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AbrcLhams,    (Sir)    Barnett  Lionel 

The   expulsion  of  the 
Jews  from  Englar:d  in  l?-90 


135 
E5A48 
1895 
c.  1 
ROBA 


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THE  EXPULSION  OF  THE 
JEWS  FROM  ENGLAND  IN  1290 


B:L.  ABRAHAMS 


Formerly  Scholar  of  Balliol  College. 


545^  s 

(o-      ^' 


OfforD 

B.  H.  BLACK  WELL  50  and  ol,  BROAD  STREET 

XonDon 

SIMPKIN,  MARSHALL.  HAMILTON,  KENT  &  CO. 
.M  nccc  .xcv 


L  o  y  D  o  X  : 

I'RIXTED    BY   WEKTHEIMER.   LEA   .t   CO. 
CIRCUS   PLACE.   LOXnOX   WALL. 


This  Essay,  to  which  the  Arnold  Prize  in  the  University 
of  Oxford  was  awarded  in  1894,  has  appeared  in  the 
Jewish  Quarterly  Reineir  for  October,  1894,  and  January 
and  April,  1895.  I  am  indebted  to  the  Editors  of  the 
Review  for  permission  to  republish  it. 

I  wish  to  express  my  obligations  to  Bibliofheca  Aixjlo- 
Judaica  :  a  Bihliographical  Guide  to  Anglo- Jewish  Hist  or  ij, 
compiled  by  Messrs.  Joseph  Jacobs  and  Lucien  Wolf, 
and  to  The  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  by  ^Ir.  Joseph 
Jacobs.  Nearly  all  the  passages  bearing  on  Anglo-Jewish 
history,  down  to  1206,  are  contained  in  the  latter  book, 
and  many  of  the  references  in  the  earlier  part  of  my  essay 
might  have  been  made  to  its  pages.  I  thought  it  better, 
however,  to  refer  direct  to  the  original  authorities,  and 
have,  as  a  rule,  mentioned  Mr.  Jacobs'  book  only  when 
using  passages  in  it  which  have  been  nowhere  else  printed. 

Some  articles  which  I  have  contributed  to  Mr.  R.  H.  I. 
Palgrave's  Dictionary  of  Political  Economy,  to  the  First 
Volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Jeicish  Historical  Society 
of  England,  and  to  the  Jewish  Chronicle  for  April  26th, 
1895,  contain  information  bearing  on  the  subject  of  this 
Essay. 


THE    EXPULSION    OF    THE   JEWS   FROM 
ENGLAND    IN    1290. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  by  Edward  I.  is 
a  measure  concerning  the  causes  of  which  no  contemporary 
historian  gives,  or  pretends  to  give,  any  but  the  most 
meagre  information.  It  was  passed  by  the  King  in  his 
"  secret  council,"  of  the  proceedings  of  which  we  naturally 
know  nothing.  Of  the  occasion  tliat  suggested  it,  each 
separate  writer  has  his  own  account,  and  none  has  a  claim 
to  higher  authority  than  the  rest ;  and  yet  there  is  much 
in  the  circumstances  connected  with  it  that  calls  for  ex- 
planation. How  was  it  that,  at  a  time  when  trade  and  \ 
the  need  for  capital  were  growing,  the  Jews,  who  were 
reputed  to  be  among  the  great  capitalists  of  Europe,  were  . 
expelled  from  England  ?  How  did  Edward,  a  king  who 
was  in  debt  from  the  moment  he  began  his  reign  till  the 
end,  bring  himself  to  give  up  the  revenue  that  his  father 
and  grandfather  had  derived  from  the  Jews  ?  How  could 
he,  as  an  honourable  king,  drive  out  subjects  who  were 
protected  by  a  Charter  that  one  of  his  predecessors  had 
granted,  and  another  had  soleumly  conlirmed  ?  To  answer 
these  questions  we  must  consider  what  was  the  position 
that  the  Jews  occupied  in  England,  how  it  was  forced 
on  them,  and  how  it  brought  them  into  antagonism  at 
various  times  with  the  interests  of  the  several  orders  of 
the  English  people,  and  with  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  We  shall  thus  find  the  origin  of  forces  strong 
enough  when  they  converged  to  bring  about  the  result 
which  is  to  be  accounted  for. 


6  The  Expiihion  of  the  Jeir-sfrom  England  in  1200. 

I. — The  Jews  from  their  Arrival  to  1190. 

Among  the  foreigners  who  flocked  to  England  at,  or 
soon  after,  the  Conquest  were  many  families  of  French 
Jews.  They  brought  with  them  money,  but  no  skill  in 
any  occupation  except  that  of  lending  it  out  at  interest. 
They  lent  to  the  King,  when  the  ferm  of  his  counties,  or  iiis 
feudal  dues  wer«i  late  in  coming  in ;  ^  to  the  barons,  who, 
though  lands  and  estates  had  been  showered  on  them, 
nevertheless  often  found  it  hard,  without  doubt,  to  procure 
ready  money  wherewith  to  pay  for  luxuries,  or  to  meet 
the  expense  of  military  service ;  and  to  suitors  who  had  to 
follow  the  King's  Court  from  one  great  town  to  another, 
or  to  plead  before  the  Papal  Curia  at  Rome.^ 

But  though  they  thus  came  into  contact  with  many 
classes,  and  had  kindly  relations  with  some,  they  remained 
far  more  alien  to  the  masses  of  the  people  around  them 
than  even  the  Normans,  in  whose  train  they  had  come  to 
England.  Even  the  Norman  baron  must,  a  hundred  years 
after  the  Conquest,  have  become  something  of  an  English- 
man. He  held  an  estate,  of  which  the  tenants  were  English ; 
he  presided  over  a  court  attended  by  English  suitors.  In 
battle  he  led  his  English  retainers.  He  and  the  English- 
man worshipped  in  the  same  church,  and  in  it  the  sons  of 
the  two  might  serve  as  priests  side  by  side.  But  the  Jew^ 
remained,  during  the  whole  time  of  their  sojourn  in  Eng- 
land, sharply  separated  from,  at  any  rate,  the  common 
people  around  them  by  peculiarities  of  speech,  habits  and 
daily  life,  such  as  must  have  aroused  dread  and  hatred  in 
an  ignorant  and  superstitious  age.  Their  foreign  faces 
alone  would  have  been  enough  to  mark  them  out. 
Moreover,  they  generally  occupied,  not  under  compulsion, 
but  of  their  own  choice,  a  separate  quarter  of  each  town 

'  J.  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Anrieviii  England,  43-4  ;  64-.5. 

'  Cf.  the  account  of  the  litigation  of  Richard  of  Anesty  in  Palgrave's 
Jlinr  and  Frof/rexs  of  the  En/flish  Commonu'ciilth,  Vol.  II.  (Proofs  and 
Illustrations),  pp.  xxiv.-xxvii. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1200.         7 

in  which  they  chvelt.^  And  in  their  isolation  they 
lived  a  life  unlike  that  of  any  other  class.  None  of 
them  were  feudal  landowners,  none  farmers,  none  villeins, 
none  members  of  the  guilds.  They  did  not  join  in 
the  national  Watch  and  Ward.  They  alone  were  for- 
bidden to  keep  the  mail  and  hauberk  which  the  rest 
of  the  nation  was  bound  to  have  at  hand  to  help  in  pre- 
serving the  peace.^  They  were  not  enrolled  in  the  Frank- 
pledge, that  society  that  brought  neighbours  together  and 
tauofht  them  to  be  interested  in  the  doings  of  one  another 
by  making  them  responsible  for  one  another's  honesty. 
They  did  not  appear  at  the  Court  Leet  or  the  Court  Baron, 
at  the  Town-moot  or  the  Shire-moot.  They  went  to  noY 
church  on  Sundays,  they  took  no  sacrament ;  they  showed 
no  signs  of  reverence  to  the  crucifix ;  but,  instead,  thej' 
went  on  Friday  evening  and  Saturday  morning  to  a  syna- 
gogue of  their  own,  where  they  read  a  service  in  a  foreign 
tongue,  or  sang  it  to  strange  Oriental  melodies.  When 
they  died  they  were  buried  in  special  cemeteries,  where 
Jews  alone  were  laid.^  At  home  their  very  food  was 
different  from  that  of  Christians.  They  would  not  eat 
of  a  meal  prepared  by  a  Christian  cook  in  a  Christian 
house.  They  would  not  use  the  same  milk,  the  same  wine, 
the  same  meat  as  their  neighbours.  For  them  cattle  had 
to  be  killed  with  special  rites;  and,  what  was  worse,  it 
sometimes  happened  that,  some  minute  detail  having  been 
imperfectly  performed,  they  rejected  meat  as  unfit  for 
themselves,  but  considered  it  good  enough  to  be  offered 
for  sale  to  their  Christian  neighbours.^      The  presence   of 


'  See  Jewries  of  Oxford  and  Winchester,  in  the  plans  in  Norgate's 
England  under  Angevin  Kings,  I.,  pp.  31,  40  ;  and  Jewry  of  London,  de- 
scribed in  Papers  of  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  Exhibition,  pp.  20-52. 

2  Chronica  Rogeri  de  Hoveden  (Rolls  Series)  II.,  261  ;  Gesta  Henrici 
TI.  et  Ricardi  I.  (Rolls  Series),  I.  279. 

3  Gesta  Henrici  II.  et  Ricardi  I.  (R.  S.),  I.  182;  Clironica  Rogeri  de 
Hoveden  (R.  S.),  II.  137. 

*  Depping,  Les  Juifs  dans  le  Moyen  Age,  170  ;  Jacobs'  The  Jews  of 
Anger  hi  England,  .54,  178  ;  Statutes  of  the  Realm  (Edition  of  1810),  I.  202 


8  The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

Christian  servants  and  nurses  in  their  households  made  it 
impossible  that  any  of  their  peculiarities  should  remain 
unobserved  or  generally  unknown.^ 

Thus,  living  as  semi-aliens,  growing  rich  as  usurers,  and 
observing  strange  customs,  they  occupied  in  the  twelfth 
century  a  position  that  was  fraught  with  danger.  But, 
almost  from  their  first  arrival  in  the  country,  they  had 
enjoyed  a  kind  of  informal  Royal  protection,^  though,  as 
to  the  nature  of  their  relations  with  the  King  during  the 
first  hundred  and  thirty  years  of  their  residence,  very 
little  is  known.  It  was  probably  less  close  than  it  after- 
wards became,  for  the  liability  to  attack  and  the  need  for 
protection  had  not  yet  manifested  themselves. 

But,  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  there  began  to 
spread  throughout  Europe  a  movement  which,  when  it 
reached  England,  converted  the  vague  popular  dislike  of 
the  Jews  into  an  active  and  violent  hostility.  While 
the  Norman  conquerors  were  still  occupied  in  settling 
down  in  England,  the  King  organising  his  realm, 
and  the  barons  enjoying,  dissipating,  or  forfeiting  their 
newly-won  estates,  popes  a.nd  priests  and  monks  had  been 
preaching  the  Crusade  to  the  other  nations  of  civilised 
Europe.  At  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  imposing  of  all 
the  Church  Councils  that  were  ever  held,  where  were  pre- 
sent lay  nobles  and  clerics  of  all  nations,  attending  each  as 
his  own  master,  and  able  to  act  on  the  impulse  of  the 
moment.  Urban  II.,  in  1095,  told  the  tale  of  the  wrong  that' 


(Judicium  Pillorie)  and  203  (Statutum  de  Pistoribus).  See  also  Leet 
Jnrisdietkm  in  Norwich  (Selden  Society,  1891),  p.  28,  where,  in  a  list  of 
amercements  inflicted  at  the  Leet  of  Nedham  and  Manecrof t,  the  follow- 
ing entry  occurs  : — "  De  Johanne  le  Pastemakere  quia  vendidit  Games 
quas  Judei  vocant  trefa,  2s." 

