By the time Alice Kyteler married Sir John Poer around 1316,
she had already outlived three husbands and was financially secure. She had
also been accused of killing her first husband with the help of her second
husband. This trend would continue when statements from Poer led his children
as well as Kyteler’s other step-children to believe he was being poisoned by
the dame.
According to Dr. Bernadette Williams’ article The
Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler, not only did Kyteler’s step-children
feel that she was involved in the poisoning of Poer, but there was consensus between
them that Kyteler had utilized sorcery, specifically maleficia, to cause harm
to the men in her life. Furthermore there were accusations that Kyteler had
used maleficia to gain financially. This aspect stands out in the fact that
many of Kyteler’s step-children did not fare as well fiscally compared to their
step-mother. Williams also notes that Kyteler’s actual son was favored over his
step-siblings, which further strained relations between the parties.
According to Brian Levack’s The Witch-hunt in Early Modern Europe, Kyteler was unlike the
majority of witches in the fact that she was a member of the aristocracy. Whereas
most people accused of being witches were “common folk”, Kyteler was far from
common (Levack 44). Coming from a family of Flemish merchants and moneylenders,
Kyteler quickly became successful through trade in bustling, thirteenth-century
Kilkenny, earning well into the thousands (£). In a time when the average daily
pay amounted to less than two pennies (Williams). This fact combined with the
untimely demise of three of her husbands, and the sickness of her current
spouse, undoubtedly contributed to the feelings of ill-will towards the dame. This
animosity would come to a head in 1324, when the accusations of sorcery and
heresy would be leveled against Kyteler.
Delving further into the background information causes one
to wonder about the real reasoning behind why people accused others of heresy,
witchcraft, and sorcery. Did Kyteler’s step-children truly believe that she was
practicing maleficia against her husbands or could the fact that she was a
successful, wealthy widow play into the accusations that were made?
For
further reading see: Shelby Weissenbach’s blogpost Dame Alice Ketyler; Brian Levack’s The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe; and Bernadette Williams’ The
Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler, at http://www.historyireland.com/medieval-history-pre-1500/the-sorcery-trial-of-alice-kyteler-by-bernadette-williams/
Honestly the first thing that stood out to me when reading about Alice Kyteler was that she was well off and a member of the aristocracy. Two things that are rarely associated with stereotypical accounts of witchcraft. Obviously we can never know truly the motive behind the accusation from her step-children but in my eyes all signs point to them wanting her out of the picture.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good question you posed at the end. It makes sense that greed and jealousy would be fueling their accusations. Just because this was happening in the Middle Ages and our technology is much more advanced today doesn't mean the people then were stupid. They would have surely realized that their fathers ailments were more than likely mainly influenced by his old age and not necessarily by their step mother performing malificia.
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ReplyDeleteThat is something I keep finding myself wonder when I read primary sources. In Kytelers case, a logical explanation I would believe more than being a sorceress is a bored, rich house wife that had an actual sexual affair on her husband with multiple black guys. She may have also been a black widow and could have poisoned her husbands. That would make her a murderer and an adulterous without the belief in magic.
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