Alice Kyteler

Hiberno Norman noblewoman accused of witchcraft

Dame Alice Kyteler ('/k//ɪ//t//l//ə//r/; 1263 – after 1325) was the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland. She fled the country to either England or Flanders, and there is no record of her after her escape from persecution. First husband c.1280–85: William Outlaw, wealthy merchant and moneylender from Kilkenny. Son: William Outlaw, was mayor of Kilkenny in 1305. Daughter: Rose? Second husband (by 1302): Adam Blund of Callan, moneylender. Had children from a previous marriage
Third husband (by 1309): Richard de Valle, a wealthy landholder of County Tipperary. After de Valle's death c.1316, Kyteler took proceedings against one of her stepsons, Richard, for the recovery of her widow's dower. This act incited the suspicion and anger of her stepchildren, as they would have received the money had she not intervened. Fourth husband (c.1316–24): John le Poer. He had children from a previous marriage. In 1302, Kyteler and her second husband were briefly accused of killing her first husband. She incurred local resentment because of her vast wealth and involvement in moneylending. Her fourth husband, John le Poer, briefly defended her by imprisoning Richard de Ledrede, the Bishop of Ossory, who was attempting to arrest Kyteler. However, when le Poer fell ill in 1324, he expressed the suspicion that he was being poisoned. After his death, the children of le Poer and of her previous three husbands, her step children, accused her of using poison and sorcery (maleficarum) against their fathers and of favouring her first born son, William Outlaw. Seven formal charges were brought against Kyteler. She was accused of:
Denying the power of Christ and of the Church. During this period, renunciation of faith was interpreted as a shift in worship to the devil. Making dark magic based powders and ointments or potions, from multiple alarming ingredients, including but not limited to body parts of unbaptized children, worms, a skull, and chicken innards. It was alleged that said potions were used to corrupt her husbands. Bewitching and killing her husbands to take their money for herself and her biological son, William Outlaw. Before sentencing, Kyteler along with Petronilla de Meath's daughter, Basilia, escaped. Although at least 10 other people faced convictions in connection to Kyteler, they did not attempt to escape with their leader. There are no records of her life after her escape. Her date of death is unknown, along with the location of a burial site.

Kyteler's first three husbands did not raise accusations against her regarding witchcraft or her responsibility for the deaths of her other husbands. Her last husband, John le Poer, only raised suspicions toward her once he developed the sickness that eventually led to his death. However, the option for reform was not offered to Kyteler or her maid after the maid confessed, which was highly unusual for the time. It is possible that the preemptive attacks against Richard de Ledrede by Kyteler and her son led to a sentence driven by resentment. The lack of confession from Kyteler herself may have implied a lack of remorse for the crimes she was accused of; however, Meath's confession did not garner her a lenient sentence either. Additionally, William Outlaw failed to produce a confession for the heretical crimes but did apologize for his attacks against Ledrede before the trial. Outlaw received leniency in his sentence due to his apology to Ledrede, which suggests a degree of personal pride of the bishop likely was present during the sentencing of the other heretics in this case, as they did not make specific apologies to him. It is possible that the Bishop de Ledrede and John le Poer's children accused Kyteler of witchcraft in order to secure punishment for her crimes that she would likely have been acquitted for, as witchcraft was a much more taboo topic. Additionally, heresy was considered to be the worst crime that could be committed. This would also explain why the death penalty was applied in this case compared to previous cases against heretics in Europe. What would have made this an even more appealing option for persecution was there was no statute for witchcraft in Ireland at this time, which meant the treatment of the case was tried with ecclesiastical law. Kyteler would be tried as a heretic instead of a felon as English common law would have done. It is possible that Kyteler wanted to leave her husbands but did not meet any of the annulment worthy complaints, and so resorted to murder instead. Open displays of sexuality were highly scorned in medieval Ireland. It was considered sinful to take part in or even think of committing such acts, including masturbation. During the investigation of Kyteler's room, a pipe with ointment was found in her nightstand. It has been argued that this item was a dildo. When the case was presented before him in 1324, he began his larger project of addressing witchcraft. Ledrede made initial attempts to have Kyteler arrested, and Kyteler called on the assistance of powerful friends. The bishop wrote to the Chancellor of Ireland, Roger Utlagh (Outlaw), demanding that she be arrested. Using the decretal Ut Inquisitiones (1298), designed to protect the faith, Ledrede demanded that secular powers concede to church wishes, and this point of law became a thorny issue throughout the trial. Kyteler was related to the Chancellor (he was probably her first husband's brother) and he asked the bishop to drop the case. The chancellor demanded that Kyteler be excommunicated for at least 40 days before the trial, which caused a delay in the proceedings. This allowed Kyteler to flee to Roger Utlagh. Ledrede accused Utlagh of harbouring heretics, but a commission cleared him of any wrongdoing. The bishop then charged Kyteler and her son, William Outlaw, with the crime of heresy. William was a powerful man and was related to many in the ruling classes. He called upon his friend, Sir Arnold le Poeur, a Senior Official in Dublin, who had de Ledrede thrown in prison in Kilkenny Castle. Ledrede, despite his limited political connections compared to his captors, was released from prison after he ordered the diocese be placed on an interdict. He would not allow any religious ceremonies to occur until he was released. It would seem, although her testimony was likely forced and unreliable, that the accusers gained most of their information from this confession. Although the testimony did implicate Kyteler in performing heresy, questions concerning Petronella's credibility came to light, especially when examining the contents of her confession. In Ledrede's retelling of Petronilla's confession, he writes:
'On one of these occasions, by the crossroads outside the city, she had made an offering of three cocks to a certain demon whom she called Robert, son of Art (Robertum filium Artis), from the depths of the underworld. She had poured out the cocks' blood, cut the animals into pieces and mixed the intestines with spiders and other black worms like scorpions, with a herb called milfoil as well as with other herbs and horrible worms. She had boiled this mixture in a pot with the brains and clothes of a boy who had died without baptism and with the head of a robber who had been decapitated Petronilla said she had several times at Alice's instigation and once in her presence, consulted demons and received answers. She had consented to a pact whereby she would be the medium between Alice and the said Robert, her friend. In public, she said that with her own eyes she had seen the aforesaid demon as three shapes (praedictus daemon tertius), in the form of three black men (aethiopum) each carrying an iron rod in the hand. This apparition happened by daylight (de die) before the said Dame Alice, and, while Petronilla herself was watching, the apparition had intercourse with Alice. After this disgraceful act, with her own hand she (Alice?) wiped clean the disgusting place with sheets (kanevacio) from her own bed. 'Despite the clear usage of torture, Ledrede referred to the acts committed against Petronilla as floggings. His assertion that flogging occurred suggests that what she went through was an act of punishment rather than an attempt to gain a confession was potentially an attempt to give credibility to her statements.

In the late thirteenth and fourteenth century, 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 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 (1316–1334). This case was also the first to treat the accused parties as an organized group or coven as opposed to individuals.