'  Mansi,  (S'«r-7V)r?/m  Conciliorum  Colleetio,  Venice,  1775,  XX.  399;  Wilkins, 
Concilia  Magnae  Britanniae,  I.  591,  67.^,  719;  Gcstta  Henrici  II.  et 
Ricardi  I.  (R.  S.),  I.  230.     Clironiea  Rogeri  de  Hoveden  (R.  S.),  II.  180. 

'  Cf .  the  words  of  John's  Charter  :  "  Libertates  et  consuetudines  sicut 
eas  habuerunt  tempore  Henrici  avi  patris  nostri." — Rotuli  Chartarum, 
p.  93. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.         9 

Christians  had  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  enemies  of 
Christ.  He  told  his  hearers  how  the  Eastern  people,  a  ;< 
people  estranged  from  God,  had  laid  waste  the  land  of  the 
Christians  with  fire  and  sword  ;  had  destroyed  churches, 
or  misused  them  for  their  own  rites ;  had  circumcised 
Christians,  poured  their  blood  on  altars  and  fonts,  scourged 
and  impaled  men,  and  dishonoured  women.  ^  Such  denun- 
ciations, followed  by  the  appeal  to  all  present  to  help 
Jerusalem,  which  was  "  ruled  by  enemies,  enslaved  by 
the  godless,  and  calling  aloud  to  be  freed,"  excited, 
for  the  first  time  in  Europe,  a  furious  and  fanatical 
hatred  of  Eastern  and  non-Christian  races.  The  Jews 
were  such  a  race,  as  well  as  the  Saracens,  and  be- 
tween the  two  the  Crusaders  scarcely  distinguished. 
Before  they  left  home  and  fortune  to  fight  God's  enemies 
abroad,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  kill  or  convert 
those  whom  they  met  nearer  home.  Through  all  central 
Europe,  from  France  to  Hungary,  the  bands  that  gathered 
together  to  make  their  way  to  the  Holy  Land  fell  on  the 
Jews  and  offered  them  the  choice  between  the  sword  and 
the  font.^ 

The  disasters  that  followed  the  first  Crusade  brought/ 
with  them  an  increase  in  the  ferocity  of  the  attacks  to 
which  the  Jews  of  Continental  Europe  were  subjected,  and 
S.  Bernard,  when  he  preached  the  second  Crusade,  found 
that  he  had  revived  a  spirit  of  fanaticism  that  he  was 
powerless  to  quell.  He  had  wished  for  the  reconquest  of 
the  Holy  Land  as  a  result  that  would  bring  honour 
to  the  Christian  religion ;  but  his  followers  and  imitators 
thought  less  of  the  end  than   of  the   bloodshed  that  was 


'  Recueil  des  Historiens  des  Croisades—Eistoriens  Occidentaux  (Paris, 
1866),  III.  321,  727.  Cf.  especially  (p.  727),  Altaria  suis  foeditatibus 
inquinata  subvertunt,  Christianos  circumcidunt,  cruoremque  circum- 
cisionis  aut  super  altaria  fundunt  aut  in  vasis  baptisterii  immergunt 
(Roberti  Monachi  Ilistoria  Ilwroisolimitana). 

2  Neubauer  and  Stern,  Ilcbrdische  Berichte  uber  die  Judenverfolgungcn 
wdhrend  der  Kreuzzuge  ;  Hefele,  ConciliengescMclite,  V.,  22-i,  270  ;  Graetz, 
GescMchte  der  Juden  (second  edition)  VI.,  89-107. 


10         Tht'  Exinikion  of  the  Jens  from  England  in  1290. 

to  be  tlie  means.  A  monk,  "  wlio  .skilfully  imitated  the 
austerity  of  relii^ion,  but  had  no  innnoderate  amount  of 
learning,"  ^  went  through  the  Rhineland  preaching  that  alf^ 
Jews  who  were  found  by  the  Crusaders  should  be  killed 
as  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  was  in  vain  that 
Bernard  appealed  to  the  Christian  nations  whom  his  elo- 
quence had  aroused,  in  the  hope  that  "the  zeal  of  God  which 
burnt  in  tlieiu  would  not  fail  altogether  to  be  tempered 
with  knowledge."  He  himself  narrowly  escaped  attack  ; 
and  the  Jews  suffered  from  the  second  Crusade  as  they  had 
suffered  from  the  first.^ 

England  was  so  closely  related  to  the  Churches  of  the 
Continent  that  it  could  not  fail  to  be  affected  by  the  great 
movement.  But  the  first  Crusade  was  preached  when  the 
Conquest  was  still  recent,  and  the  Normans  had  no  leisure 
to  leave  their  new  country ;  the  second,  during  the  last 
period  of  anarchy  in  the  reign  of  Stephen. 

Thus  there  were,  during  the  fir-st  hundred  years  after  the 
Council  of  Clermont,  few  English  Crusaders.  Yet  the  Cru- 
sading spirit,  working  in  a  super.stitious  mediaeval  popula- 
tion, called  forth  a  danger  that  was  destined  to  be  as  fatal 
to  the  English  Jews  as  were  the  massacres  to  their  brethren 
on  the  Continent.  The  Pope  who  preached  the  first  Cru- 
sade had  told  his  hearers  that  Eastern  nations  were  in  the 
habit  of  circumcising  Christians  and  using  their  blood  in 
such  a  way  as  to  show  their  contempt  for  the  Christian 
religion.  This  ch.arge  was  naturally  extended  to  the  Jews 
as  well.  What  alterations  it  underwent  in  its  circulation  it 
is  hard  to  say;  but  in  1146,  a  tale  was  spread  among  the- 
populace  of  Norwich,  and  encouraged  by  the  bishop,  that 
the  Jews  had  killed  a  boy  named  William,  to  use  his  blood 
for  the  ritual  of  that  most  suspicious  feast,  their  Passover. 
The  story  was  supported  by  no  evidence  more  trustworthy 
than  that  of  an  apostate  Jew,  which  was  so  worthless  that 

'  C.  U.  Hahn,  GeschicMe  dcr  Kctzvr  im  Mittelalter,  III.  17. 
'  Graetz,    Oegchichte  der  Juden   (second    edition),   VI.,  1.55-170.     Cf. 
Uefele,  V.,  498,  n  2. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       11 

the  Sheritf  refused  to  allow  the  Jews  to  appear  in  tlie 
Bishop's  Court  to  answer  the  charge  brought  against 
them,  and  took  them  under  his  protection.  But  the 
popular  suspicion  of  the  Jews  lent  credibility  to  tlie 
story,  and  so  terrible  a  feeling  was  aroused  that  many  of 
the  Jews  of  Norwich  dispersed  into  other  lands,  and  of 
those  who  remained  many  were  killed  by  the  people  in 
spite  of  the  protection  of  the  Sheriff.^  The  accusation  once 
made  naturally  recurred,  first  at  Gloucester,  in  11 GS,  and 
then  at  Bury  St.  Edmund's,  in  1181.  "The  Martyrs"  were 
regularly  buried  in  the  nearest  church  or  religious  house, 
and  the  miracles  that  they  all  worked  would  alone  have 
been  enough  to  continually  renew  the  belief  in  the  tenible 
story.^ 

Under  the  firm  reign  of  Henry  II.,  anti- Jewish  feeling »' 
found  no  further  expression  in  act.  The  King,  like  his 
predecessors,  gave  and  secured  to  the  Jews  special  privi- 
leges so  o-reat  as  to  arouse  the  envy  of  their  neicfhbours. 
They  were  allowed 'to  settle  their  own  disputes  in  their 
own  Beth  Din,  or  Ecclesiastical  Court,  and  in  so  far  to  enjoy 
a  privilege  that  was  granted  only  under  strict  limitations 
to  the  Christian  Church.^  They  were  placed,  apparently, 
under  the  special  protection  of  the  ro^'al  officers  of  each 
district.''  They  lived  in  safety,  and  they  made  considerable 
contributions  to  the  Royal  Exchequer. 

The  death  of  Henry  II.  and  the  accession  of  Richard  I., 
the  fii-st  English  Crusading  King,  brought  trouble,  as 
was  but  natural,  to  the  rich  and  royally  favoured  infidels 

'  Jacobs,  Op.  at.  20,  257. 

*  Ilistoria  et  CartuJarhtm  Monasterli  S.  Petri  Gloueestriar  (R.  S.),  I., 
21 ;  ChroJiica  Joeelini  de  Brahehmda  (Camden  Society),  12,  113-14  ; 
Annales     Monastici    (R.    S.),    I.,    343,  XL,    347;    Matt.  Paris,   (lironica 

'Majora  (R.  S.),  IV.,  377,  V.,  518  ;  Jacobs'  Jcu-g  of  Angerin  Einjland,  19  ; 
and  cf.  Clironiclcs  of  Beigns  of  Stephen,  Henry  12.,  Richard  I.  (Rolls 
Series),  I.,  311. 

3  Materials  for  History  of  Thomas  Bechet  (Rolls  Series),  IV.  148  ; 
Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  43,  155. 

*  Cf .  tbe  protection  (^iven  to  Jews  of  Norwich  by  the  Sheriff  (Jacobs, 
257). 


12         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

of  tlic  l;iii(l  wIrtc  the  blood  accusation  had  its  birth. 
The  intorrcL^mnn  between  the  death  of  one  King  and  the 
proclamation  of  the  "  peace  "  of  his  successor  was  always 
a  time  of  danger  and  lawlessness  during  the  first  two 
centuries  after  the  Conquest,  and  the  growth  of  the 
crusading  spirit,  and  of  the  popular  belief  in  the  truth  of 
the  blood  accusation,  caused  all  the  forces  of  disorder  to 
work  in  one  direction,  viz.,  against  the  Jews.  The  day  of 
Richard's  coronation  was  the  first  opportunity  for  a  great 
exhibition  of  the  anti-Jewisli  fanaticism  of  the  populace. 
The  nobles  from  all  parts  of  the  country  brought  with  them 
to  London  large  trains  of  servants  and  attendants,  who  were 
left  to  occupy  themselves  as  best  they  might  in  the  streets, 
while  their  lords  were  present  at  the  ceremony.  The  Jews, 
who  had  been  refused  permission  to  enter  the  Abbey,  took 
up  a  prominent  position  outside.  Their  appearance  ex- 
asperated the  crowd,  and  in  the  mediaeval  world  a  crowd 
was  irresistible.  While  the  service  was  proceeding,  the 
Jews  were  fiercely  attacked  by  the  "  wild  serving  men  "  of 
the  nobles  and  the  lower  orders  of  citizens.  One  at  least 
was  compelled  to  a,ccept  baptism  to  save  himself  from 
death.  Later  in  the  same  day,  when  the  King  and  mag- 
nates were  banqueting  in  the  palace,  the  attack  on  the 
Jews  was  renewed.  The  strong  houses  of  the  Jewry  were 
besieged  and  fired,  and  the  inhabitants  were  massacred. 
But  soon  "  avarice  got  the  better  of  cruelty,"  and  in  spite 
of  the  efforts  of  the  King's  officers  the  city  was  given  up 
to  plunder  and  rapine.^ 

Though  the  King  was  bitterly  angry  at  "what  had  hap- 
pened, the  first  attempt  at  punishment  showed  him  how 
powerless  he  was  against  the  forces  hostile  to  the  Jews. 
Had  the  offenders  been  nobles  or  prominent  citizens,  he 
could,  when  the  first  irresistible  disorder  had  subsided,  have 
taken  vengeance  at  his  leisure.  But  what  could  he  do 
against  a  collection  of  serving-men  and  poor  citizens,  whom 

'  Chronicles  of  the  Reigns  of  Stephen,  Henry  II.,  and  Richard  1.  (Rolla 
Series),  I.  294-9. 


