We have little doubt that Dr. Lingard[235] had some sufficient evidence from the records of the times, for stating that Henry had at least “the most loathsome eruptions on his face.” Rapin[236] and Turner,[237] in their histories of England, both refer to Mezeray as their authority for averring that these eruptions consisted of leprosy. I find that Duchesne[238] also describes Henry as weighed down with a severe and grievous affection of leprosy; and Maydestone[239] alleges that it was this last disease, and solemnly considers it as a punishment inflicted on the king for his cruel treatment of Archbishop Scrope. Iohn Hardynge, whose authority is the more valuable from his being himself a contemporary of Henry IV., and a follower of his son, Henry V., describes in his rhyming Chronicles of English History the face of the king as disfigured by leprosy. As a portion of the last personal confessions of the monarch, Hardynge puts into his mouth the following penitent lamentations regarding the changes which the ravages of the disease had wrought upon his frame and face:— “This wormes mete, this carryon full vnquert, That some tyme thought in worlde it had ne pere; This face so foule that _Leprous_ doth apere, That here afore I have had such a pride To purtraye oft in many place full wyde,” etc.[240] These observations are certainly by no means sufficient either decidedly to confirm or controvert the opinion that Henry IV. was affected with leprosy; but they serve at least to show that, at the time at which he lived, rank of the highest kind was not considered as any adequate barrier against an attack of the disease.