10. Angéle de la Barthe
There is a lot that can be misconstrued over the course of time when it comes to history. In Angéle de la Barthe’s case, her legacy dates back to the mid to late 1200’s where she was said to be the first person ever to be put to death for being a witch. However, more recent beliefs lean towards the discovery that her story is one that has been highly fabricated. The fable of Angéle de la Barthe’s was so widespread that she is also simply known as the Toulouse Witch, and her story is simple, yet bizarre.
She was a prosperous woman of Toulouse who was accused by a Catholic priest of committing in sexual acts with the Devil and bearing his demon seed. The monster was said to have the head of a wolf with a serpent’s tail and fed on the flesh of infants and small children that the witch would either slaughter or dig up from graveyards to offer the beast. After being tortured, Angéle finally confessed to the ludicrous allegations and claimed that her flesh-eating spawn of Satan flew away to avoid his capture and she was then burned alive in 1275. The truth behind Angéle de la Barthe who ranks 10th in our list of most famous witches in history, can most likely be found in the gray areas of her story. It is believed that she was quite simply just another woman who stood out from the crowd a little too much and was falsely accused by a man of power seeking to make a name for himself at the expense of a unique and innocent woman.
