Lanfranc erected the hospitals of St. John, Canterbury, and St. Nicholas, Harbledown; these charities remain to this day as memorials of the archbishop. His friend Bishop Gundulf of Rochester founded a lazar-house near that city. In Queen Maud, wife of Henry I, the bishop found a ready disciple. Her mother, Margaret of Scotland, had trained her to love the poor and minister to them. St. Margaret’s special care had been for pilgrims, for whom she had provided a hospital at Queen’s-ferry, Edinburgh. The “holy Queen Maud,” as we have seen, served lepers with enthusiasm, and she established a home near London for them. (Fig. 10.) Henry I caught something of his lady’s spirit. “The house of St. Bartholomew [Oxford] was founded by our lord old King Henry, who married the good queene Maud; and it was assigned for the receiving and susteyning of infirme leprose folk,” says Wood, quoting a thirteenth-century Inquisition. Henry endowed his friend Gundulf’s foundation at Rochester, and probably also “the king’s hospital” near Lincoln, which had possibly been begun by Bishop Remigius; that of Colchester was built by his steward p072 Eudo at his command, and was accounted of the king’s foundation. Matilda, daughter of Henry and Maud, left a benefaction to lepers at York.
King Stephen reconstructed St. Peter’s hospital, York, after a great fire. (Cf. Pl. XXIV, XXV.) His wife, Matilda of Boulogne, founded St. Katharine’s, London, which continues to this day under the patronage of the queens-consort. Henry II made considerable bequests for the benefit of lazars, but it is characteristic that his hospital building was in Anjou. Richard I endowed Bishop Glanvill’s foundation at Strood. King John is thought to have founded hospitals near Lancaster, Newbury and Bristol. He is sometimes regarded as the conspicuous patron of lepers. Doubtless this may be partly attributed to the fact that at the outset of his reign the Church secured privileges to outcasts by the Council of Westminster (1200). There seems, however, to be some ground for his charitable reputation. Bale, in his drama Kynge Johan, makes England say concerning this king:—
“Never prynce was there that made to poore peoples use
So many masendewes, hospytals and spyttle howses,
As your grace hath done yet sens the worlde began.”
· · · · · ·
“Gracyouse prouysyon for sore, sycke, halte and lame
He made in hys tyme, he made both in towne and cytie,
Grauntynge great lyberties for mayntenaunce of the same,
By markettes and fayers in places of notable name.
Great monymentes are in Yppeswych, Donwych and Berye,
Whych noteth hym to be a man of notable mercye.”[57]
Indeed, as the Suffolk satirist knew by local tradition, King John did grant the privilege of a fair to the lepers of Ipswich. p073
[♦] PLATE VI.
a. ST. BARTHOLOMEW’S, GLOUCESTER
b. ST. MARY’S, CHICHESTER
Henry III erected houses of charity at Woodstock, Dunwich and Ospringe, as well as homes for Jews in London and Oxford. He refounded St. John’s in the latter city, and laid the first stone himself; he seems also to have rebuilt St. John’s, Cambridge, and St. James’, Westminster. The king loved Gloucester—the place of his coronation—and he re-established St. Bartholomew’s, improving the buildings (Pl. VI) and endowment. The new hospitals of Dover and Basingstoke were committed to his care by their founders. Of Henry III’s charities only that of St. James’, Westminster, was for lepers; but St. Louis, who was with him while on crusade, told Joinville that on Holy Thursday (i.e. Maundy Thursday) the king of England “now with us” washes the feet of lepers and then kisses them. The ministry of the good queen Maud was thus carried on to the fifth generation.