The  Expukion  uf  the  Jem  from  Eiujltnid  in  1290.        18 

no  one  knew,  who  had  come  together  and  liad  separated  in 
one  day?  When  he  departed  for  the  Crusades,  lie  left 
behind  him  all  the  materials  for  more  outbreaks  of  the  same 
kind.  In  the  more  populous  towns  Crusaders  were  con- 
tinually gathering  together  in  order  to  set  out  for  the  Holy 
Land  in  company :  and  they,  aided  by  the  lower  citizens, 
clerics,  and  poor  countrymen,  and  in  some  cases  by  ruined 
landholders,  fell  on  and  killed  the  Jews  wherever  they  had 
settlements  in  England,  at  Norwich,  York,  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds, Lynn,  Lincoln,  Colchester,  and  Stamford.^  Again 
the  Royal  officers  were  unable  to  touch  the  offenders.  When 
the  Chancellor  arrived  with  an  army  at  York,  the  scene  of 
the  most  horrible  of  all  the  massacres,  he  found  that  the 
murderers  were  Crusaders,  who  had  long  embarked  for  the 
Holy  Land,  peasants  and  poor  townsmen  who  had  retired 
from  the  neighbourhood,  and  some  bankrupt  nobles,  who 
had  fled  to  Scotland.  The  citizens  humbly  represented  that 
they  were  not  responsible  for  the  outrage  and  were  too 
weak  to  prevent  it.  No  punishment  was  possible  except 
the  infliction  of  a  few  fines,  and  the  Chancellor  marched 
back  with  his  army  to  London.^ 

It  was  clear  that  the  King  must  strengthen  his  con- 
nection with  the  Jews.  He  could  not  afford  to  lose  them 
or  to  leave  them  continually  liable  to  plunder.  They  were 
too  rich.  In  1187,  when  Henry  II.  had  wanted  to  raise  a 
great  sum  from  all  his  people  he  had  got  nearly  as  much 
from  the  Jews  as  from  his  Christian  subjects.  From  the 
former  he  got  a  fourth  of  their  property,  £60,000,  from  the 
latter  a  tenth,  or  £70,000.^  It  is  of  course  improbable 
that,  as  these  figures  would  at  first  seem  to  show,  the 
Jews  held  a  quarter  of  the  wealth  of  the  kingdom,  but 

'  Radulfi  de  Diceto,  Opera  Historica  (R.S.),  II.  75-6.  Jacobs,  Jews  of 
Angevin  England,  176  ;  Chronicles  of  the  Reigns  of  Stephen, Hen ri/  II.,  and 
Richard  I.  (Rolls  Series),  I.  309-10,  312-322. 

-  CJironicles  of  the  Reigns  of  Stephen,  Uenry  li.,  uvd  llirhard  I. 
(R.S.)I.323-4. 

^  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  pp.  91-C  ;  Gervase  of  Canterbury 
(     .S.)  I.  422. 


14  The  h'rj)i(/sion  ut  the  Je/rs  /r<i//t  hliKjland  in  1290. 

tlicy  were  as  iisofiil  to  tlu;  Kiii,>;'  as  il  tliry  had.  He  had 
a  far  greater  powei'  over  their  resources  than  over  those 
of  his  otlicr  sulijocts;  tlioir  wealth  was  in  nioveaV)le  pro- 
perty, and  what  was  still  more  important,  it  was  concen- 
trated ill  few  1  lands.  It  was  easily  found  and  easily 
taken  away.' 


TI. — TlIK   COX.STITUTION    OF   TUE   JeWRV. 

Richard's  policy,  or  his  councillors',  was  simple.  On  the"^ 
one  hand,  in  order  to  encourage  rich  Jews  to  continue  to 
make  England  their  home,  he  issued  a  charter  of  protection, 
in  which  he  guaranteed  to  certain  Jews,^  and  perhaps  to 
all  who  were  wealthy,  the  privileges  that  they  had 
enjoyed  under  his  father  and  great-grandfather.  They 
were  to  hold  land  as  they  had  hitherto  done ;  their 
heirs  were  to  succeed  to  their  money  debts ;  they 
were  to  be  allowed  to  go  wherever  they  pleased 
throughout  the  country,  and  to  be  free  of  all  tolls  and 
dues.  On  the  other  hand  he  asserted  and  enforced  his 
rights  over  them  and  their  property  by  organising  a  com- 
plete supervision  of  all  their  business  transactions.  In  1194< 
he  issued  a  code  of  regulations,  in  which  he  ordered  that 
a  register  of  all  that  belonged  to  them  should  be  kept  for 
the  information  of  the  treasury.  All  their  deeds  were  to 
be  executed  in  one  of  the  six  or  seven  places  where 
there  were  establishments  of  Jewish  and  Christian  clerks 
especially  appointed  to  witness  them ;  they  were  to  be 
entered  on  an  ofhcial  list,  and  a  half  of  each  was  to  be 
deposited  in  a  public  chest  under  the  control  of  royal 
officer.s.^  No  Jew  was  to  plead  before  any  court  but  that 
of  tlie  King's  officers,  and  special  Justices  were  appointed 

'  Enormous  wealth  was  possessed   by  Abraham  fil    Rabbi,  .lurnet  of 
Norwich  and  Aarcn  of  Lincoln.      Jacobs,  0/>.  Cit.,  44.  <)4,  84,  90.  91. 
-  Rymer.  Ftrdrvn  I.  .")1. 
3   Chrtniieu  Ilinjiri  th   Ilmrdi  i>  (R.S.),  III.  L'(j(J-7. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeic^  from  Eiujhuul  i»  1'2!H").        15 

to   hear   cases    in    which    Jews    were    coneernetl,    ami     to 
exercise  a  general  control  over  their  Imsiness.' 

These  arrangements  underwent  various  modifications 
under  Richard's  successors.  The  privi legos  which  had  at"^ 
first  been  granted  to  certain  Jews  hy  name  were  extended 
by  John  to  the  whole  communitj'  - ;  and  the  royal  hold 
over  them  was  tightened  by  an  edict,  issued  in  1211»,  which 
ordered  the  Wardens  of  the  Cinque  Ports  to  prevent  any 
Jews  who  lived  in  England  from  leaving  the  country.'' 

This  elaborate  constitution  did  not  indeed  afford  com- 
plete security  against  a  repetition  of  the  massacres  of  1189 
and  1190,  but  its  existence  w^as  a  more  solemn  and  official 
recognition  than  had  been  given  before  of  the  fact  that 
the  King  was  the  sole  lord  and  protector  of  the  Jews,  and 
that  he  would  regard  an  injur}'-  done  to  them  as  an  injury 
to  himself.  And  thus  it  went  far  to  secure  to  him 
his  revenue  and  to  them  their  safety.  From  tliis 
time  forward,  the  Jews  yielded  to  the  king,  not 
simply  irregular  contributions,  such  as  the  £60,000  they 
had  paid  to  Henrj^  II.,  and  the  sums  thej  had  paid  to  Long- 
champ  towards  the  expenses  of  Richard's  Crusade,*  but  a 
steady  and  regular  income.  They  paid  tallages,  heavy 
reliefs  on  succeeding  to  property,  and  a  besant  in  the 
pound,  or  ten  per  cent.,  on  their  loan  transactions  ;  they 
were  liable  to  escheats,  confiscation  of  land  and  debts,  and 
fines  and  amercements  of  all  kinds.'  Their  average  annual 
contril)ution  to  the  Treasury,  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
twelfth  century,  was  probably  about  a  twelfth  of  the  whole 
Roj'al  revenue,"  and  of  the  greater  part  of  what  they  owed 
the  realisation  was  nearly  certain.  Other  delators  might 
find  in  delay,  or  resistance,  or  legal  formalities,  a  way  of 

'  Chroniron  Johannix  Jinniijdon  in  Twysden's  Ilistoritv  Anglirana 
Si'i-lpti'rex  X.,  col.  12.JS. 

-  Rotitli  Cliartarum  (Record  Commission),  p.  '.t3. 

^  Tovey,  Anglia  Jwlaica,  81. 

'  Gesta.  Henriiu  II.  et  Rieard.  I.  (R.S.),  II.  218  ;  M.  Paris.  TA ;•««;>« 
Majnra  (R.S.)  II.  3S1,  and  Jacobs,  102-4. 

■^  Jacobs.  222.  22><-3n.  2.S'.t-4ft.  ^  Ihiil.  328. 


16         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

avoiding  payment.  But  the  King  had  the  Jews  in  his  own 
liands.  He  could  onler  the  sheriffs  of  the  county  to  distrain 
on  defaulters,  and  there  was  no  one  between  the  sheriffs 
and  the  Jews.'  He  could  despoil  them  of  lands  and  debts. 
He  could  imprison  them  in  the  royal  castles.  In  the  reign 
of  John,  all  the  Jews  and  Jewesses  of  England  were  thrown 
into  prison  bj'  his  command,  and  are  said  to  have  been 
reduced  to  such  poverty  that  they  begged  from  door  to 
door,  and  prowled  about  the  city  like  dogs.^  The  only 
way  they  had  of  removing  any  of  their  property  from  his 
reach  was  by  burying  it.  Whereupon  the  King,  if  he 
suspected  that  a  Jew  had  more  treasure  than  was  apparent, 
might  order  him  to  have  a  tooth  drawn  every  day  until 
he  paid  enough  to  purchase  pardon.^ 

Powerless  as  the  Jews  were  against  royal  oppression  in 
England,  the  position  that  was  offered  to  them  by  Richard 
and  John  was  no  worse  than  that  of  their  co-religionists 
in  other  countries  of  Europe.  Those  of  Germany  were  the 
Emperor's  Kammerknechte ;  *  those  of  France  had  been 
expelled  in  1182,  and  though  they  were  soon  recalled,  might 
at  any  time  be  expelled  again.^  A  Jew  in  a  feudalised 
country  was  liable  to  be  the  subject  of  quarrel  between  the 
lord  on  whose  estate  he  dwelt  and  the  king  of  the  country, 
and  he  could  be  handed  about,  now  to  the  one  and  now  to 
the  other.*'  The  right  to  live  and  to  be  under  jurisdiction,  was 
everywhere  still  a  local  privilege  that  had  to  be  enjoyed  by 
the  permission  of  a  lord,  lay  or  clerical,  and  had  to  be  paid  for. 
In  England,  the  Jews,  so  long  as  they  were  protected  by 
the  King,   were   at   any  rate  under  the  greatest  lord   in 

'  Jacobs,  222. 

-  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Majora  (R.S.)  II.  528  ;  Aimales  Monastici  (U.S.) 
I.  29,  II.  20i,  III.  32,  451  ;  Chronicles  of  Lane  re  oat  (Maitland  Club),  p.  7. 

^  M.  Paris,  Clironica  Majora  II.,  528. 

*  Depping,  Les  Juifs  dans  le  Moyen  Aye,  185. 

^  Bouquet,  lieeueil  des  Ilistoriens  des  Gaules  etde  la  France,  xvii.  9. 

^  Depping,  Les  Juifs  dans  le  Moyen  Age,  59,  60,  185,  194.  Cf.  RotuU 
Chartaruin,  l.lh  {Carta  Williehni  Maresrulli,  de  quodani  Jiidaeo  apud 
Camhay). 


The  E.rpulsion  of  the  Jewa  from  Enghnid  in  12*J0.        J  7 

the  land.  The  towns  where  especially  they  wished  to 
Kettle  for  the  purposes  of  their  business,  were,  thaid\s  to 
the  policy  of  William  the  Conqueror,  mostly  on  the  royal 
<loniain.  And  the  royal  power  acting  through  its  local 
officers  was  used  to  the  full  to  protect  the  Jews.  The 
sheriffs  of  the  counties  were  especially  charged  to  sccnro 
to  them  personal  safety  and  the  enjoyment  of  the  im- 
munities that  had  been  granted  to  them.' 

The  arrangement  by  which  Jewish  money-lenders 
received  on  English  soil  the  protection  of  the  King  against 
his  own  subjects  was  not  very  honourable  to  either  of  the 
parties.  But  the  King  had  no  compunction,  and  the  Jews 
had  no  choice.  It  could  endure  so  long  as  the  royal  power 
was  strong  enough  to  override  the  objections  of  barons  and 
abbots  to  a  measure  in  favour  of  their  creditors,  of  the 
towns  to  an  encroachment  on  their  privileges,  and  of  the 
Church  to  the  royal  support  of  a  body  of  infidel  usurers. 

