Buckriders
The Buckriders (called the Bokkenrijders in Dutch) is a legend of Limburg. There are however as many versions of the legend as there are story tellers.
The legend
As the legend goes, the Buckriders[1] were a gang of ruthless robbers who made the Overmaas region (the current Limburg) an unsafe place to live from the 1730s to the 1780s. It was said that the members had made a pact with Satan and rode through the sky on the backs of goats.
According to popular belief, goats were the riders spirits. Of this popular belief was a gang of thieves and burglars, particularly in South Limburg to frighten the population. This latter bucks riders were a gang of robbers in the 18th century the countries of Overmaas (now Dutch Limburg, Belgian border region and Herve) and the region around Liege, the areas just across the German border and roamed the Kempen. The raids were generally directed against farms and rectories.
The first mention of the term buck drivers (old spelling "bockereyders") comes from the book: Oorzaeke, bewys and discoveries of a godless, sworn gang night-thieves and within the countries and Overmaeze, written in 1779 by SJP Sleinada (a pseudonym of Father A. Daniels - read the name backwards). He was pastor of the parish Schaesberg now part of Landgraaf. He knew several gang members personally and was well aware of Procedure. The legend was that the robbers had made a pact with the devil and close at night on goats they took off. The people told me that she flew through the air, when they rescinded the following motto: "In house, about garden, on pole, and that to Cologne in the cellar!" Once a year they drove to the Mookerheide to their master, the devil.
Later, the goats riders with all kinds of stories and mysticism to the gang, gained a Robin Hood-like status. Nowadays it is believed that there have been several gangs which committed burglaries and robberies. Also seen a large part of the 600 people arrested and convicted innocent, because a confession was forced by torture.
Buckriders in Limburg.
The Buckrides went to the cultural heritage of Limburg. The phenomenon occurred in the eighteenth century and especially in the Meuse shires: the old Duchy of Limburg, the Countries of Overmaas and the old county of Loon, what we now call the Euroregion.
The trials of the goats riders distinguished from an ordinary criminal procedure when a "wicked oath 'for came: I swear to god, and the devil ..." This "godless oath" in the tradition typical buck riders came in Overmaas (Henry Becx in Nieuwstadt 1743) and blew over to Loon. Here the name 'riders bucks "for the first time. By condemning people because of a godless oath or their alleged alliance with the devil, that one can speak of a late form of processes that resemble those of alleged witches appear. The prosecution was relentless, even by the standards of that time. More than 90% of those convicted received the death penalty. Most confessions were extracted under torture, or the fear of that.
Based on oath from the goats riders, there are seven distinct periods of persecution. The first dates from 1743 to 1745, the last from 1793 until 1794.
The name; Buckriders.
Apart from the processes in the process of 1774 in the Hesbaye Wellen, "buck riders' was first openly used. In 1774 John Muysen shoved letter under the door of farmer Wouters Ulbeek, saying his house was going to be burnt down. His house would be burned if he would get money. In that letter Muysen volunteered himself as a member of the goats riders, and three times he used the word devil. In Overmaase processes, the term "buck riders' very late for the influence of events in Wellen. Here emerges, however, the word 'goat' for the first time in the processes. Mathijs Smeets Beek claimed in 1773 that at night they agreed with 42 people to fly on a large goat through the air to Venlo, there to commit a crime.
Notes and references
- ^ Limburg, Land van de Bokkerrijders (Mythe-Historie-Fictie), José(phus) SPEETJENS, 2006, ISBN 99904-0-591-3, 420p. Ed. Stichting Bokkeryder, Groot-Genhout 6191 NT Beek (L), fax: 046-4374600.
