ABSTRACT
The fact that there were more male than female witches in Normandy and Estonia has been much repeated, and is sometimes used to argue against the importance of a female majority in the European witch-hunt. Thus, many of the men who were caught up in the European witch-hunt did not fit any of the stereotypes of the male witch. Instead they were caught up in a chain-reaction trial beginning with women. Such a man could be the husband of a female witch, or otherwise connected to female witches. The Channel Islands held chain-reaction trials based on pact and sabbat, in which women heavily outnumbered men; these women are omitted from the usual statistics for Normandy. Overall, then, these Normandy statistics display two related patterns: mainland Normandy had light prosecutions and a male majority, while the Channel Islands had heavy prosecutions and a female majority.
