It is seemingly part of human nature that we most vehemently attack that which is somehow a part of us. Pierre de Lancre was no different. One of the most infamous persecutors of Basque witches, he himself had Basque ancestry, an ancestry that his family seemed to deny. De Lancre felt that all aspects of the Basque culture reflected the inherent tendency of Basques toward evil.

• Pierre de Lancre was born in 1553. His grandfather, Bernard de Rosteguy, was a wealthy wine grower and was from Joxue, a town in Nafarroa Beherea in Iparralde. Thus, de Lancre had Basque ancestry – Rosteguy is a respelling of Aroztegi, which means ‘home of the smith.’ His father became Lord of Lancre by purchasing a position under the king. This led to a new name for the family, foregoing their Basque name.
• de Lancre attended the Jesuit college, receiving a law degree in 1576. In 1582 he was named a councillor or judge of the parliament of Bordeaux. It was in this roll that he oversaw the witch-hunt of Lapurdi, for which he became infamous.
• In 1609, the King of France, Henry IV, sent him to investigate allegations of local witchcraft. His investigations uncovered rampant witchcraft – he ultimately suspected 10% of the population – nearly 3000 people – of being witches. As a result of his trials, he executed some 70 people, maybe even as many as 300. Many were women who were accused of adultery and debauchery with the devil, though many children and a few priests were also executed.
• During the trials, many of the local men were away fishing in the waters of Newfoundland. When they returned, they were incensed by what had happened to their families and threatened rebellion. To quell their anger, the authorities in Bordeaux recalled de Lancre, ending the hunt.
• After the trials were concluded and de Lancre was recalled, he published his Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et démons où il est ample traité des sorciers et de la sorcellerie, describing his investigations. In it, he railed against the evil inclinations of the people of Lapurdi, the intrinsic perversity of women, the preparation of the Sabbath, poisons, the crowing of the cock, demonological pacts, marks and feasts, dances, intercourse with the devil, lycanthropy, healing practices, apparitions, witch-priests, and the black mass, amongst other topics.
• His most famous work was republished in 1982. In it, Nicole Jacques Chaquin writes in her forward that “Lancre stresses the disorders caused by a love of freedom detrimental to the proper functioning of central power” and that “Lancre will show evidence of a lack of understanding of the social and economic habits of the rural Laburdi, which will be presented to him with an effect of foreignness that he will ‘naturally’ attribute to the diabolical.”
• There is speculation that this denial of his Basque heritage led de Lancre to hate all things Basque. He considered “Basques to be ignorant, superstitious, proud and irreligious. Basque women were in his eyes libertines and Basque priests were for him just womanizers with no religious zeal. He believed that the root of the natural Basque tendency towards evil was love of dance.”

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: Arozamena Ayala, Ainhoa; Elia Itzultzaile automatikoa. Lancre, Pierre de. Auñamendi Encyclopedia, 2025. Available at: https://aunamendi.eusko-ikaskuntza.eus/en/lancre-pierre-de/ar-84793/; Pierre de Lancre, Wikipedia; Pierre de Lancre, Wikipedia