Editing Buckriders (section)

==Buckriders and witch-hunts==
The fact that the buckriders were tried and prosecuted for their pact with the devil, resembles the witch-hunts during the Early Modern Period. Historians place these buckrider-hunts alongside other prosecuted 'godless' people: heretics and witches. These kinds of fullscale trials last took place in Limburg.

Limburg was the last European region where such superstitious legal excesses took place en masse.<ref>VAN GEHUCHTEN F. Bokkenrijders: Late heksenprocessen in Limburg. Het proces van vier bokkenrijdersgroepen in Limburg (1773-1795). Opglabbeek 2002, p. 294, p. 339-340.</ref>

The witches were a popular belief, but also in the eyes of the justice system witches were a reality. The accused were convicted on the basis of witchcraft as much as the robbery chargers and they were in most cases executed when found guilty. It is unclear how many people were involved in the actual robberies and that were convicted for it, but the widespread area and long period of time these occurred suggests many smaller groups. This played into the belief that the buckriders could travel fast and vast distances through the skies to rob in a widespread area.  

The trials against the buckriders differed from 'ordinary' criminal proceedings because in many cases a so-called 'ungodly oath' was involved ("I renounce God and swear to the devil"). This impious oath, typical of buckriders in this tradition, is said to have originated in the Lands of [[Overmaas]] (according to the trial of Hendrik Becx in Nieuwstadt in 1743) and then spread to [[County of Loon|Loon]].<ref>VAN GEHUCHTEN F. Bokkenrijders: Late heksenprocessen in Limburg. Het proces van vier bokkenrijdersgroepen in Limburg (1773-1795). Opglabbeek 2002, p. 71-72, p. 189.</ref>

During the 18th century there were seven buckrider trials. In the Wellen-Haspengouw trial, this is stated in black and white in the court documents. A common question there is: "Aren't you a member of the gang from across the [[Meuse]], the so-called buckriders?" That is why people speak of buckriders in the sense that they are suspects and convicts of massive witch trials conducted in that sense. The witch trials and robbery trials can not seen separately in that sense: the accusations always included both.