Petronilla de Meath
Petronilla de Meath (c. 1300 – 1324) was the maidservant of Dame Alice Kyteler, a fourteenth-century Irish noblewoman. After the death of Kyteler's fourth husband, Kyteler was accused of practicing witchcraft and Petronilla was accused of being her accomplice. Petronilla was tortured and forced to proclaim that she and Kyteler were guilty of witchcraft. Petronilla was then flogged and eventually burned at the stake on 3 November 1324, in Kilkenny, Ireland.[1][2] She was the first case in British history of death by fire for the crime of heresy.[3]
Confession and execution
Alice Kyteler was charged by the Bishop of Ossory with a wide slate of crimes, from sorcery and demonism to the murders of several husbands. Lady Alice was believed to have illegally acquired her wealth through witchcraft. The accusations principally came from the children of her late husbands by their previous marriages.
The trial predated any formal witchcraft statute in the country and therefore relied on ecclasiastical law (which treated witchcraft as heresy) rather than English common law (which treated it as a felony).
To extract Alice Kyteler's confession, the bishop ordered the torture of Petronilla de Meath, Lady Alice's maid and confidante. Petronilla claimed that she and her mistress applied a magical ointment to a wooden beam, which enabled both women to fly. She was then forced to proclaim publicly that Lady Alice and her followers were guilty of witchcraft.[1] Some were convicted and whipped, but others, Petronilla included, were burned alive at the stake.
With the help of relatives, Lady Alice fled to England, taking with her Petronilla's daughter, Basilia, who she raised.
References
- ^ a b Wright, Thomas, ed. A Contemporary Narrative of the Proceedings Against Dame Alice Kyteler, Prosecuted for Sorcery in 1324, by Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory. London: The Camden Society, 1843.
- ^ Davidson, Sharon, and John O. Ward, trans. The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler: A Contemporary Account (1324). Asheville, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 2004.
- ^ Curran, Bob. A Bewitched Land: Ireland’s Witches. Dublin: O'Brien, 2005.
Further reading
- Barstow, Anne Llewellyn. Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1995.
- Jones, Prudence, and Nigel Pennick. A History of Pagan Europe. London and New York: Routledge, 1995.
- Kors, Alan Charles, and Edward Peters, eds. Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History. 1972; 2nd ed., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
- Levack, Brian P., ed. The Witchcraft Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2004.
- Oldridge, Darren, ed. The Witchcraft Reader. London: Routledge, 2002.
- Purkiss, Diane. The Witch in History: Early Modern and Twentieth-Century Representations. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.
- Williams, Selma R., and Pamela Williams Adelman. Riding the Nightmare: Women and Witchcraft from the Old World to Colonial Salem. New York: Harper, 1972.
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