At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  centurj'  neither  towns  nor  ^' 
landholders  nor  Church  were  in  a  position  to  offer  any 
effectual  pretest.  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  strength 
of  the  opposition  of  each  of  these  three  orders  grew  steailily. 
But  in  each  it  pursued  a  separate  course,  though  to  the 
same  end,  and  each  order  struck  its  decisive  blow  at  a 
different  moment.  Hence  the  various  forms  of  opposition 
jnust  be  separately  considered. 


III. — The  Conflict  with  the  Towns. 

The  towns  were  the  first  to  carry  out  a  practical  and 
effective  anti-Jewish  policy.  It  was  they  that  suffered 
most  keenly  and  constantly  from  the  presence  of  the 
Jews.  They  had  bought,  at  great  expense,  from  King  or 
noble  or  abbot,  the  right  to  be  independent,  self-governing 
communities,  living  under  the  jurisdiction  of  their  own 

'  Tovey,  Anglia  Judaioa,  78-9, 


18         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jens  from  England  in  1290. 

officers,  free  from  the  visits  of  the  royal  sheriffs,  and  paying 
a  fixeil  sum  in  coniinutation  of  all  dues  to  tlic  King  or  the 
local  lonl ;  and  yet  many  of  them  saw  the  King  protecting 
in  their  midst  a  hand  of  foreigners,  wlio  liad  tlie  royal  per- 
mission to  go  whithersoever  they  pleased,  who  could  dwell 
among  the  l)urgesses,  and  were  yet  free  not  only  from  all 
customs  and  dues  and  coiitiibution  to  the  fern^,,'  but  even 
from  the  jurisdiction  of  those  authorities  wliicii  werti  respon- 
sible for  peace  ond  good  government.^  This  was  exasperat- 
ing enough  ;  but  there  was  more  and  worse.  The  exclusion 
of  the  sheriff  and  the  King's  constables  was  one  of  the 
most  cherished  privileges  of  towns,  but,  wherever  the 
Jews  had  once  taken  up  their  residence,  it  was  in  danger 
of  being  a  mere  pretence.  At  Colchester,  if  a  Jew  was 
unable  to  recover  his  debts,  he  could  call  in  the  King's 
sheriffs  to  help  him.  In  London,  Jews  were  "warrantlsed  " 
from  the  exchequer,  and  the  constable  of  the  Tower  had 
a  special  jurisdiction  by  which  he  kept  the  pleas  ^)etween 
Jews  and  Christians.  At  Nottingham,  complaints  against 
Jews,  even  in  cases  of  petty  assaults,  were  heard  before 
the  keeper  of  the  Castle.  At  Oxford  the  constable  called 
in  question  the  Chancellor's  authority  over  the  Jews; 
contending  that  they  did  not  form  part  of  the  ordinary 
town-community.^  Moreover,  the  debts  of  the  Jews  were 
continually  falling  into  the  King's  hands,  and  whenever 
this  happened,  his  officers  would  no  doubt  penetrate  into 

'  Stamford  was  an  exception  in  this  respect,  Madox,  Firma  Burgi 
p.  1»2. 

*  Et  Judrei  non  intrabunt  in  placitum  nisi  coram  nobis  aut  coram  illis, 
qui  turres  nostras  custodierint  in  quorum  ballivis  Judaei  manserint, 
Rot.  Chart.,  93. 

'  Cutts,  Colchester,  12.3  ;  Tovey,  Anglla  J.,  50  ;  Forty-Seventh  Report 
o*  Deputy-Keeper  of  Public  Records,  306 ;  Lyte,  History  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Ojford,  59  ;  Papers  of  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  Exhihition, 
3ij-fi  ;  Dr  Antiquis  Legibus  Liber  (Camden  Soc).  p.  ItJ,  (a.d.  1249,  Nam 
rex  concessit  quod  Judei  qui  antea  warantizati  fuerunt  per  breve  de 
scaccario,  de  cetero  placitassent  coram  civibus  de  tenementis  suis  in 
Londoniis).  Chronica  Jocdini  de  Brakdondu  (Camden  Soc),  p.  2,  (Venit 
Judeus  portans  literas  domini  regis  de  debito  sacristaj). 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeu-^from  EmjUind  in  1200.        I'J 

the  town  to  make  on  behalf  of  the  royal  treasury  a 
collection  such  as  had  never  been  contemplate<l  wIhh  the 
bur^fesses  nm<le  their  at^reenient,  which  was  to  settle  once 
and  for  all  their  payment  to  the  King.' 

In  some  of  the  towns  the  feeling  against  the  Jews  was 
expressed  in  riots  as  early  as  the  reign  of  John,  and  the 
beginning  of  that  of  Henry  III.  But  the  King  in  each 
case  took  stern  measures  of  repression.  John  told  the 
mayor  and  barons  of  London  that  he  should  re(iuirti  the 
blood  of  the  Jews  at  their  hands  if  any  ill  befell  them.^ 
In  Gloucester  and  in  Hereford,  the  burgesses  of  the  town 
were  made  responsible  for  the  safety  of  the  Jews  dwelling 
amongst  them.  In  Worcester,  York,  Lincoln,  Stamford, 
Bristol,  Northampton,  and  Winchester,  the  sheriffs  were 
charged  with  the  duty  of  protecting  them  against  injury.' 
Such  measures  only  increased  the  ill-feeling  of  the 
burgesses.  At  Norwich  in  1234  the  Jewry  was  fired  and 
looted.*  The  Jews  were  maltreated  and  beaten,  and  were 
only  saved  from  further  harm  by  the  timely  lielp  of  the 
garrison  of  the  neighbouring  castle.  At  Oxford  the 
scholars  attacked  the  Jewry  and  carried  off  "  innumerable 
goods."^ 

But  the  towns  soon  began  to  use  a  far  more  etlectivc 
method  than  rioting  in  order  to  rid  themselves  of  the 
Jews.  Just  as  they  had  found  it  worth  while  to  pay 
heavily  for  their  municipal  charters,  so  now  they  were 
willing  to  pay  more  for  a  measure  which  would  secure 
them  in  the  future  against  a  drain  on  their  revenues  and 
a  violation  of  their  privileges.     Whether  a  town  held  its 


'  Cp.  Chroaica.  .VonM.s-trrii  de  Mrlm  (R.S.).  I.,  177.  Interea  raortuus 
est  Aaron  Juda3us  Lincolniaj,  de  quo  jam  dictum  est,  et  compulsi  suraus, 
regis  edicto  totum  quod  illi  debuimus  pro  Willielmo  Fossard  infra  brevo 
tempus  domino  regi  persolvere. 

2  Rymer,  Fwdera,  I..  89. 

»  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  from  12S1  to  12'J2,  p.  15  ;  Tovey,  Anylia 
Jiidaicn,  77,  78,  79. 

*  Tovey,  101,  Norfolk  Antiquarian  Mixcellany,  I..  326. 

*  Annalci  Mfinfi.ofiri  (Rolls  Series"),  iv.  91. 

1'.   -2 


'20         Tilt'  Ej-pK/sioH  of  t/ic  J c US  from  England  in  1290. 

charter  from  the  Kin<]^,  or  was  still  (lepeiident  on  an  inter- 
mediate lord,  the  motive  was  eijually  stronp^.  An  abbot 
or  a  baron  would  be  glad  to  second  the  efforts  made  by 
the  inhabitants  of  one  of  his  vills  to  expel  a  portion  of 
the  populace  which  took  much  from  the  lesources  whence 
his  revenue  camo  and  addi.'d  nothinix  to  thein.^  The  abbot 
of  Bury  St.  Edmuii<]"s  induced  the  Kini,^  to  expel  the  Jews 
from  the  to.vn  in  1100.-  The  burgesses  of  Leicester 
obtained  a  similar  grant  from  Simon  de  Montfort  in  1231, 
those  of  Newcastle  in  123-4,  of  Wycombe  in  1235,  of  South- 
ampton in  123G,  of  Berkhampsted  in  1242,  of  Newbury  in 
li-44,  of  Derby  in  1263  ;  at  Norwich  the  citizens  complained 
to  the  King,  but  without  any  result,  of  the  harm  that  they 
suffered  through  the  growth  of  the  Jewish  community 
settled  in  the  city.^  In  i24.')  a  decree  in  general  terras  was  > 
is.sued  by  Henry  III.,  prohibiting  all  Jews,  except  those  to 
whom  the  King  had  granted  a  special  personal  license,  from 
remaining  in  any  town  other  than  those  in  which  their  co- 
religionists had  hitherto  been  accustomed  to  live.*  This 
series  of  measures  did  not  simply  deprive  the  Jews  in 
England  of  a  right  which  had  been  solemnly  granted  them 
and  which  they  had  long  enjoyed.     It  went  much  further. 

'  Especially  irritating  must  have  been  the  fact  that  the  one  restriction 
on  the  business  of  Je-.vs,  as  money-lenders,  was  the  order  that  forbade 
them  to  take  in  pledge  the  land  of  tenants  on  the  royal  demesne.  W. 
Prynne,  The  Second  Part  of  a  Short  Demurrer  to  the  Jews'  long  dis- 
conthvied  remitter,  etc.,  London,  1656,  p.  35  ;  Norfolk  Antiquarian  Mis- 
cellany, I.  328. 

2  Chronica  Jocelini  de  Brahelonda  (Camden  Society),  p.  33. 

^  Thompson,  Leicester,  72  ;  Madox,  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  I.  260,  notes  0 
and  P  ;  J.  E.  Blunt,  E4ahli.ihment  and  Residence  of  Jews  in  England, 
45;  Papers  A.nglo-J.  H.  Ex.  190;  Prynne,  The  Second  Part  of  a  Short 
Demurrer,  etc.,  p.  37  ;  Xorfolk  Antiquarian  Miscellany,  I.  32(),  (De  Judeis 
dicebant  quod  major  multitude  manet  in  civitate  sua  quam  solebat, 
et  quod  Judei  qui  aliis  locis  dissaiuati  (.v/c)  fuerunt  venerunt  ibidem 
manere  ad  dampnum  civitatis). 

••  Prynne,  The  Second  Part  of  a  Short  Demurrer,  etc.,  p.  To  ;  Madox,  His- 
tory of  the  Exchequer,  I.  219  :  Et  quod  nullus  Judaeus  receptetur  in 
aliqua  villa  sine  speciali  licentia  Regis,  nisi  in  villis  illis  in  quibus 
Jadaei  manere  consueverunt. 


The  Expukion  of  the  Jens  from  Enghntd  in  121)0.       21 

For,  by  circumscribing  tlie  area  in  wliich   they  could   carry  ^' 
on  their  business,  and   so  diniiuishing   their  opportunities 
of  acquiring  wealth,  it  threatened  their  very  existence  in  a 
laud  where  their  wealth  alone  secured  them  protection. 


IV. — The  Conflict  with  the  Baroxs. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  towns  were  making  their 
attack  on  the  Jews  in  their  own  way,  there  was  growing 
up  within  the  baronial  order  a  new  party,  stronger  than 
the  towns  in  the  elements  of  which  it  was  composed  and 
in  its  capacity  for  joint  action,  and  tilled,  on  account  of  the 
private  circumstances  of  its  members,  with  a  deeper 
hatred  of  the  Jews  than  the  greater  barons,  wh:)  had 
hitherto  represented  the  order,  had  ever  known.  For  the 
old  Baronial  party  which  had  forced  Magna  Carta  on 
John  was  too  rich  to  be  seriously  imlebted  to  the  Jews,  and 
the  anti-JcAvish  feeling  of  its  mend)ers  must  have  been 
blunted  by  the  fact  that,  when  they  had  to  pay  their  debts, 
they  could  raise  the  money  by  benevolences  levied  on  their 
tenants.^  Moreover  some  of  them  imitated  on  their  own 
estates  the  King's  policy  of  sharing  in  the  profits  of 
usury .^  Hence  they  w-ere  little  influenced  by  personal 
grievances,  and  it  was  no  doubt  partly  from  political  con- 
siderations, and  partly  as  a  concession  to  the  lesser  and 
poorer  members  of  their  order,  that  they  had  introduced 
into  Magna  Carta  certain  limitations  of  the  power  of  the 
Jews,  or  of   their  legatee,  the    King,  over  the  estates    of 


'  Jacobs,  Jews  of  Angevin  England,  2(59-271. 

