The Leper in England: with some account of English lazar-housesHope, Robert Charles
History
The Leper in England: with some account of English lazar-houses
Hope, Robert Charles
Leprosy -- Great Britain -- History
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[u].
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]".
SUMMARY.
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