RICHARD LEDREDE-HIS MOTIVES
I wish to clarify Richard Ledrede’s motives for so persistently and virulently pursuing charges against Dame Alice Kyteler and her son:
Did he honestly believe Dame Alice was a witch? WRONG QUESTION
Did he have any doubts she was guilty of witchcraft? WRONG QUESTION
Did he suspect her of foul-play in the deaths of her husbands? NO
Was he simply a religious zealot bent on maintaining a ‘pure’ diocese? YES
Was a desire to acquire her and her son’s wealth a factor in this persecution? NO
The charge of witchcraft against her appears almost beside the point. Her four husbands’ deaths weren’t even in the picture for him. It wasn’t a guilt-tripping attempt to get the accused to hand over a considerable-chunk of their worldly goods to the local bishop in a display of penitential piety and innocence. He was simply a religious totalitarian wacko nut who didn’t care why Dame Alice Kyteler was accused. He only knew that she stood out like a nail, and the nail which sticks out must be hammered down.
DAME ALICE KYTELER’S POST-EXILE LIFE
Dame Alice Kyteler disappeared from Ireland when all attempted legal blockages failed, and Richard Ledrede focused his ire on her son. There’s some more hilarity about that, but I wanted to know what became of Alice Kyteler after she left Ireland, because she seemingly vanished.
After Dame Alice Kyteler fled Ireland for England (I’m assuming that’s where she went), did she have any further contact with her son, William Outlawe Jr.?
WRONG QUESTION
Did William Outlawe Jr. have any communication with his mother after she fled Ireland for England?
YES
Did he send any written communications?
NO
Did he send any verbal messages via a third party?
YES
Did he visit her at all (after she fled Ireland for England)?
YES
Did Dame Alice Kyteler live in poverty in England?
NO
So she did have some sort of income to support herself in England, yes?
WRONG QUESTION
Did her son William Outlawe Jr. send her off with any money to England?
WRONG QUESTION
Did Dame Alice Kyteler work in some sort of business in England?
WRONG QUESTION
Did she live off inherited money in England?
WRONG QUESTION
Did Dame Alice Kyteler marry again, when she fled to England?
WRONG QUESTION/NO
Did Dame Alice Kyteler work for a living in England?
NO
Did Dame Alice Kyteler live off her own personal fortune in England?
NO
Did Dame Alice Kyteler’s birth family support her financially in England?
YES
So it looks like she fled into exile with a lot of money in her possession, or had access to it elsewhere, because she didn’t earn an income, wherever she went. This suggests some forethought in her preparation to flee. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment, sudden, desperate flight. She probably knew her remaining property in Ireland would be confiscated, and that her son didn’t dare send her any financial support, so she had to take with her what she needed. Like I said earlier—sharp woman.