»  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Mojora,  V.  245.  Cf.  the  article  in  the  Constitutions 
enacted  by  Walter  de  Cantilupe,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  at  his  dioce.^an 
synod  in  1240  :  Quia  vero  parum  ref ert,  an  quis  per  se  vel  per  alium  incidat 
in  crimen  usurarum,  prohibemus  ne  quis  Christianus  Juda'o  pecuniam 
committat.  ut  earn  Jud^us  simulate  suo  nomine  proprio  rautuetad  usuram. 
Wilkins.  Magnw  Britannia:  Concilia,  I.  675,676.  Stubbs.  Sc-Icct  Chartem, 
385-6. 


22         The  Expuliiion  of  ihe  Jeicsfrotn  England  in  1290. 

debtors,  a  measure  which,  small  as  it  was,  was  repealed  on 
the  re-issues  of  the  charter's,  when,  during  the  minority  of 
Henry  III.,  the  great  Barons  had  to  undertake  the  duty 
of  Government.  And  yet  even  the  great  Barons  must  have 
felr,  after  twenty  years'  experience  of  the  personal  Govern- 
ment of  Henry  III.,  that  an  alteration  in  the  Royal  system  of 
managing  the  Jewry  was  necessary  if  their  order  was  ever 
to  succeed  in  the  constitutional  struggle  in  which  it  was 
engaged.  They  knew  that  many  of  those  among  the  King's 
acts  which  they  hated  worst  would  have  been  impossible 
but  for  the  Jews.  It  was  by  money  extorted  from  them 
that  he  had  been  enabled  to  prolong  his  expeditions  in 
Brittany  and  Gascony,  to  support  and  enrich  his  foreign 
favourites,  and  to  baffle  the  attempts  of  the  Council  to 
secure,  by  the  refusal  of  supplies,  the  restoration  of  Govern- 
ment through  the  customary  officers.  In  1230,  and  again  in 
1239,  he  took  from  them  a  third  of  their  property  ;  in  1244, 
he  levied  a  tallage  of  60,000  marks ;  in  1250,  1252,  1254, 
and  1255  he  ordered  the  royal  officers  to  take  from  them 
all  that  they  could  exact,  after  thorough  inquisition  and  the 
employment  of  measures  of  compulsion  so  cruel  as  to  make 
the  whole  body  of  Jews  in  England  ask  twice,  though 
each  time  in  vain,  for  permission  to  leave  the  country. 
Thus  the  whole  Baronial  order  was  for  a  time  united,  on 
the  ground  of  constitutional  grievances,  in  a  policy  which 
found  its  expression  in  the  successful  attempt  of  the 
National  Council  in  1244  to  exact  from  the  Kinw  the  right 
of  appointing  one  of  the  two  justices  of  the  Jews,  so  as  to 
gain  a  knowledge  of  the  amount  of  the  Jewish  revenue, 
and  a  power  of  controlling  its  expenditure.^ 


•  For  the  nature  and  duration  of  the  earlier  strugg'le  between  the  king- 
and  the  barons,  see  Stubbs.  Constitidional  History  of  England  (Library 
Edition),  II..  40,  -14,  03,  07,  69-77.  For  the  king's  acts  of  extortion  from 
the  Jews,  see  Matthew  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  III.,  194,  .543;  IV.,  88; 
v.,  114,  274,  441,  487  ;  Madox,  History  of  the  Exchequer,  I.,  224-5,  229  ; 
Prynne,  Second  Part  of  a  Short  Demurrer,  40,  48,  66,  70,  75,  57.  For  the 
appointment  by  the  Council  of  one  Justice  of  the  Jews,  M.  Paris,  Chronica 
Majora,  iv.  807. 


The  Repulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Eiujland  in  1290.       28 

But  such  a  measure  did  nothing  to  relieve  the  personal 
grievances  of  the  lower  baronage,  and  it  was  naturally 
from  this  class  that  further  complaints  proceeded.  Its 
members,  unlike  the  greater  barons,  made  no  profit  from 
the  encouragement  of  usury.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
were  among  the  greatest  sufferers  from  the  practice. 
Many  a  one  among  them  must,  when  .summoned  to  tako^f 
part  in  the  King's  foreign  expeditions,  have  been  com- 
pelled to  pledge  some  land  to  the  Jews  in  order  to  be 
able  to  meet  the  expenses  of  service ;  and  no  doubt  the 
Jews  derived  from  such  transactions  a  large  share  of  the 
profits  that  enabled  them  to  make  their  enormous  contri- 
butions to  the  exchequer.  A  landholder's  debt  to  a  Jew 
^'  would,  when  once  contracted,  have  been,  under  any  cir- 
y^  ci  cumstances,  difficult  to  pay  off.  But  the  lower  baron- 
age, or  knight's  bachelors,  were  threatened,  when  they 
had  fallen  into  debt,  with  new  dangers,  the  knowledge 
of  which  intensified  their  hatred  of  the  whole  system  of 
money-lending.  "  We  ask,"  they  said  in  the  petition  of 
1259,  "a  remedy  for  this  evil,  to  wit,  that  the  Jews  some- 
times give  their  bonds,  and  the  land  pledged  to  them,  to 
the  magnates  and  the  more  powerful  men  of  the  realm, 
who  thereupon  enter  on  the  laud  of  the  lesser  men,  and 
although  those  who  owe  the  debt  be  willing  to  pay  it  with 
usury,  yet  the  said  magnates  put  off  the  business,  so  that 
the  land  and  tenements  may  in  some  way  remain  their 
property,  ....  and  on  the  occasion  of  death,  or  any 
other  chance,  there  is  a  manifest  danger  that  those  to 
whom  the  said  tenements  belonged  may  lose  all  right  in 
them."  ^ 

The  special  wrongs  of  the  lower  baronage  were,  in  the 
course  of  the  Civil  War,  temporarily  lost  sight  of.  Never- 
theless, the  action  of  the  whole  baronial  party  throughout 
the  war  contributed  greatly,  though  indirectly,  to  the  ulti- 
mate banishment  of  the  Jews  from  England.     Just  as  tlie 

'  Stubbs,  Select  darters,  385-6. 


24         T)ie  Rrpuhion  of  the  Jens  from  England  in  1290. 

towns  had,  by  their  measiil-cs  of  exclusion,  weakened  the 
merceuary  bond  that  united  the  Jews  to  tlie  King,  so  now 
the  barons,  by  their  wholesale  destruction  of  Jewish 
property,  Worked,  as  unconsciously  as  the  towns  had  done, 
to  the  same  end.  They  attacked  and  plundered  the  Jewry 
of  London  twice  in  the  course  of  the  war,  and  destroyed 
those  of  Canterbury,  Northampton,  Winchester,  Cambridge, 
Worcester,  and  Lincoln.  Everywhere  they  carried  off  or 
destroyed  the  property  of  their  victims.  In  London  they 
killed  every  Jew  that  they  met,  except  those  who  accepted 
baptism,  or  paid  large  sums  of  money.  They  took  from 
Cambridge  all  the  Jewish  bonds  that  were  kept  there,  and 
deposited  them  at  their  head-quarters  in  Ely.  At  Lincoln 
they  broke  open  the  official  chests,  and  "  trod  underfoot  in 
the  lanes,  charters  and  deeds,  and  w^hatever  else  was 
injurious  to  the  Christians."^  "It  is  impossible,"  says  a 
chronicler,  in  describing  one  of  these  attacks,  "  to  estimate 
the  loss  it  caused  to  the  King's  exchequer." 


V. — The  Beginjjing  of  Edward's  Policy  of  Restric- 
tion. 

When  the  Civil  War  was  over,  the  position  of  the  King's  A 
son  Edward  as,  on  the  one  hand,  the  sworn  friend  of  the 
lower  baronage,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  leader  of  the 
Council  and  the  most  powerful  man  in  England,^  made  it 
impossible  that  the  Jews  should  continue  to  carry  on  their 
business  under  the  royal  protection  as  they  had  hitherto 
done.  And  Edward's  personal  character  and  political  ideals 
w^ere  such  as  to  make  him  execute  with  vigour  the  policy 


'  Annales  Monagtici,  II.  101,  363,  371,  III.  230,  IV.  141,  142,  145. 
449,  450  ;  Liber  de  Antiquis  Lcgilus  (Camden  Society),  02 ;  Clironieic  of 
Pierre  de  Langtoft  (R.  S.),  II..  151  ;  Clironicle  of  William  de  RisJuDifjer 
(Camden  Society),  24.  25,  126;  Florodil  Wir/ornieiix/.s  Chronicon  ex 
Chroniris  (English  Historical  Society),  II.  102. 
Tout,  AWwY/rrf /..  13,  39, 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jens  from  Knglaiid  in  1290.       25 

towards  the  Jews  that  was  forced  on  him  by  his  rehitions 
with  the  lower  baronage.  He  was  a  religious  prince,  one 
who  could  not  but  feel  qualms  of  conscience  at  seeing 
the  "  enemies  of  Christ  "  carrying  on  the  most  xinchristian 
trade  of  usury  in  the  chief  towns  of  England.  He  was 
a  statesman,  the  future  author  of  the  Statutes  of  Mort- 
main and  Qui((  Eniptores,  and  he  wished  to  see  the  work  of 
the  nation  performed  by  the  united  action  of  the  nation, 
and  its  expenses  met  by  due  contributions  from  all  the 
National  resources.  But  in  so  far  as  the  Jews  had  any 
hold  on  English  land  they  prevented  the  realisation  of  this 
ideal.  Sometimes  they  took  possession  of  laud  that  was 
pledged  to  them,  and  then  the  amount  of  the  feudal  re- 
venue and  the  symmetry  of  the  feudal  organisation  suffered, 
though  the  King  might  gain  a  great  deal  in  other  ways  ;• 
very  often  they  secured  payment  in  money  of  their  debts 
by  bringing  about  an  agreement  for  the  transfer  to  a 
monastery  of  the  estates  that  had  been  pledged  to  them  as 
security,^  and  then  the  land  came  under  the  "dead  han<l  "; 
sometimes  they  contented  tliemselves  with  a  perpetual 
rent-charge,^  and  then  it  would  be  hard,  if  not  impossible, 
for  the  struggling  debtor  to  discharge  his  feudal  obliga- 
tions."* 

The  indebtedness  of  the  Church  must  have  shocked 
Edward's  sympathies  as  a  Christian,  just  as  much  as  the 
indebtedness  of  the  lay  landholders  thwarted  his  schemes 


'  Palgrave,  Rotidi  Ciirice  Rrgis  (Record  Commission),  II.,  62  (Judaci 
habeant  ssisinam)  ;  Gcsta  ahbatum  Mnnasterii  S.  Albani  (R.  S.),  I.,  401  ; 
Placitnrum  Abbrcviatio  (Record  Commission),  p,  58  ;  Jacobs,  pp.  90,  234. 

2  Chronicles  of  the  Abbey  of  MeUa  (Rolls  Series),  I,.  173,  174,  306,  367, 
374,  377  ;  II.,  55,  109,  110  ;  Archeeologlral  Journal,  vol.  38,  pp.  189,  190, 
191,192, 

'  Blunt,  Establishment  and  Residence  of  the  Jews  in  England,  I'M)  ; 
Prynne,  Second  Part  of  a  Short  Demurrer,  p.  105. 

■•  A  very  long  list  of  landowners  indebted  to  the  Jews  could  be  ex- 
tracted from  Madox,  History  of  Erchrqurr,  Vol.  I.,  p.  227,  sq.  Cf.  Prynne, 
Second  Part,  etc.,  pp.  96,  98,  106  ;  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  from  1281 
to  1292,  p.  25. 


