Alice Kyteler
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Dame Alice Kyteler, the first person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland, escaped before her 1324 sentencing while her servant Petronilla de Meath burned in her place. This field study reconstructs the wealthy widow behind the accusation, weighs the motives that doomed her, and asks whether she survived and fled abroad.
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Petronilla de Meath, servant of Dame Alice Kyteler, was tortured into confession and burned at Kilkenny on 3 November 1324 — the first death by fire for heresy in Ireland and the British Isles. This study reclaims her from footnote to subject: the powerless woman burned because she could not run.