Stigma and Disfigurement: Putting on a Brave Face?

Introduction: Writing and Reading About Medieval Disfigurement

“…68 This common framework for the Christian texts under review is most apparent if we compare across centuries: Rolandinus's horror at Ezzelino the tyrant in the thirteenth century echoes almost perfectly Anna Komnena's twelfth-century depiction of the Norman Robert Guiscard (d.1086), or Amatus of Montecassino's account of the cruelty of Prince Gisulf II of Salerno (d.1077), and Gregory of Tours' condemnation of Merovingian kings who imposed mutilations unjustly in the sixth century. 69 Facial disfigurement, as we shall see, was more often than not presented by chroniclers as a measure of the evil or lack of control of medieval rulers or their servants. 70 Every episode, therefore, was highly ideological: it was used to think with, rather than being widely prevalent as a practice in medieval Europe and Byzantium.…”

“…Some, such as the tit-for-tat disfiguring atrocities committed during the later Albigensian crusade, have become emblematic of that entire enterprise, obscuring the less sensational stories of the spread of the friars and the imposition of French royal power in the region. 59 Often, such episodes have been read literally to reinforce stereotypes of medieval society as extremely and unrelentingly violent, rather than being read with a critical eye as to what the author's purpose was in constructing his (or occasionally, her) report. Keeping in mind that most reporters were working within a clerical or even monastic environment, extreme violence is used, more often than not, to point up the lack of judgment, or downright cruelty, of the perpetrator, and is written up by authors to evoke pity for the victim.…”

Paths to Rehabilitation? The Possibilities of Treatment

“…Gregory, whose own hostile relationship with Leudast was longstanding, expresses satisfaction at the death. 29 Exploring the medical aspect of this account, however, the idea that a victim should be rendered fit enough to undergo further bodily punishment (Miller's "keep him alive for scoffing"?) does not appear to have caused any moral qualms on Gregory's part, and we do not know what the doctors implicated in this process thought of their orders.…”

“…Richer son of Engenulf of Laigle was fatally wounded just beneath the eye by an arrow shot by "a certain beardless boy." 78 Hugh, earl of Shrewsbury, despite being "clad in iron from the top of his head to the souls of his feet," was hit in the right eye by an arrow that penetrated his brain and killed him when fighting pirates from the Orkneys, "so that he fell mortally wounded into the sea." 79 BLinding, diSfigurEMEnt and aftErcarE: Living witH a cHangEd facE…”

Ways of Seeing: Staring at and Representing Disfigurement

“…It is notable that the examples of deliberate blinding in Abbot Guibert of Nogent's autobiography are carried out by Bishop Gaudry of Laon's "African man" and by Alais, mother of John of Soissons, already discussed. 41 And Guibert notes that the vicious mutilations of eyes and feet that accompanied a dispute between Godfrey of Namur and Enguerrand of Boves left a visible legacy, "as is plainly apparent today to anyone visiting the county of Porcien." 42 Was Guibert staring as intensely as his Byzantine contemporaries?…”