Dame Alice Kyteler

Dame Alice Kyteler (1280 c.e. - later than 1325 c.e.) is said to have been the earliest person accused and condemned for witchcraft in Ireland. She fled the country, but her servant, Petronilla de Meath was flogged and burned to death at the stake on November 3, 1324 c.e. Alice was born in Kyteler's house, Kilkenny Ireland. The only child of a Flemish family of merchants settled in Ireland since the mid-late 13th century. She was married four times to: William Outlaw, Adam le Blund, Richard de Valle, and Sir John le Poer.

First Husband

(1280 c.e. - 1285 c.e.) William Outlaw. Merchant and money lender of Kilkenny Ireland.

Second Husband:

(1302 c.e.) Adam Blund of Callan. Money Lender.

Third Husband:

(1309 c.e.) Richard Valle. A landholder of County Tipperary. After Valle's death (1316 c.e.) Alice took proceedings against her stepson for the recovery of her widow's dower.

Fourth Husband:

(1316 c.e. - 1324 c.e.) John Poer.

In 1302 she and her second husband were briefly accused of killing her first husband. Kyteler incurred local resentment because of her vast wealth and involvement in money lending. When her fourth husband, John le Poer fell ill in 1324 c.e. he expressed the suspicion that he was being poisoned. After his death, the children of le Poer and of her previous three husbands accused her of using poison and sorcery (maleficarum) against their fathers and of favoring her first born son William Outlaw. In addition, she and her followers were accused of:

Denying the faith of Christ and the church.

Cutting up animals to sacrifice to demons at crossroads.

Holding secret nocturnal meetings in churches to perform black magick.

Using sorcery and potions to control Christians.

Possession of a familiar, Robin Artison, a lesser demon of Satan.

Murder of husbands.

Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory, was obsessed with the laws of the church and morality. When the case was presented before him in 1324 c.e. he seized the opportunity to tackle what he considered the important issue of witchcraft. Ledrede made initial attempts to have Kyteler arrested, but Kyteler called on the assistance of powerful friends. The Bishop was jailed and questioned by Sir Arnold le Poer, Seneschal of Kilkenny. On Ledrede's release he renewed his efforts to have Kyteler imprisoned. The Bishop wrote to the Chancellor of Ireland, Roger Utlagh (Outlaw) demanding that she should be arrested. Ledrede's use of decretal designed to protect the faith "ut inquisitions" (1298 c.e.) demanded that secular powers should concede to church wishes, and this point of law became a thorny issue through out the trial. Kyteler was related to the Chancellor (possibly her first husband's brother) and he asked the Bishop to drop the case. A delay in proceedings (the Chancellor insisted the accused be excommunicated 40 days before arrest) allowed Alice to flee to Roger Utlagh. Ledrede accused him of harboring heretics. After some months of stalemate, one of Kyteler's servants, Petronilla de Meath, was tortured and confessed to witchcraft, implicating Kyteler. Kyteler fled the country, it is said to England. She appears no further in contemporary records. The Bishop continued to pursue her working class associates bringing charges of witchcraft against them. Petronilla de Meath was flogged and burned at the stake on November 3, 1324 c.e. Petronilla's daughter, Basilia, fled with Kyteler. Kyteler's son, William Outlaw, was also accused of heresy, usury, perjury, adultery, and clericide. William recanted and was ordered to hear three masses a day for a year and to feed the poor. In the late 13th and 14th centuries heresy was considered as evidence of the struggle with the Devil, with the dangers of witchcraft voiced by the papacy in Avignon. Pope John XXII listed witchcraft as a heresy in his bull "Super illius specula." Kyteler's was one of the first European witchcraft trials and followed closely on the election of this pope. (1316 c.e. - 1334 c.e.) The case appears to involve the first recorded claim of a witch lying with her incubus. Annales Hiberniae state that:

"Richardus Ledrede, episcopus Ossoriensis, citavit Aliciam Ketil, ut se purgaret de heretica pravitate quae magiae convicta est,, nam certo comprobatum est, quendam demonem incubum (nomine Robin Artisson) concubuisse cum ea"... that is, that Kyteler had intercourse with a demon named as "Robin Artisson." Lady Kyteler figures in William Butler Yeat's poem:

Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen

But now wind drops, dust settles, there upon

There lurches past, his great eyes without thought

Under the shadow of stupid straw-pale locks

That insolent friend Robin Artisson

To whom the love-lorn Lady Kyteler brought

Bronzed peacock feathers, red combs of her cocks.

"The Stone," a novel about the times of Alice Kyteler was published in 2008, written by a Kilkenny woman named Claire Nolan. A musical version of "The Stone" based on Nolan's book with music and lyrics by Jason Paul Ryan and Tom Bolger premiered in Kilkenny in 2011.