The Knight's Tale of Young Hugh of Lincoln

Description: Surveys the tradition of a "fantasy of ritual murder" of a Christian boy by Jews, focusing on its manifestations in accounts of the death of Hugh of Lincoln and various sources and analogues, both historical and literary, including PrT and later versions. Comments at length on the account by Matthew of Paris and on the life and activities of Sir John de Lexington who investigated the death of Hugh and carried out its judicial effects, including the "judicial murder of nineteen Jews."

Chaucer Subjects: Prioress and Her Tale; Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations