executions in Denmark proper were, therefore, Karen Grottes and Bodil Lauritzen in 1540. In 1543, a large witch trial in Malmö, centered around Gyde Spandemager, attracted attention. The Copenhagen witch trials in 1590–91 against Anna Koldings and her accused accomplices was connected to the first famous witch trial in Scotland, the North Berwick witch trials of 1590. Jylland, 1609–1687 Between 1609 and 1687, 494 witchcraft executions were conducted on Jylland. The majority of them, 297, took place during the years of 1617–1625, which was a period of intense witch hunts in Denmark. In October 1617, the witchcraft act Trolddomsforordningen af 1617 was introduced in Danish law, which made witch persecutions much easier and which was accompanied with an instruction by the king to local authorities and parish vicars to make use of it by investigating any suspected sorcery in their parishes. This resulted in the outbreak of a witch panic and a witch hunt in Denmark lasting for eight years until 1625, the documentation of which are preserved from the region of Jylland. After the witch panic of the 1620s, the cases became fewer, likely because the prime victims during the great witch hunt had been marginalized people considered odd and reputed to be involved in sorcery, and that this category had been killed and fewer people of this kind was left to direct sorcery accusations toward. Between 1656 and 1687, only one person was executed for sorcery on Jylland, and in 1686, four people were executed as the last people executed for this crime in this region of Denmark. 80 percent of all executed were women. The most famous case of the region was the case of Maren Spliid in 1641, who belonged to the most known victims of the Danish witch hunt. The public on Jylland was not interested in the Satan's sabbath or Devil's pacts, which were the main focus of the investigators, but generally directed their accusations toward people they accused of having harmed them or their animals or property by the help of magic. According to the Witchcraft Act, a death sentence could only be issued for the crime of Devil's Pact, and such a confession could only be attained by use of torture, which was forbidden prior to a guilty verdict. However, in practice, the judges adjusted to the common view and sentenced people to death on the grounds of sorcery alone. Most of