The Leper in England: with some account of English lazar-houses

by Robert Charles Hope

STATUS OF LEPERS.

The rank and status of any one, was no guarantee against attacks from this dire disorder, with its fearful ravages. Had the victims been confined, as it is generally thought, to those who dwelt amid squalor, dirt and vice, in close and confined dens, veritable hot beds for rearing and propagating disease of every kind; we should not be surprised, but should be entitled to assume, that to such circumstances, in a very great measure might the origin be expected to be found; but, when we find, that not only was the scourge a visitant here, but, that it numbered amongst the afflicted, members of some of the most illustrious households in this kingdom, aye, even the august monarchs themselves, the source from whence Elephantiasis Græcorum—the malady not being contagious—first originated must be sought for elsewhere.

First amongst our ancient and illustrious families, we find—if he may be so classed—the case of S. Finian, who died 675 or 695[m].

A nobleman of the South of England, whose name unfortunately is not recorded, is reputed to have been miraculously cured at the tomb of S. Cuthbert, at Durham, 1080[n].

A daughter of Mannasseh Bysset, a rich Wiltshire gentleman, sewer[o] to Henry II., being a Leper, founded the Lazar House at Maiden Bradley, dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, “for poore leprous women” and gave to it her share of the town of Kidderminster, c. 1160. Mannasseh Bysset founded the Lazar House dedicated in honour of S. James, Doncaster, for women, c. 1160.

The celebrated Constance, Duchess of Brittany, who was allied to the royal families of both England and Scotland, being a grand-daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, and the English Princess Margaret Atheling, and also a descendant of a natural daughter of Henry I. She died of Leprosy in the year 1201[p].

In 1203 in the King’s Court, a dispute was heard respecting a piece of land in Sudton, Kent, between two kinswomen—Mabel, daughter of William Fitz-Fulke, and Alicia, the widow of Warine Fitz-Fulke. Among the pleas, it was urged by Alicia, that Mabel had a brother, and that his right to the land must exclude her claim, whereupon Mabel answered that her brother was a Leper[q].

It was certified to King Edward I. in 1280, that Adam of Gangy, deceased, of the county of Northumberland, holding land of the King in chief, was unable to repair to the King’s presence to do homage, being struck with the Leprosy[r].

In the reign of Richard II. c. 1380, William, son of Robert Blanchmains, being a Leper, founded the Lazar House, dedicated in honour of S. Leonard, outside the town of Leicester, to the north[].

Richard Orange, a gentleman of noble parentage, and Mayor of Exeter in 1454, was a Leper. In spite of his great wealth he submitted himself to a residence in the Lazar House of S. Mary Magdalene in that city, where he died, and was buried in the chapel attached. A mutilated inscription still remains over the spot where he is interred[t].

Some of the Lazar Houses were specially endowed for persons above the lower ranks who happened to become affected with the disease. In 1491, Robert Pigot gave by will to the Leper House of Walsingham, in the Archdeaconry of Norwich, a house in, or near that town, for the use of two Leprous persons “of good families.”

Before considering the Royal Lepers, it will not be out of place to mention the death of S. Fiacre from Leprosy, in 665. He was the reputed son of Eugenius IV., King of Scotland, and is canonised in the Roman branch of the Church Catholic[].

Amongst Royal Lepers, the case of Adelicia or Adelais, daughter of Godfrey, Duke of Louraine, and niece of Calextus II., Bishop of Rome, 1118; the second Queen of Henry I. of England, and afterwards wife of William de Albion, to whom she was tenderly attached; stands first in order of state. Being stricken with leprosy, she left him and entered a convent, where she died of the disease, 1151. This reputed instance, it is right to mention, requires confirmation. The above is mentioned by a contributor to Notes and Queries, 7, S. viii., 174, but no authority is given.

Baldwin IV., King of Jerusalem, a direct descendant like the Royal Plantagenets of England, from Fulk, Count of Anjou and Touraine, died of Leprosy in 1186, leaving a child nephew to succeed him; the consequence being, the loss of the Holy Land, and the triumph of Saladin after eighty-eight years of the Christian kingdom[v].

Henry III. is said to have been a Leper.

Edward the Black Prince, used to bathe in the Holy Well at Harbledon, near Canterbury, for his Leprosy, and Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, had a licence at one time from the King of England to bathe in the waters of S. Lazarus’ Well on Muswell Hill, near where now stands the Alexandra Palace. The well belonged to the Order of S. John, Clerkenwell, a hospital order for Lepers. Three years before his death, he was unable to undertake the command of the army in its descent upon the northern counties of England, by reason of his Leprosy, of which he died in 1329, at the age of 55[w].

Henry IV. King of England, was a Leper without doubt[x].

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI. of England, is reputed, like her ancestor Baldwin IV., to have died a Leper[y].

Louis the XIV., is said to have died of the disease in 1715. It is also recorded, that in order to effect a cure, recourse was had to a barbarous superstitious custom, once unhappily common in Brazil, that of killing several fine healthy children, eating their hearts, livers, &c.; then washing in their blood, and annointing the body with grease made from the remains. Let us at least hope this impious and inhuman act is but “legend[z]”.