Petronilla de Meath

Who was Petronilla de Meath?

Petronilla de Meath was the maidservant of Dame Alice Kyteler, a fourteenth-century Hiberno-Norman noblewoman. After the death of Kyteler's fourth husband, Kyteler was accused of practicing witchcraft and Petronilla 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 burnt at the stake on 3 November 1324, in Kilkenny. Hers was the first known case in the history of the British Isles of death by fire for the crime of heresy.