Hello,

I have discovered that on of my ancestors testified in a case in 1560's Antwerpen. It was against Marcus Saligant who had disrupted a preach of a preacher.

I found the story here. (I'm sorry it's in Dutch.)

When I went searching for the primary source of this testimony, I failed. I couldn't find it. Then I tried searching for the case, but could only find a chronic from 1743 about it, or sources that were written after 1950!

Then I went a step further and tried searching for court cases in general pre-1700 like those about the witches. But I still haven't succeeded in finding any court case from before 1700 from anywhere in the Netherlands and Belgium!

Am I just searching for something that doesn't exist? Where criminal cases only partially documented like when the punishment was executed or what the bills where, but the rest was just known and not written down?

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My main question still is: Where is the testimony of Emmanuel Alvarez, the man in question? But by now, if you could show me any primary source that talks about a court case in the Netherlands/Belgium before 1700, I would already be happy. So my second question by now is: How can I find pre-1700 court cases? I hope you can help me with both.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer. :)

(Answering in Dutch is fine by me, IDK if the subreddit likes it though)

Kind regards