Witch-hunts first appear in large numbers in…
1425 CE
Witch-hunts first appear in large numbers in southern France and Switzerland during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
In a notorious case in 1425, Hermann II, Count of Celje, accuses his daughter-in-law Veronika of Desenice of witchcraft—and, though she is acquitted by the court, he has her drowned.
The accusations of witchcraft are, in this case, considered to have been a pretext for Hermann to get rid of an "unsuitable match", Veronika being born into the lower nobility and thus "unworthy" of his son Frederick.
The famous Eberhard Windbeck chronicle gives a detailed report on the circumstances of the death of Frederick’s first wife, Elizabeth of Frankopan, which in the chronicle is described as murder and placed in the year 1424.
Veronika and Frederick's tragic love story, which also marks the beginning of the end of the House of Cilli, will inspire numerous literary creations.
Among others, she is the protagonist of Josipina Turnograjska's 1851 story Nedolžnost in sila (Innocence and Force), Josip Jurčič's 1880 play Veronika Deseniška, Oton Župančič's 1924 play Veronika Deseniška, Bratko Kreft's 1932 play Celjski Grofje (The Counts of Celje), Danilo Švara's 1946 opera Veronika Deseniška, Franček Rudolf's 1968 play Celjski grof na žrebcu (The Count of Celje on a Stallion) and 1974 play Veronika, and Dušan Čater's 1996 children's novel Veronika Deseniška.
She has also inspired works in Croatian, German, Czech, and Italian.
The Veronika Poetry Award and the Veronika Festival are named after her.