The First Witches

FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE AGES

In the year 1324, in the burgeoning town of Kilkenny, Ireland's second biggest town, there lived a wealthy, powerful woman named Dame Alicia Kyteler.

After three of her husbands died suspiciously, and with the fourth gravely ill, Alicia and eleven accomplices came under the suspicion of the local bishop, Richard Ledrede. A witch-hunt began. As with every tragedy, we start with the complication – the web of ideas that spread as malicious gossip – and then, the unravelling.

Through rich, creative prose, bestselling historian Anthony Bale reveals how this prosperous yet fractious town stumbled into these allegations, leading to the tragedy that befell Dame Alicia and her accomplices, resulting in one of the accused being burnt at the stake for her crimes against the church.

In time, Europe would be overcome by the “witch craze”. The hysteria that followed was by no means inevitable at the time of Bishop Ledrede and Dame Alicia, but their story bears many of the hallmarks of later witch-hunting. Here, in this small Irish town, was where the case against the witch was crystallised and its impact was felt across Europe.

With vivid and enthralling storytelling, this is a story that starts in a quiet Irish town and transports us across medieval Europe, from the countryside to the papal court, to discover the making of the witch.