How to Start a Pogrom: The Lepers’ Plot of 1321 in France and Aragon
In 1320, King Philip V of France suppressed the “Shepherds,” a rural movement that had tried to restart the crusades by massacring communities of Jews and Muslims across France and Aragon. In 1321, he approved the executions and expulsions of those same communities, this time for colluding with lepers to poison wells and “infect people everywhere with their disease.” This talk traces the development of the Lepers’ Plot conspiracy theory, from simple accusations of well poisoning to a fantasy of collusion between the Sultan of Babylon, the head of the Jewish community, and the “leaders” of the lepers to wipe out Christendom. It explores why the second attempt worked when the first did not, and what this can tell us about the roots and success of contamination plot conspiracy theories.
About the speaker: Elise Wang is a medievalist who focuses on the long history of social regulation. Her first book, “The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature,” explored the origins of felony in the English common law and in devotional and secular literature. Her current project is a trade book on medieval conspiracy theories that we still tell today, including blood libel, water contamination plots, and satanic cults.