26         The  Expuhion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

as  a  statesman.  ¥ov  the  condition  of  ecclesiastical  estates 
was  indeed  deplorable.  They  had  begun  to  fall  into  debt 
in  tlic  twelfth  century,  no  doubt  in  consequence  of  the 
expense  that  was  necessary  for  the  erection  of  great  build- 
ings, and  their  debts  had  gone  on  growing,  partly  in  conse- 
quence of  bad  management,  partly  through  the  necessity  of 
fulfilling  the  duties  of  hospitality  by  keeping  open  house 
continually,  partly  through  the  exactions  of  the  Pope  and 
the  King.  The  Bi.shop  of  Lincoln  pledged  the  plate  of  his 
cathedral,  the  Abbot  of  Peterborough  the  bones  of  the 
patron-saint  of  his  Abbey ;  at  Bury  St.  Edmunds  each 
obedientiary  had  his  own  seal,  which  he  could  apply  to  bonds 
which  involved  the  whole  house ;  and  loans  were  freely 
contracted  which  accumulated  at  50  per  cent.^  Hence  in 
the  thirteenth  century  Matthew  Paris  wrote  that  "there 
was  scarcely  anyone  in  England,  especially  a  bishop,  who 
was  not  caught  in  the  meshes  of  the  usurers."  ^  "  Wise 
men  knew  that  the  land  was  corrupted  by  them."  ^  The 
literary  documents  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century  fully 
confirm  these  accounts.  The  See  of  Canterbury  was 
weighed  down  with  an  ev^er-growing  load  of  debt  when 
John  of  I'eckham  first  went  to  it.*  The  buildinofs  of 
the  cathedral  were  becoming  dilapidated  for  want  of 
money  to  repair  them.^  Those  of  the  neighbouring  Priory 
of  Christ  Church  were  in  an  equally  bad  state,  and  its 
revenue  was  equally  encumbered.^  The  bishop  of  Norwich 
was  so  poor  that  in  spite  of  the  extortions  regularly 
practised  by  his  officials,  he  had  to  borrow  six  hundred 
marks  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.^  The  Bishop 
of  Hereford  had  been  compelled  to  seek  the  intervention 
of  Henry  III.,  in  order  to  obtain  respite  of  his  debts  to 

•  Gesta  Henrici  II.  (R.  S.),  I.,  106  ;   Giraldi  Cambrensis  Opera  (R.  S.), 
VII.,  36  ;   Cronica  Jocdini  de  Braluio'ula  (Camden  Soc),  p.  2. 

III.,  328.  3  V.  189. 

Lctten  of  John  of  Peckham  (Rolls  Series),  I,,  20,  156, 

*  Ibid.,  I.,  203.  «  Ibid.,  I.,  341. 
'   Ibid.,  I.,  177,  187. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeus  from  Eiujland  in  1290.       27 

the  Jews.^  The  Abbey  of  Glastonbury  was  wciglied  down 
by  "  immeasurable  debts,"  and,  in  order  to  save  it  from 
further  calamities,  the  Archbishop  had  to  order  a  reorgani- 
sation of  expenditure  so  thorough  as  to  include  regulations 
concerning  the  number  of  dishes  with  which  the  abbot 
might  be  served  in  his  private  room."  The  Prior  of  Lewes 
asked  permission  to  turn  one  of  his  churches  from  its  right 
use,  and  to  let  it  for  five  years  to  any  one  who  would  hire 
it,  in  order  that  he  might  thus  get  together  sonic  money  to 
help  to  pa}'  ott'  what  the  priory  owed.'  The  Church  of 
Newneton  could  not  afford  clergymen.*  Even  the  great 
Monastery  of  St.  Swithin's,  Winchester,  in  spite  of  the 
revenue  that  its  monks  drew  from  the  sale  of  wine  and  fur 
and  spiceries,  an<l  from  the  tolls  paid  by  the  traders  who 
attended  its  great  annual  fair,  was  always  in  debt,  some- 
times to  the  amount  of  several  thousand  pounds.*  Except 
in  the  cutting  down  of  timber  and  the  granting  of  life 
annuities  in  return  for  the  payment  of  a  Imnp  sum,  the 
religious  houses  had  no  resources  except  the  money-lenders.® 
They  borrowed  from  English  usurers,  from  Italians,  from 
Jews,  and  from  one  another.^ 

If  the  lay  and  ecclesiastical  estates  of  England  were  to 
be  freed  from  their  burdens,  heroic  measures  were  neces- 
sary. The  barons  had  done  their  part  in  the  work  by 
carrying  off  or  destroying  such  bonds  as  they  could  find. 
But  the  financial  revolution,  to  be  eff'ective,  must  be  carried 
out  by  due  process  of  law. 

When,  on  the  restoration  of  tranquillity,  the  Council 
under  Edward's  influence  began  its  attempt  to  redress  the 
grievances  against  which  the  barons  had  been  fighting,  the 

1  Roberts,  Excerpta  e  Rot.  Finium  (^Record  Commission),  II.,  68. 

2  Letters  of  John  of  Peckham,  I.,  2G1.  ^  Ibid.,  I.,  380. 
*  Hid.,  I.,  194. 

'  Obedientiary  Rolls  of  S.  Swithin's,  Winchester  (Hampshire  Record 
Society),  1892,  pp.  10,  18. 

6  Letters  of  John  of  Peckham,  I.,  244 ;  Kitchin,  Winchester,  55 ; 
Obedientiary  Rolls  of  S.  Swithin-s,  pp.22,  25. 

1  Cf.  Letters  of  John  of  Peckham,  I.,  542. 


2S         The  E.vpnlsion  of  the  Jews  from  I!>n/land  in  1290. 

first  measure  in  the  programme  of  reform  was  one  for  the 
relief  of  tlie  debtors  of  the  Jews.  Any  interference  with 
Jewish  business  would,  of  course,  entail  a  loss  to  the  Royal 
Exchequer,  and,  honest  and  patriotic  as  Edward  was,  his 
poverty  was  so  great  that  he  could  not  afford  to  sacrifice 
any  of  his  resources.  But  the  exhausting  demands  that 
the  King  had  made  on  the  Jews  in  the  time  of  his  difficul- 
ties, and  the  terrible  destruction  of  their  property  that  had 
taken  place  during  the  war,  must  have  so  far  diminished 
the  revenue  to  be  derived  from  the  Jews  as  to  make  the 
possible  loss  of  it  a  far  less  serious  consideration  than  it 
would  have  been  twenty  years  earlier.  Accordingly,  at  the 
feast  of  St.  Hilary  in  1269,  a  measure,  drawn  up  by  Walter 
of  Merton,  was  passed,  forbidding  for  the  future  the  aliena- 
tion of  land  to  Jews  in  consequence  of  loan  transactions 
All  existing  bonds  by  which  land  might  pass  into  the  hands 
of  Jews  were  declared  cancelled ;  the  attempt  to  evade  the 
law  by  selling  them  to  Christians  was  made  punishable 
with  death  and  forfeiture  ;  and  none  to  such  effect  was  to 
be  executed  in  future.^ 

But  this  was  only  a  slight  measure  compared  with  what 
was  to  follow.  The  Jews  might  still  acquire  land  by  pur- 
chase, and  needy  lords  and  churches,  when  forbidden  to 
pledge  their  lands,  were  very  likelj'',  under  the  pressure  of 
necessit}'",  to  sell  them  outright.  Already  the  Jews  were 
"  seised "  of  many  estates,^  and,  according  to  the  story 
of  an  ancient  historian,^  they  chose  this  moment  to 
ask  the  King  to  grant  them  the  enjoyment  of  the  privi- 
leges that  regularly  accompanied  the  possession  of  land, 
viz.,  the  guardianship  of  minors  on  their  estates,  the  right 
to  fjive  wards  in  marriage,  and  the  presentation  to  livinirs. 
Feudal  law  recognised  the  two  former  privileges,  and  the 

'  Tovey,  Anglia  Judaica,  175-7. 

*  Gesta  Abbatum  Mimastcrii  S.  Albani  (Rolls   Series),  I.  401  ;    Placi- 
torum  Abbreviatio  (Record  Commission),  p.  58,  col.  2. 
'  Be  Antiquit  Lfgibuit  Lihcr  (Camden  Society),  234  xq. 


The  Expulsion  of  t lie  Jews  from  KnfjUnid  in  1"200.        29 

Church  recognised  the  latter,^  as  incidental  to  the  possession 
of  real  property.  It  was  straiio-e,  however,  that  the  Jews 
should  present  a  demand  for  new  social  privileo^es  of  this 
kind  to  a  council  that  had  already  shown  its  determination 
to  deprive  them  of  their  old  le^al  rights ;  and  it  was  only 
natural  that  the  churchmen  should  take  the  opportunity 
of  denouncing  their  "  impious  insolence."  Certain  of  the 
councillors  were  at  first  in  favour  of  granting  the  Jews' 
request ;  but  a  Franciscan  friar,  who  obtained  admittance 
to  the  Council,  pleaded  that  it  would  be  a  disgrace  to 
Christianity,  and  a  dishonour  to  God.  The  Archbishop  of 
York,  and  the  Bishops  of  Lichfield,  Coventry,  and  Worcester 
were  present,  and  argued  that  the  "  perfidious  Jews  "  ouglit 
to  be  made  to  recognise  that  it  was  as  an  act  of  the  King's 
grace  that  they  were  allowed  to  remain  in  England,  and 
that  it  was  outrageous  that  they  should  make  a  demand, 
the  granting  of  wliich  would  allow  them  to  nominate  the 
ministers  of  Christian  churches,  to  receive  the  homage  of 
Christians,  to  sit  side  by  side  with  them  on  juries,  assizes 
and  recognitions,  and  perhaps  ultimately  to  come  into 
possession  of  English  baronies.  Edward  and  his  ec^ually 
religious  cousin,  the  son  of  Richard,  King  of  the  Romans, 
were  present  at  the  council  to  support  the  argument  of  the 
Bishops,^  and  not  only  were  the  original  requests  refused, 
but  tlie  Jews  were  now  forbidden  by  the  act  of  the  King 
and  his  Council  to  enjoy  a  freehold  in  "  manors,  lands, 
tenements,  fiefs,  rents,  or  tenures  of  any  kind,"  whether 
held  by  bond,  gift,  enfeoffment,  confirmation,  or  any  other 
grant,  or  by  any  other  means  whatever.  They  were  for- 
bidden to  receive  any  longer  the  rent  -  charges  which 
had  been  a  common  form  of  security  for  their  loans. 
Lands  of  which  they  were  already  possessed  were  to 
be  redeemed  by  the  Christian  owners,  or  in  default  of 
them,  by  other  Christians,  on  repayment  without  interest 

'  Hefele,  Concilienyescliichte.  V.,  1028. 
2  Annales  Mnnastiri  (R.S.).  IV.,  221. 


30         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

of  the  principal  of  the  loan  in  consequence  of  which  they 
had  come  into  the  hands  of  the  Jews.  In  the  interest 
of  parochial  revenues,  Jews  were  forbidden  to  acquire 
houses  in  London  in  addition  to  those  which  they  already 
possessed.^ 


VI. — The  Prohibition   of  Usury. 

Very  soon  after  the  passing  of  the  Statute  of  1270, 
Edward  left  England  to  join  the  second  Crusade  of  St. 
Louis,  and  did  not  return  till  1274,  two  years  after  he 
had  been  proclaimed  king.  At  once  he  took  up  with 
characteristic  vigour,  and  with  the  help  and  advice  of  a 
band  of  statesmen  and  lawyers,  the  work  of  administrative 
reform  that  he  had  already  begun  as  heir-apparent.  He 
recognised  that  the  state  of  affairs  established  in  1270 
could  not  endure,  since,  under  it,  the  Jews,  while  practi- 
cally prevented  from  lending  money  at  interest,  now  that 
the  law  forbade  them  to  take  in  pledge  real  property,  the 
only  possible  security  for  large  loans,  were  nevertheless 
still  nothing  but  usurers,  allowed  by  ancient  custom  and 
royal  recognition  to  carry  on  that  one  pursuit  as  best  they 
could,  and  prevented  by  the  same  forces  from  carrying  on 
any  other.  Edward,  with  his  usual  love  for  "  the  defini- 
tion of  duties  and  the  spheres  of  duty,"  -  felt  that  it  was 
necessary  to  define  for  the  Jews  a  new  position,  which 
should  not,  as  did  their  present  position,  condemn  them 
to  hopeless  struggles,  nor  demand  from  him  acquiescence 
in  what  he  believed  to  be  a  sin. 

