Kyteler, Alice (lived 1324)

In Irish history, a Kilkenny woman accused of heresy and witchcraft in 1324. Dame Alice, having married and outlived four husbands, was charged by the bishop of Ossory, Richard Ledred, with forming and leading a band of witches and sorcerers in the town and environs of Kilkenny. A wealthy woman, through birth as well as through her first marriage, she twice escaped the charges, the second time fleeing to England where she was not heard from again.

The accused who remained in Kilkenny, including her son and heir William Outlaw, were prosecuted and, after full admissions of guilt, jailed. In lieu of Dame Alice's arrest, Petronilla of Meath, clearly the situation's scapegoat, was burned alive in the marketplace, the first such execution reported in Ireland.