The belief held by some historians that an old woman’s status as a widow may have
made her more vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft has been explored by Rowlands, who
drew on the statistics produced by other historians, such as Briggs for the duchy of Lorraine,
and Eva Labouvie for the Saar region, which show that a high percentage of accused women
were widows. In contrast, Rowlands stated that her own research of the Rothenburg trials
where marital status of the accused was known, widows make up only a small percentage. 16
In his study of witchcraft in Essex, Macfarlane concluded that marital status was not
necessarily a contributing factor of witchcraft accusations. 17 The witch-trial procedures often
varied according to locality. The diversity of the trials and individual conclusions drawn from
micro studies relating only to small regions of early modern Europe may be one root of
disagreement regarding widowhood as a factor of witch-accusations.
Rowlands argued that many older women accused of witchcraft already had an
existing reputation of being a witch before they were formally accused. She suggested that a
contributing factor behind accusations of older widows was the loss of the protection of
their husbands. 18 A similar observation was made by Briggs, however he noted that the ages
of those accused often overlapped with the age of menopause. While he implied that this
may be coincidental, Briggs also suggested that this transition may have been alienating for
some women, particularly for those who did not have children, causing resentment which
was then noticed by their neighbours. 19 Another historian identified by Rowlands to have
attributed the menopause as a factor behind witchcraft accusations is Lyndal Roper. Analysis
of how women and witches were represented artistically in early modern Germany led
16 Rowlands, pp. 63-65 17 Macfarlane, pp. 85-87 18 Rowlands, pp. 63-65 19 Briggs, Witches and Neighbours , pp. 228-229
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