For  the  Church  had  never  ceased  to  maintain  the 
doctrine  of  the  sinfulness  of  usury  which  Ambrose  and 
Clement,  Jerome  and  Tertullian,  had  taught  in  strict 
conformity  with  the  communistic  ideas  of  primitive 
Christianity.     It    is    true  that   till    the    eleventh  century 

'  Blunt,  Establishment  inid  Ilisidence,  etc.,  134-9. 
-  StuVjbs,  Constitutional  Ilixtory,  II.,  116. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       ^l 

usury  and  speculative  trading  generally  had  not  been 
active  enough  to  call  for  repression,  nor  would  the  Church 
have  been  strong  enough  to  enforce  on  the  Christian  worM 
the  observance  of  its  doctrine.  It  could  not  follow  up 
the  attempt  made  by  the  Capitularies  of  Charles  the  Great 
to  prevent  laymen  from  practising  usury,  and  it  had  to 
rest  content  with  enforcing  the  prohibition  on  clerics.^ 
But  the  growth  under  Hildebraud  of  the  power  of  the 
Church  over  every-day  life,  and  the  elevation  of  the  moral 
tone  of  its  teaching  that  resulted  from  its  struggles  with 
the  temporal  power,  enabled  it  to  adopt  with  increasing 
effect  measures  of  greater  severity.  Hildebrand,  in  1083, 
decreed  that  usurers  should,  like  perjurers,  thieves,  and 
wife-deserters,  be  punished  with  excommunication  ;^  and 
the  Lateran  General  Council  of  1139.  when  exhorted  by 
Innocent  II.  to  shrink  from  no  legislation  as  demanding 
too  high  and  rigorous  a  morality,  decreed  that  usurers 
were  to  be  excluded  from  the  consolations  of  the  Church, 
to  be  infamous  all  their  lives  long,  and  to  be  deprived  of 
Christian  burial.*  The  religious  feeling  aroused  l»y  the 
Crusades  still  further  strengthened  the  hold  on  the 
Christian  world  of  characteristically  Christian  theory, 
while  the  prospect  of  the  economic  results  that  they 
threatened  to  bring  about  in  Europe,  awoke  the  Church 
to  the  advisability  of  putting  forth  all  its  power  to 
protect  the  estates  of  Crusaders  against  the  money-lenders. 
Many  Popes  of  the  twelfth  century  ordained,  and  St. 
Bernard  approved  of  the  ordinance  "*  that  those  who  took 
up  the  Cross  should  be  freed  from  all  engagements  to 
pay  usury  into  which  they  might  have  entered.  Innocent 
III.  absolved  Crusaders  even  from  obligations  of  the  kind 
that  they  had  incurred  under  oath,  and  subsequently 
ordered    that   Jews    should    be    forced,  under    penalty  of 


'  Ashley,  Economic  History  and  Theory,  I.,  126-32,  148-50. 

-  Hefele,  Coneiliengexehichte,  V.,  175. 

'  Ibid.,  438-441.  ■•  Jacobs,  The  Jeics  of  Angevin  England.  23. 


'\'2        Tli'^  Expulsion  of  (lie  Jem  from  England  in  1290. 

exflusion  from  th'»  society  of  Christians,  to  return  to 
their  crusading  dehtjrs  any  interest  that  they  had  already 
received  from  them.' 

Stronger  even  than  the  intiuunce  of  the  Crusades  was 
that  of  the  Mendicant  Orders.  The  Dominicans,  who 
preached,  and  tlie  Franciscans,  who  "  taught  and  wrought " 
amonLTall  chisses  of  people  throughout  Europe,  carried  with 
them,  as  tlieir  most  cherished  lesson,  the  doctrine  of  poverty. 
It  was  by  the  teaching  of  this  doctrine,  and  by  the  practice 
of  the  simple  unworldly  life  of  the  primitive  Church,  that 
the  founders  of  the  two  orders  had  been  able  to  give  new 
strength  to  the  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  And  their  teaching,  if  not  their  practice,  made 
its  way  from  the  Casiuncula  to  the  Vatican.  Cardinal 
Ugolino,  the  dear  friend  of  S.  Francis,  became  Gregory 
IX.  ;  Petrus  de  Tarentagio,  of  the  order  of  the  Dominicans, 
became  Innocent  IV. ;  and  Girolamo  di  Ascoli,  the  "  sun  " 
of  the  Franciscans,  was  soon  to  become  Nicholas  IV. 
Moreover,  the  work  of  formulating  and  publishing  to  the 
world  the  official  doctrines  of  the  Church  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Mendicants.  A  Dominican,  Raymundus  de 
Penaforte,  was  entrusted  by  Gregory  IX.  with  the 
preparation  of  the  Decretals,  which  formed  the  chief 
part  of  the  canon  law  of  the  Chui-ch.*  And  friars  of 
both  orders  codified  with  indefatigable  labour  the  moral 
law  of  Christianity,  and  set  it  forth  in  hand-books,  or 
Summce,  which  were  universally  accepted  as  guides  for 
the  confessional,  and  which  all  ao-reed  in  condemninjr 
iisury.^  Hence,  the  doctrine  of  its  sinfulness  was  taught 
throughout  Christian  Europe,  b}'  priests  and  monks,  by 
Dominican  preachers  and  Franciscan  confessors,  who  could 
enforce  their  lesson  by  the  use  of  their  power  of  granting 

•  Corpus  Juris  Canovici  (Leipzig,  1{<39),  II..  786. 

'  Raumer,  Geschiehte  der  Ilohcnstavfen  uiul  Ihrcr  Zcit.  III.,  o81. 

•  Endi-mann.  Stud'un  in  der  Roviajiisch-Kanotiistischen  Wirt hsch aft s- 
und  Ucrhtslrhrr,I.,\G-l8.  Stintzingr,  Gischlchti-  der  Populdri-n  Litcratur 
drt  Itiiinisrh-f'anonisrhrn  lirchts. 


The  Expuhion  of  the  Jens  from  England  in  TiDO.        33 

or  refusing  absolution.  How  strong  and  violent  a  public 
opinion  was  thus  created  is  best  shown  in  the  lines  in 
which  Dante,  the  contemporary  of  Edward  I.,  tolls  with 
what  companions  he  thought  it  fit  that  the  Caursine 
usurers  should  dwell  in  hell.^ 

There  was  every  reason  why  the  hatred  of  usury  should 
be  as  strong  in  England  as  anywhere.  The  Franciscan 
movement  had  spread  throughout  the  country,  and  had 
found  among  Englishmen  many  of  its  chief  literary 
champions.^  And  the  Englishman's  pious  dislike  of 
usury  had  been  strengthened  by  many  years  of  bitter 
experience.  Italian  usurers  had  in  the  previous  reign 
gone  up  and  down  the  country  collecting  money  on  behalf 
of  the  Pope,  and  lending  money  on  their  own  account  at 
exorbitant  rates  of  interest.^  From  some  of  the  magnates 
they  obtained  protection  (for  which  they  are  said  to  nave 
paid  with  a  share  of  their  profits),'  but  to  the  great  hoi\y 
of  the  Baronage,  to  the  Church,  and  to  the  ti^ading  classes 
their  very  name  had  become  hateful.  One  of  them,  the 
brother  of  the  Pope's  Legate,  had  been  killed  at  Oxford.* 
In  London  Bishop  Roger  had  solemnly  excommunicated 
them  all,  and  excluded  them  fi'om  his  diocese.^ 

No  English  king  who  wished  to  follow  the  teachings  of 
Christianity  could  willingly  countenance  any  of  his  sub- 
jects in  carrying  on  a  traffic  which  was  thus  hated  by  the 
people  and  condemned  by  all  the  doctors  of  Christendom 
Even  Henry  III.  was  once  so  far  movcil  by  indignation  and 
religious  feeling  as  to  expel  the  Caursines  from  his  king- 
dom/ and  had  religious  scruples  about  the  retention  of 
the  Jews.^     But,  as  has  been  shown,  he  could  not  do  with- 

'  E  pero  lo  minor  giron  suggella, 
Del  segno  suo  e  Sodoma  e  Caorsa. 

Inferno,  XI.  49,  50. 
'  Monvmrnta  Franciscana  (Rolls  Series),  XLV.,  L.,  10,  38-9,  61. 
'  Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  I.,  399-400. 

*  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  V.,  24.5.  *  Ibid.,  III., -48. 
«  TS/r/.,  III.,  .3.32-3.                                             '  Ibid.,lY.,>i. 

*  M.  Paris,  Hixtoria  Amjlorum,  III.,  104. 

C 


3-i  Tin'  F.xpulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

out  the  Jewish  icvciiiio.  Edward  was  not  only  free  from 
dependence  on  that  source  of  income,  Imt  he  w^as  also  a  far 
more  rclii^ious  kini,'  than  his  father.  He  was  a  man  to 
ohey  the  heliests  of  the  Church,  instead  of  setting  them  at 
nauLiht  with  an  easy  conscience,  as  his  father  had  done. 
In  tlie  second  year  of  liis  reign  the  Church,  by  a  decree 
passed  at  tlie  Council  of  Lyons,  demanded  from  the  Chris- 
tian world  fiir  greater  ettbrts  against  usury  than  ever 
K'fore.*  Till  this  time,  though  Popes  and  Councils  had 
deelaretl  the  practice  accursed,  churclies  and  monasteries 
hai  Ii.'kI  usurers  as  tenants  on  their  estates,  or  had  eveu 
possessed  whole  ghettos  as  their  property.'^  Now  this  was 
to  be  en<led,  ami  it  was  ordained  by  Gregory  X.  that  no 
community,  corporation,  or  individual  should  permit 
foreign  usurers  to  hire  their  houses,  or  indeed  to  dwell 
at  all  upon  their  lands,  but  should  expel  them  within 
three  months.  Edward,  in  obedience  to  this  decree,  ordered 
an  inquisition  to  be  made  into  the  usury  of  the  Florentine 
bankers  in  his  kingdom  with  a  view  to  its  suppression, 
and  allowed  proceedings  to  be  taken  at  the  same  time 
and  with  the  same  object  against  a  citizen  of  London.' 
And  the  events  of  the  last  reign  enabled  him  to  pro- 
ceed to  what  at  first  seems  the  far  more  serious  task  of 
bringing  to  an  end  the  trade  that  the  Jews  had  carried 
on  under  the  patronage,  and  for  the  benefit,  of  the  Royal 
Exchequer. 

For  the  Jews  could    no  longer  support  the   Crown  in 

y       times  of  financial  difficulty  as  they  had  been  able  to  do  in 

pluvious  reigns.     The  contraction  of    their  business   that 


'  Ashley,  Economic  History  and  Theory,  I.  150  ;  Labbeus,  Sacrosa7icta 
Concilia,  xi.  991,  2. 

'  Depping,  Leg  Juifs  danx  le  Moyen  Age,  202,  207  ;  Muratori,  Antiqui- 
tiitiA  Italicw  Medii  Aevi,  I.  899,  900  ;  Ninth  Itejjort  of  the  Historical 
M'liiusrripts  Commission,  p.  14  (No.  2G4). 

