Sidonia von Borcke
| Sidonia von Borcke | |
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Sidonia von Borcke in her youth and old age (artist unknown)
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| Noble family | von Borcke |
| Father | Otto von Borcke zu Stramehl-Regenwalde |
| Mother | Anna von Schwiechelt |
| Born | 1548 Stramehl, Duchy of Pomerania |
| Died | 1620 Stettin, Duchy of Pomerania |
Sidonia von Borcke (1548–1620) was a Pomeranian noblewoman who was tried and executed for witchcraft. In posthumous legends, she is depicted as a femme fatale, and she has entered English literature as Sidonia the Sorceress. She lived in the city of Stettin, Germany (today Szczecin, Poland).
Her name may also be spelled as Sidonie von Bork, Borke, or Borken.
Sidonia von Borcke was born in 1548 into a wealthy noble Pomeranian family. Her father, Otto von Borcke zu Stramehl-Regenwalde, died in 1551, and her mother, Anna von Schwiechelt, died in 1568.
Subsequent to the death of her sister in 1600, she took residence in 1604 in the Lutheran Noble Damsels' Foundation in Marienfließ Abbey which, since 1569 and following the Protestant Reformation, was a convent for unmarried noblewomen.
Prior to that time, she had been involved in several lawsuits concerning support payments which, she claimed, were owed to her. Defendants in the suits were her brother, Ulrich, and Johann Friedrich, Duke of Pomerania (died 1600). One of these suits was even heard in the imperial court in Vienna.
While living in Marienfließ, Sidonia engaged in several private and judicial conflicts with her (mostly younger) co-residents and with the administrative staff of the abbey. When in 1606 she was dismissed from her post as an Unterpriorin (sub-prioress) by the convent's prioress, Magdalena von Petersdorff, she appealed her dismissal to Bogislaw XIII, Duke of Pomerania.
Bogislaw sent a Commission, headed by Joachim von Wedel, to investigate the dispute. The interaction between the Commission and Sidonia soon metamorphosed into a major feud. Von Wedel met in private with the Marienfließ Hauptmann (captain), Johannes von Hechthausen, to consider "getting rid of this poisonous snake." The feud ended with the death of Bogislaw XIII in 1606 and the deaths of von Petersdorff, von Wedel, and von Hechthausen (all in 1609).
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