnos', a pre-Christian god. I think he looks wonderful, with his torc (jeweled ring) in one hand and a live snake in the other. No one knows whether he's supposed to be sitting cross-legged or dancing, but he dances for me and always will.
What are the Hexenhammers?
The Hexenhammers are the witch-hunters. In real history, the hunting of witches happened in a piecemeal way and there wasn't some big organisation behind it. However, in the 1480s two German authors called Kramer and Sprenger published a book called Malleus Maleficarum ("The Hammer of the Witches") which was called Der Hexenhammer in German. Actually, the Catholic Church and the Spanish Inquisition both dismissed the Malleus as false and misleading, but it certainly contributed to the witch panics later.
The witch panics themselves came to a head in southern Germany in the 1620s, especially in the towns of Würzburg and Bamberg. The Prince-Bishops who ruled these towns sentenced hundreds, possibly thousands, to death during a few short years. Similar persecutions went on throughout the country on a smaller scale. The Prince-Bishops were enthusiastically assisted by the local churchmen and sometimes the mobs of townsfolk. The causes were famine and crop failures, fear of invasions and a desire to 'crack down' on religious trouble makers in an area that had previously gone over to Protestantism. The majority of victims were women, but many men and boys were targeted too, including magistrates and wealthy landowners. No one was safe.
The Burning Times goes a bit further than this and involves the Order of Teutonic Knights as witch-hunters. The Order certainly existed and fought crusades against pagan tribes in Lithuania in earlier centuries. In the 17th century it still owned a lot of land in southern Germany and its Grand Master was a councilor to the Emperor himself. The real Order was declining in importance in the 1600s and didn't do much witch-hunting, but it did hand a boy over to be burned by the Prince-Bishop in Würzburg so you could certainly call them collaborators.
The witch panics themselves came to a head in southern Germany in the 1620s, especially in the towns of Würzburg and Bamberg. The Prince-Bishops who ruled these towns sentenced hundreds, possibly thousands, to death during a few short years. Similar persecutions went on throughout the country on a smaller scale. The Prince-Bishops were enthusiastically assisted by the local churchmen and sometimes the mobs of townsfolk. The causes were famine and crop failures, fear of invasions and a desire to 'crack down' on religious trouble makers in an area that had previously gone over to Protestantism. The majority of victims were women, but many men and boys were targeted too, including magistrates and wealthy landowners. No one was safe.
The Burning Times goes a bit further than this and involves the Order of Teutonic Knights as witch-hunters. The Order certainly existed and fought crusades against pagan tribes in Lithuania in earlier centuries. In the 17th century it still owned a lot of land in southern Germany and its Grand Master was a councilor to the Emperor himself. The real Order was declining in importance in the 1600s and didn't do much witch-hunting, but it did hand a boy over to be burned by the Prince-Bishop in Würzburg so you could certainly call them collaborators.
Among the Hexenhammers, Fuchs Von Dornheim deserves special mention. The Prince-Bishop of Bamberg since 1623, he persecuted witches with particular relish. In fact, the persecutions got so intensive that Fuchs set up a special Witch Commission and had a Witch-House built in the middle of Bamberg to act as a combined gaol and torture facility. Fuchs was assisted in this by his junior bishop Forner and a team of investigators. Fuchs was particularly interested in terrorizing the region's Protestants, but the persecutions soon took on a life of their own, targeting Catholics and Protestants equally. Unlike his colleagues in Würzburg, Fuchs wasn't keen on burning children but he was unusually bold in targeting wealthy and influential families. He arrested his own chancellor, Doktor Haan, when he thought the judge was too lenient, and his most famous victim was the burgomeister Joannes Junius. Junius left a letter for his daughter Veronica which survived because a friendly guard smuggled it out to her. The letter describes Junius' tortures and makes his innocence, and the innocence of all the co-accused, quite clear. It's a poignant read, partly because of Junius' sufferings and the love for his daughter which endures, but also because Junius at no point questions his tormentors or the witch trials themselves. The victims all forgive one another the night before their execution and die as blameless Christians.
Fuchs' ambitions overreached in the end. He targeted a wealthy woman called Dorothea Flockhlin who had family members at the Imperial court in Nuremberg. They appealed to the Emperor and the Pope and letters were sent insisting Fuchs desisted from further persecutions. He ignored them, sent Bishop Forner to stall for time and had Dorothea Flockhlin executed in flagrant defiance of Imperial and Papal commands. The writing was on the wall by this point. With the Swedish army advancing on Bamberg, Fuchs fled to a safe retirement in Austria. He died two years later in 1633, but in Tinderspark I rectify history's shortcomings by having Quality execute the monstrous Prince-Bishop on the eve of his departure.
Fuchs' ambitions overreached in the end. He targeted a wealthy woman called Dorothea Flockhlin who had family members at the Imperial court in Nuremberg. They appealed to the Emperor and the Pope and letters were sent insisting Fuchs desisted from further persecutions. He ignored them, sent Bishop Forner to stall for time and had Dorothea Flockhlin executed in flagrant defiance of Imperial and Papal commands. The writing was on the wall by this point. With the Swedish army advancing on Bamberg, Fuchs fled to a safe retirement in Austria. He died two years later in 1633, but in Tinderspark I rectify history's shortcomings by having Quality execute the monstrous Prince-Bishop on the eve of his departure.
What was the Thirty Years War?
At the start of the 17th century, the Holy Roman Empire covered most of Europe. In many people's eyes it was Europe and it was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty of Austrian princes. Its main rivals were the rising Bourbon dynasty in France and the new Protestant rules of northern Europe, such as Gustavus Adolphus, the 'Golden King' of Sweden. The conflict began with religion, but soon went beyond that. The Habsburgs were Catholic and faced rebellions from many German cities and states that feared their Protestant religion would be persecuted. Gustavus Adolphus came to the aid of the Protestants and the Bourbon French, despite being Catholic, backed the Protestants too. Definitely a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". It wasn't entirely about religion, of course. Gustavus wanted an empire and the French wanted to weaken the Habsburgs. The Spanish wanted to punish the Dutch and the Germans didn't want to be ruled by Austrians. Cities were sacked, mass battles were fought and ordinary people lost their homes. Foraging armies stripped the land, burned towns and engaged in rape and massacre. The death toll may have been as high as 12 million, making it one of the longest and bloodiest wars in European history.