Adam the Leper

Adam the Leper was the leader of a fourteenth-century robber band, operating in the south west of England in the 1330s and 1340s. Like the north Midlands bandits Eustace Folville and James Cotterel, he and his gang specialised in theft and kidnap. Unlike these contemporaries, he seems to have concentrated mainly on urban centres. His men would apparently enter a town while a fair was in progress and the place would be conveniently filled with “strangers.” They would commit widespread robbery and abduction before setting fire to houses, and retreating as townsfolk battled the flames. Adam is also distinguished by his particularly brutal treatment of prisoners. His hostages invariably suffered “horrible mutilation” whether their ransoms were paid or not.

Adam’s most audacious crime was staged in 1347, when he and his men seized the port of Bristol, then the third largest town in England. As Carolly Erickson writes, Adam installed himself as the “robber king” of the town, and made this “kingdom” into a playground for his men, “commandeering ships and issuing proclamations while pillaging and murdering with impunity.” This burlesque of royal power was accompanied by a direct attack on the king. Among the ships Adam ransacked were several commissioned by Edward III. One even contained jewellery belonging to Queen Philippa. Edward despatched a group of officers to impose order, headed by Lord Thomas Berkeley. After a protracted battle, Adam was eventually captured. He was tried at Winchester court, but owing to intimidation by his gang, it was ultimately decided that “the authorities prefer not to pursue the matter.”

Adam appears to have died in the early 1360s.