No one was without a share in the grief. In the alleys, in the streets, in the temples, complaints, weeping, lamentations, grief, the groaning of men, the shrieks of women, wounds, rape, captivity, the separation of those most closely united. Nobles wandered about ignominiously, those of venerable age in tears, the rich in poverty. Thus it was in the streets, on the corners, in the temple, in the dens, for no place remained unassailed or defended the suppliants. All places everywhere were filled full of all kinds of crime. Oh, immortal God, how great the afflictions of the men, bow great the distress!

[From Medieval Sourcebook: Nicetas Choniates: The Sack of Constantinople (1204)]

He eventually embarked on the crusade the following year (1228), which was looked on by the Pope as a provocation, since the church could not take any part in the honor of the crusade, resulting in a second excommunication. By this time the crusading army had dwindled to a meagre force. Knowing that he could not take Jerusalem by force of arms, Frederick negotiated along the lines of a previous agreement he had intended to broker with the Egyptian sultan, Al-Kamil. The treaty resulted in the restitution of Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem to the Kingdom, though there are disagreements as to the extent of the territory returned. The Ayyubid ruler of the region, who was nervous about possible war with his relatives who ruled Syria and Mesopotamia, wished to avoid further trouble from the Christians, at least until his domestic rivals were subdued.

[From Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

With a return to Jerusalem, finally, in 1228. Where is Sir Guillame in the intervening years? Constantinople? Conspiring against the Venetians? Hunting down the Nicene exiles?

The armored man rode toward the little man, and kicked him violently in the head.

Throwing open the visor of his helmet, he exposed a rotting face, with no nose. “I’m Sir Guillaume, of the Order of St. Lazarus, and I probably fucked your mother when I burnt your city to the ground. Now stay out of my way.”

Thus Guillaume, the Grand Master of the Damned Redeemed, returned to the Holy City.

[From The Great Round World › The Leper Knight]

In particular, tinea capitis (fungal scalp infection) and related infections on other body parts caused by the dermatophyte fungus Trichophyton violaceum are abundant throughout the Middle East and North Africa today and might also have been common in biblical times. Similarly, the related agent of the disfiguring skin disease favus, Trichophyton schoenleinii, appears to have been common throughout Eurasia and Africa before the advent of modern medicine. Persons with severe favus and similar fungal diseases (and potentially also with severe psoriasis and other diseases not caused by microorganisms) tended to be classed as having leprosy as late as the 17th century in Europe.[47] This is clearly shown in the painting Governors of the Home for Lepers at Haarlem 1667 by Jan de Bray (Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, the Netherlands), where a young Dutch man with a vivid scalp infection, almost certainly caused by a fungus, is shown being cared for by three officials of a charitable home intended for leprosy sufferers. The use of the word “leprosy” before the mid-19th century, when microscopic examination of skin for medical diagnosis was first developed, can seldom be correlated reliably with Hansen’s disease as we understand it today.

[From Leprosy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

After sustaining severe losses in many engagements, most of the leper knights of the Order were slain in the Battle of Gaza in 1244.

[From Short History of the Order of St Lazarus]

He was known in his own time as Stupor mundi (“wonder of the world”) and was said to speak six languages: Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek and Arabic.

[From Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

The question remains, how and at what time the Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem became a military order. This is not know exactly; and, moreover, the historians of the order have done much to obscure the question by entangling it with gratuitous pretensions and suspicious documents.

[From Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem - Wikisource]

Furthermore, they were the only element of the army to successfully defend part of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. Of the role of the guard, then composed of the English and Danes, it is said that “the fighting was very violent and there was hand to hand fight with axes and swords, the assailants mounted the walls and prisoners were taken on both sides”.[3] Although the Guard was apparently disbanded after the city’s capture in 1204, there are some indications that it was revived either by the Empire of Nicaea or by the Palaeologid emperors themselves, though it is not likely that they lasted long after Michael VIII.

[From Varangians - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

But they stopped talking, and moved out of the way for the knight. They moved out of the way before he came near them, as if they could sense him approaching.

Then, a bit ahead, a little man with a thick Greek accent said, “By all the Saints, what is that smell?” He turned and saw the man in armor approaching. “I walked from Constantinople and I don’t…Who could smell that bad?”

The armored man rode toward the little man, and kicked him violently in the head.

Throwing open the visor of his helmet, he exposed a rotting face, with no nose. “I’m Sir Guillaume, of the Order of St. Lazarus, and I probably fucked your mother when I burnt your city to the ground. Now stay out of my way.”

Thus Guillaume, the Grand Master of the Damned Redeemed, returned to the Holy City.