HUGH OF LINCOLN

This article is about the boy who was allegedly murdered in 1255. For information about the saint, see Hugh of Lincoln (saint)

Hugh of Lincoln (1247 - August, 1255) was an English boy, whose disappearance prompted a blood libel with ramifications that reach until today. The boy dissappeared on July 31, and his body was discovered in a well on August 29.

Shortly after his disappearance, a local Jew named Copin (or Jopin) admitted to killing the child after he was threatened with torture. In his confession he stated that it was the custom of the Jews to crucify a Christian child every year. Copin was executed, and the story would have ended there were it not for a series of events that coincided with the disappearance.

Some six months earlier, King Henry III had sold his rights to tax the Jews to his brother, Richard of Cornwall. Having lost this source of income, he decided that he was eligible for the Jews' money if they were convicted of crimes. As a result, some ninety Jews were arrested and held in the Tower of London, while they were charged with involvement in the ritual murder. Eighteen of them were hanged--it was the first time ever that the civil government handed out a death sentence for ritual murder--and King Henry was able to take over their property. The remainder were actually pardoned and set free, most likely because Richard, who saw a potential threat to his own source of income, intervened on their behalf with his brother.

larger version

Meanwhile, the Cathedral in Lincoln was beginning to benefit from the episode, since Hugh was seen as a Christian martyr, and sites associated with his life became objects of pilgrimage. The legend surrounding Hugh that emerged received the backing of popular culture, and his story became the subject of poetry and folksongs. Even Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales makes reference to Hugh of Lincoln in the "Prioress's Tale." Tourists devoted to Hugh of Lincoln flocked to the city as late as the early twentieth century, when a well was constructed in the former Jewish neighborhood of Jews' Court and advertised as the well in which Hugh's body was found.

In 1955, the Anglican Church replaced the shrine at Lincoln Cathedral with a plaque bearing these words:

By the remains of the shrine of "Little St. Hugh".

Trumped up stories of "ritual murders" of Christian boys by Jewish communities were common throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. Lincoln had its own legend and the alleged victim was buried in the Cathedral in the year 1255.

Such stories do not redound to the credit of Christendom, and so we pray:

Lord, forgive what we have been,

amend what we are,

and direct what we shall be.

From the Ballad of Little Sir Hugh

The following text from 1783, describes the murder of Hugh of Lincoln, as it was depicted in a popular ballad.

She's led him in through ae dark door,

And sae has she thro' nine;

She's laid him on a dressing-table,

And stickit him like a swine.

And first came out the thick, thick blood,

And syne came out the thin;

And syne came out the bonny heart's blood;

There was nae mair within.

She's row'd him in a cake o'lead,

Bade him lie still and sleep;

She's thrown him in Our Lady's draw-well

Was fifty fathom deep.

According to the notes by Cecil Sharp on a variant of the Ballad of Little Sir Hugh, the story is as follows:

The events narrated in this ballad were supposed to have taken place in the 13th century. The story is told by a contemporary writer in the annals of Waverley, under the year 1255. Little Sir Hugh was crucified by the Jews in contempt of Christ with various preliminary tortures. To conceal the act from the Christians, the body was thrown into a running stream, but the water immediately ejected it upon dry land. It was then buried, but was found above ground the next day. As a last resource the body was thrown into a drinking-well; whereupon, the whole place was filled with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odor that it was clear to everybody that there must be something holy in the well. The body was seen floating on the water and, upon its recovery, it was found that the hands and feet were pierced with wounds, the forehead lacerated, etc. The unfortunate Jews were suspected. The King ordered an inquiry. Eighteen Jews confessed, were convicted, and eventually hanged.

Sharp then goes on to make the following observations:

Bishop Percy rightly concludes "the whole charge to be groundless and malicious." Murders of this sort have been imputed to the Jews for seven hundred and fifty years or more; and similar accusations have been made in Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe even in the 19th century-and as late as 1883. Child sums up the whole matter by saying, "These pretended child-murders, with their horrible consequences, are only a part of a persecution which, with all its moderation, may be rubricated as the most disgraceful chapter in the history of the human race."

External Links

The Ballad of Hugh of Lincoln
Ritual In Blood -- a play
Hugh of Lincoln -- from the Jewish encyclopedia

Author	Date	Quotation
Magna Carta	1215	Know that, having regard to God and for the salvation of our soul, and those of all our ancestors and heirs, and unto the honor of God and the advancement of his holy Church and for the rectifying of our realm, we have granted as underwritten by advice of our venerable fathers, Stephen, archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England and cardinal of the holy Roman Church, Henry, archbishop of Dublin, William of London, Peter of Winchester, Jocelyn of Bath and Glastonbury, Hugh of Lincoln, Walter of Worcester, William of Coventry, Benedict of Rochester, bishops; of Master Pandulf, subdeacon and member of the household of our lord the Pope, of brother Aymeric (master of the Knights of the Temple in England), and of the illustrious men William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, William, earl of Salisbury, William, earl of Warenne, William, earl of Arundel, Alan of Galloway (constable of Scotland), Waren Fitz Gerold, Peter Fitz Herbert, Hubert De Burgh (seneschal of Poitou), Hugh de Neville, Matthew Fitz Herbert, Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip d'Aubigny, Robert of Roppesley, John Marshal, John Fitz Hugh, and others, our liegemen. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Domain	Definition
Literature	Hugh of Lincoln It is said that the Jews in 1255 stole a boy named Hugh, whom they tortured for ten days and then crucified. Eighteen of the richest Jews of Lincoln were hanged for taking part in this affair, and the boy was buried in state. This is the subject of The Prioress's Talc of Chaucer, which Wordsworth has modernised. In Rymer's Foedera are several documents relating to this event. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "c-f-g-h-h-i-l-l-n-n-o-o-u"
	-4 letters: flouncing, honchoing.
	-5 letters: holloing, hulloing, hunching, lunching.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

HUGH OF LINCOLN

Specialty Definition: HUGH OF LINCOLN

Literature

Specialty Definition: Hugh of Lincoln

From the Ballad of Little Sir Hugh

External Links

Historic Usage: HUGH OF LINCOLN

Magna Carta

Anagrams: HUGH OF LINCOLN

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Alternative Orthography: HUGH OF LINCOLN

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