13th–14th centuries
Affair of the lepers
1321·France
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
Chinon (160 burned), Vitry, Tours, Bourges
A rumor spread through the kingdom of France: lepers had allegedly poisoned the wells and fountains. It was soon added that they had acted on the orders of the Jews, who were themselves paid by the Muslim king of Granada — a construction that made it possible to designate both the enemy within and the enemy without.
The lepers were burned or imprisoned; Jews were arrested in several sénéchaussées. At Chinon, a pit was dug on an island in the Vienne and a pyre was lit within it; chronicles report that mothers threw their children into it before descending themselves. Vitry, Tours, and Bourges witnessed executions.
Philippe V levied a considerable fine on the survivors, then had them expelled. No inquiry ever confirmed the poisoning, and the confessions had been obtained through torture.
- Period :
- 13th–14th centuries
- Type :
- Trials and executions
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- France
Continuateur de Guillaume de Nangis ; *Chronique parisienne anonyme* ; lettres royales.