![]() Petronilla’s place setting employs many of the most familiar symbols of witchcraft from both Petronilla’s time and today, including the broomstick incorporated into the illuminated letter “P” on the front of her runner. ![]() Petronilla serves as an emblem of the many women tried and convicted of witchcraft during the Middle Ages. This was not the first recorded sentence of death by burning for heresy, but was the first known trial to treat women practicing witchcraft as an organized group. Some were convicted and whipped, but others, Petronilla included, were burned alive at the stake. Lady Alice’s followers, including Petronilla, remained behind. With the help of relatives, Lady Alice used her connections to flee to England, taking with her Petronilla’s daughter, Basilia. She was then forced to proclaim publicly that Lady Alice and her followers were guilty of witchcraft. Petronilla claimed that she and her mistress applied a magical ointment to a wooden beam, which enabled both women to fly. To extract her confession, the bishop ordered the torture of Lady Alice’s maid and confidante, Petronilla de Meath. Lady Alice was believed to have illegally acquired her wealth through magical and devilish means. She was charged by the Bishop of Ossory with a wide slate of crimes, from sorcery and demonism to the murders of several husbands. In Kilkenny, Ireland in 1324, Lady Alice Kyteler, along with her son and ten others, became one of the earliest targets of witchcraft accusations, centuries before the more famous rash of witch trials in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She served as a maid to Lady Alice Kyteler, one of the earliest women to be accused of witchcraft. Petronilla de Meath was the first Irish woman to be burned at the stake for the crime of heresy. ![]()
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