Petronilla de Meath was a 14th-century Irish servant accused of witchcraft alongside her mistress Alice Kyteler. In 1324, she became the first person burned alive for heresy in Ireland, a victim of one of Europe's earliest major witchcraft trials.
Petronilla de Meath(1300 — 1324)
Petronilla de Meath
Irlande
6 min read
Frequently asked questions
Key Facts
- Born around 1300 in Ireland, she entered the service of Alice Kyteler, a wealthy burgess of Kilkenny
- Around 1324, Bishop Richard de Ledrede accused Alice Kyteler and her household of witchcraft and heresy
- Tortured, Petronilla was forced to confess to magical practices and a pact with the devil
- On November 3, 1324, she was burned alive in Kilkenny, the first person executed for witch heresy in Ireland
- Alice Kyteler, her mistress, managed to flee and escape the stake
Works & Achievements
The first major witchcraft trial in Ireland, whose main victim was Petronilla; it marks European judicial history.
Under whipping, Petronilla "confessed" to magical practices; these confessions served as the basis for her conviction.
Petronilla's execution makes her the first person burned for witchcraft on the island, a founding event in the memory of persecutions.
The text written by Bishop Ledrede's circle fixed the details of the case and Petronilla's fate for posterity.
Petronilla became a symbol of the injustices suffered by poor women accused of witchcraft, evoked in literature and history.
Anecdotes
Petronilla de Meath was a simple maidservant in the service of Alice Kyteler, a wealthy aristocrat from Kilkenny who had been married four times, with three of her husbands having died under suspicious circumstances. When Bishop Richard de Ledrede accused Alice of witchcraft, it was her servant—more vulnerable and unprotected—who paid the heaviest price.
Before her execution, Petronilla was publicly whipped six times on the bishop's orders to extract a confession. Under torture, she eventually 'confessed' that she and her mistress practiced magic and that Alice was the greatest witch in the kingdom.
On **November 3, 1324**, Petronilla de Meath was burned alive in Kilkenny: she is considered the first person executed for heresy and witchcraft in Ireland. Her mistress, Alice Kyteler, managed to flee to England and escaped the stake.
The accusers claimed that Alice Kyteler and her accomplices gathered at night to renounce Christ, sacrifice animals to a demon named Robin Artisson, and brew potions from macabre ingredients in the skull of a beheaded thief. These accounts make the Kyteler affair one of the first trials to merge heresy with the diabolical sabbath.
The Petronilla case occurred nearly two centuries before the great witch hunts of the Renaissance. It shows how, as early as the 14th century, the Church used accusations of heresy as a weapon, and how poor, isolated women were especially vulnerable to such charges.
Primary Sources
The contemporary account, written in the circle of Bishop Ledrede, reports the accusations against Alice Kyteler and her accomplices, including her servant Petronilla de Meath, accused of renouncing the Christian faith and summoning demons.
The Franciscan chronicler of Kilkenny mentions the witchcraft trial led by Bishop Richard de Ledrede and the burning of Petronilla de Meath.
The documents of the bishopric of Ossory preserve the record of the prosecutions initiated by Ledrede against Alice Kyteler for heresy and witchcraft.
Key Places
Town where Alice Kyteler lived and where the trial took place; Petronilla was executed here in 1324.
Seat of the Diocese of Ossory, seat of power for Bishop Richard de Ledrede, who led the prosecution.
Region from which Petronilla derived her name; a medieval kingdom in east-central Ireland.
House traditionally associated with Alice Kyteler, now an inn preserving the memory of the case.
Capital of Anglo-Norman Ireland, where royal authority attempted to arbitrate the conflict surrounding the Kyteler trial.
