Grietjens Gericht, near Beesel.
East of Beesel (The Netherlands), near the border with Germany, atop a more than 4000-year-old burial mound, stands a wagon wheel on a pole. This wagon wheel is a reference to Beesel's execution site from the 17th century. At that time, a (Saint) Catherine('s) wheel and gallows stood at this location.
This execution site is known as the "Grietjens Gericht," named after Margareta Gysberts, or Grietje. In 1651, she was executed at this location as a maid and displayed on such a wheel as a deterrent example.
She worked for the secretary of the bench courts in the Montfort who lived in Beesel. She had been raped by a servant and her newborn child had died from suffocation. At first, she denied it, but under torture, she confessed. In a panic, after being sick in bed for a while and giving birth when she was alone at home, she had wrapped the child too tightly in cloths, causing it to suffocate.
The court found her guilty, and she was transported to the courthouse to undergo her death sentence.
Did justice happen here?
