Leper Knights: The Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem in England, c.1150-1544 (20)

Description

One of the most unusual contributions to the crusading era was the idea of the leper knight - a response to the scourge of leprosy and the shortage of fighting men which beset the Latin kingdom in the twelfth century. The Order of St Lazarus, which saw the idea become a reality, founded establishments across Western Europe to provide essential support for its hospitaller and military vocations. This book explores the important contribution of the English branch of the order, which by 1300 managed a considerable estate from its chief preceptory at Burton Lazars in Leicestershire. Time proved the English Lazarites to be both tough and tenacious, if not always preoccupied with the care of lepers. Following the fall of Acre in 1291 they endured a period of bitter internal conflict, only to emerge reformed and reinvigorated in the fifteenth century. Though these late medieval knights were very different from their twelfth-century predecessors, some ideologies lingered on, though subtly readapted to the requirements of a new age, until the order was finally suppressed by Henry VIII in 1544. The modern refoundation of the order, a charitable institution, dates from 1962. The book uses both documentary and archaeological evidence to provide the first ever account of this little-understood crusading order.DAVID MARCOMBE is Director of the Centre for Local History, University of Nottingham. CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION Chapter 1: Lepers and knights Historians of the order Who was St Lazarus? The order in the Holy Land, c.1130-1291 Papal support for the order European hospitals and preceptories The order in Europe, 1291–2000 Archaeology and iconography Chapter 2: Lands and Patrons Patrons and their motives The extent of the estate in 1291 Henry II’s grant of alms and the gift of St Giles’s, Holborn The London estate and its problems Holy Innocents’, Lincoln The value of the estate Privileges and feudal obligations Chapter 3: Crusading, Crisis and Revival The English province The years of crisis, c.1330–1420 The order redefined, c.1420–1500 Chapter 4: Land and Livelihood The outlying estates The Burton Lazars demesne The St Giles’s demesne Relations with tenants Industrial activity and milling Difficulties and responses Chapter 5: Care and community Medieval lepers and leprosy Burton Lazars: Leprosarium or preceptory? The daughter houses St Giles’s, Holborn, and Holy Innocents’, Lincoln Provision for the poor Chapter 6: Privileges, pardons and parishes Spiritual privileges Alms gathering Indulgences The confraternity Support from the laity Parish churches Appropriation of tithes The importance of spiritual income The provision of clergy Parochial life Parish church architecture Chapter 7: Dissolution and Dispersal The order under the Tudors, 1485–1526 Sir Thomas Ratcliffe, 1526–1537 Sir Thomas Legh, 1537–1544 Redistribution of property The archaeology of Burton Lazars CONCLUSION APPENDIX 1: Masters-General of the Order of St Lazarus,Masters of Burton Lazars and its daughter houses APPENDIX 2: Letters of Confraternity and Indulgence APPENDIX 3: The Valor Ecclesiasticus (1535) BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX