Case file · Witch trials
The Bokkenrijders (goat riders)
From 1743 to 1794, courts in Dutch and Belgian Limburg tried gangs of robbers believed to ride flying goats lent by the Devil; hundreds were executed.
1743 CE · 50.87, 5.83 · status: official
The account
Trials were held at Herzogenrath, Valkenburg, Wellen, Maaseik and elsewhere; legend said the riders met their master on the Mookerheide each year. Confessions to pacts with the Devil were extracted under torture.
The sceptical view
Historians see real banditry amplified into a diabolical myth; many of the condemned were likely innocent.