'  F>rty.fourth  Rrjiort  of  Di jnity-Keepcr  of  Public  Records,  pp.  8,  9,  72  ; 
Thr  Quest  inn  whether  n  Jiw,  etc.,  by  a  Gentleman  of  Lincoln's  Inn 
(London.  17.=j.S),  Appendix,  §  18.  . 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jens  from  England  in  1290.       35 

was  the  result  of  their  exclusion  from  many  towns,  and 
the  losses  that  they  had  suffered  tliroui^h  the  extortions  of 
Henry  III.  and  the  plundering  attacks  of  the  Ijarons,  had 
very  greatly  diminished  their  revenue-paying  capacities, 
and  the  legislation  of  1270  must  have  atiected  them  still 
more  deeply.  At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  they  had 
probably  paid  to  the  Treasury  about  £3,000  a  year,  or 
one-tweltth  of  the  whole  royal  income/  and  for  some  parts 
of  the  thirteenth  century  the  average  collection  of  tallage 
has  been  estimated  at  £5,000  ;^  but  in  1271 — by  which 
time  the  royal  income  had  probably  grown  to  something 
like  the  £G5,000  a  year  which  the  Edwards  are  said  to 
have  enjoyed  in  time  of  peace^ — Henry  III.,  when  pledging 
to  Richard  of  Cornwall  the  revenue  from  the  Jewry, 
estimated  its  annual  value,  apart  from  what  was  yielded 
by  escheats  and  other  special  claims,  at  no  more  than 
2,000  marks.^  And  while  the  resources  of  the  Jews  had 
fallen  off,  the  needs  of  the  Crown  had  increased.  Not 
only  must  Edward  have  conducted  his  foreign  enterprises 
at  a  much  greater  cost  than  did  his  predecessors,  under 
whom  the  English  knighthood  had  been  accustomed  to 
serve  without  serious  opposition,  but,  in  addition,  he  had 
to  make  the  best  of  a  vast  heritage  of  debt  that  his  father 
had  left  him.'^  He  had  to  seek  richer  supporters  than  the 
Jews,  and  such  were  not  wanting. 

The  Italian  banking  companies  were  tlie  only  organisa- 
tions in  Europe  that  could  supply  him  with  such  sums  of 
money  as  he  needed.  From  all  the  greatest  cities  of  Italy — 
from  Florence,  Rome,  Milan,  Pisa,  Lucca,  Siena,  and  Asti 
— they  had  spread  to  many  of  the  chief  countries  of  Europe, 

'  Jacobs.  328.  *  Papers  Anglo-Jewish  Hist.  Exhibit. 07i,  195. 

^  Stubbs'  Ciiiistitutional  History,  II.  601. 

<  Rymer,  Fonlera,  I.  489.  Cf.  Jewish  Chronicle  for  April  2(),  1895,  p.  19, 
col.  2. 

*  Chronicles  Ed.  I.  and  II.  (ed.  Stubbs),  Vol.  I.,  p.  c.  Cf.  Forty-second 
Report  of  Deputy-Keeper  of  Pahlic  Records,  p.  479  (At  the  beginning  of 
his  reign  Edward  says,  in  his  writs  to  the  sheriffs,  "  Pecuniae  plurimam 
indigemus  ").     Forty-third  Report,  419. 

c  2 


36         Tin'  E.rpulsioH  of  the  Joes  from  Enyhmd  in  1290, 

to  France,  Kii<;laii(l,  Brabaiit,  .Svvitzerland,  and  Ireland.^ 
They  were  merchants,  money-lenders,  money-changers,  and 
international  Itankers,  and  in  this  last  occupation  their 
supremacy  over  all  rivals  was  secured  by  the  great  advan- 
tage which  the  wide  extent  of  their  dealings  enabled  them 
to  enjoy,  of  being  able  to  save,  by  the  use  of  letters  of 
.  credit  on  their  colleagues  and  countrymen,  the  cost  of  the 
transport  of  money  from  country  to  country.^  They  were 
thus  the  greatest  financial  ag.mts  of  the  time.  They  trans- 
acted the  business  of  the  Pope.  At  the  Court  of  Rome 
ambassadors  had  to  borrow  from  them."*  In  France  their 
position  was  established  by  a  regular  diplomatic  agreement 
between  tlie  head  of  their  corporation  and  Philip  III.'' 
In  England  they  had  in  their  hands  the  greater  part  of  the 
trade  in  corn  and  wool  ;''^  and  the  protection  and  favour  of 
English  kings  was  often  besought  by  the  Popes  on  their 
behalf  in  special  bulls." 

Edward  began  his  reign  in  financial  dependence  on  the 
Italians.  His  lather  had  in  the  earliest  period  of  his  per- 
sonal government  incurred  obligations  to  them  which  he- 
himself,  as  heir  apparent,  had  to  increase  considerably 
at  the  time  of  his  Crusade.^  When  in  later  years  he 
needed  money  to  pay  his  army,  he  borrowed  it  from  them ; 
when  he  diverted  to  his  own  use  the  tenth  that  was  voted 
for  his  intended  second  Crusade,  they  gave  security  for 
repayment.**  So  great  were  the  amounts  that  they  ad- 
vanced to  him,  that  between  1298  and  1308  the  Friscobaldi 

'  Muratori,  Antiquitatcs  ItaliccB  Medii  Aeri  (Dissertatio  XVI)  ;  Dep- 
pirig,  Lea  Jnifis  dans  le  Mityen  Age,  213-6  ;  Rymer,  Foedera,  I.,  6i4. 

'  JIacpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  I.  405,  6  ;  and  see  Peruzzi,  Storia 
del  Commerclo  edei  Banchieri  di  Firenze,  170. 

3  Perazzi,  169  ;   Archarologia,  xxviii.  218,  219. 

*  Muratori,  Antiqnitates  Itallcae  Medii  Aevi,  I.  889. 

*  Archaeologia,  xxviii.  221  ;  Cunninpham,  Growth  of  English  Industry 
and  Commerce,  Early  and  Middle  Ages,  .Appendix  D  ;  Peruzzi,  Storia  dec 
Couimcrciu,  70. 

•  Rjmer,  Foedera,  I.  6C0,  S2.3,  905. 

•  Arr/uirologiu,  xxviii.  2(il-272.  »  Rymer.  Foedera,  I.  (144  ,  788. 


The  Expuhion  of  the  Jetcs  from  England  in  1290.       37 

Bianchi  alone,  one  of  the  thirty-four  companies  thpt 
he  einployeil,^  received  in  repayment  nearly  £100,000.' 
He  was  compelled  to  favour  them,  although  he  attempted 
to  stop  their  usury.  He  gave  them  a  charter  of  privi- 
leges.^ He  presented  them  with  large  .sums  of  money. 
He  bestowed  on  the  head  of  one  of  their  lirms  high  office 
in  Gascony.  At  various  times  he  placed  under  their  charge 
the  collection  of  the  Customs  in  many  of  the  chief  ports  in 
England.'* 

Edward's  close  connection  with  a  bod}^  of  financiers  so 
rich  and  powerful  made  the  Jews  urniocessary  to  him.  If 
he  was  not  to  disobey  the  decree  of  the  Council  of  Lyons 
he  must  either  withdraw  his  protection  from  them  or  else 
forbid  them  any  longer  to  be  usurers.  To  withdraw  his 
protection  from  them  would  be  to  expose  them  to  the 
popular  hatred,  the  danger  from  which  had  been  the  justi- 
fication of  the  relations  that  had  been  established  between 
Crown  and  Jewry  after  1190,  and  still  existed.  He  chose 
the  second  alternative.  In  1275  he  issued  a  statute,  in 
which  he  absolutely  forbade  the  Jews,  as  he  had  just  for- 
bidden Christians,'  to  practise  usury  in  the  future.  He 
gave  warning  that  usurious  contracts  would  no  longer  be 
enforced  by  the  king's  officers,  and  he  declared  the  making 
of  them  to  be  an  offence  for  which  henceforth  both  parties 
were  liable  to  punishment.  To  ensure  that  all  those 
contracts  already  existing  should  come  to  an  end  as  quickly 
as  po.ssible,  he  ordered  that  all  movables  that  were  in 
pledge  on  account  of  loans  \vere  to  be  redeemed  before  the 
coming  Easter.^ 

VII. — Edward's  Policy:   The  Jews  and  Trade. 

Thus  the  Jews,  already  shut  out  from  the  feudal  and 
municipal  organisation  of  the  countrj^  were  forbidden  by 

'  Peruzzi,  174.  '  Archaeologia,  xxviii.  244-5. 

»  Ihid,  231,  Note  1.  ^  Peruzzi,  172-.=5. 

*  The  Question  whether  a  Jew,  etc.     Appendix,  §18.     Prynne,  ^  Shu)  t 
Dnnurrer,  58.  *    Blunt,  Kttahlishment  and  lienidcnre,  etc.,  13'J-14  1. 


3!S         T'ltc  Expulsion  of  the  JeicsJ)om  England  in  1290. 

one  ftct  of  loG^isliition  to  follow  the  pursuit  in  which  the 
kings  of  England  had  encoumgod  them  for  two  hundred 
years. 

However,  for  the  hardships  imposed  by  the  Christian 
Church  there  was  an  appi-oved  Christian  remedy.  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  greatest  authority  on  morals  in  Europe  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  hail  written:  "'If  rulers  think  they 
harm  their  souls  by  t;iking  uioney  from  usurers,  let  them 
remember  that  they  are  themselves  to  blame.  They  ought 
to  see  tliat  the  Jews  are  eompelleil  to  labour  as  they  do  in 
some  parts  of  Italy."  ^  A  Christian  king,  and  one  whom 
Edward  revered  as  his  old  leader  in  arras  and  as  a  model 
of  piety,  had  already  acted  in  accordance  with  the  teach- 
ing of  Thomas  Aquinas.  In  1253  St.  Louis  sent  from  the 
Holy  Land  an  order  that  all  .Tews  should  leave  France 
for  ever,  except  those  who  should  become  traders  and 
workers  with  their  hands.^  And  now,  when  Edward  was 
forbidding  the  Jews  of  England  to  practise  usury,  he 
naturally  dealt  with  them  in  the  fashion  recommended  by 
the  great  teacher  of  his  time  and  adopted  by  the  saintly  king 
"  The  King  also  grants,"  said  the  Statute  of  1275,  "  that 
the  Jews  may  practise  merchandise,  or  live  by  their  labour, 
and  for  those  purposes  freely  converse  with  Christians. 
Excepting  that,  upon  any  pretence  whatever,  they  shall  not 
be  levant  or  couehant  amongst  them ;  nor  on  account  of 
their  merchandise  be  in  scots,  lots,  or  talliag-e  with  the 
other  inhabitants  of  those  cities  or  boroughs  where  they 
remain ;  seeing  they  are  talliable  to  the  King  as  his  own 
serfs,  and  not  otherwise.  .  .  .  And  further  the  Kino- 
grants,  that  such  as  are  unskilful  in  merchandise,  and 
cannot  labour,  may  take  lands  to  farm,  for  any  term  not 
exceeding  ten  years,  provide  1  no  homage,  fealty,  or  any 
such  kind  of  service,  or  advowson  to  Holy  Cliurch,  be 
belonging  to  them.     Provided  also  that  this  power  to  farm 

'  Thomas    Aquinas.    Opn-ioidum,  XXI.   {Ad  Ducissam   Brahantiae  in 
Vol.  XIX.  of  the  Venice  edition,  177r)-88.) 
»  M.  Paris,  f'hrnniri  M„i,>,,i,  V.  3r,l,  2. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       39 

lands,  shall  continue  in  force  for  ten  years  from  the  raakino- 
of  this  Act,  and  no  longer."  ^ 

The  16,000-  Jews  of  England  were  thus  called  upon 
to  change  at  once  their  old  occupation  for  a  new  one,  and 
the  task  was  imposed  upon  them  under  conditions  which 
made  it  all  but  impossible  of  fulfilment.  Tliey  were 
forbidden  to  become  burgesses  of  towns  ;  and  the  effect  of 
the  prohibition  was  to  make  it  impossible  for  them,  in  most 
parts  of  England,  to  become  traders,  for  it  practically  ex- 
cluded them  from  the  Gild  Merchant.  It  is  true  that  some 
towns  professed  that  their  Gild  was  open  to  all  the 
inhabitants,  whether  burgesses  or  not,  so  long  as  they  took 
the  oath  to  preserve  the  liberties  of  the  town  and  the  king's 
peace.^  But  most  of  the  Gilds  were  exclusive  bodies,  to 
which  all  non-burgesses  would  find  it  hard  to  gain 
admission,*  and  Jewish  non-burgesses,  though  not  as  a 
rule  kept  out  by  a  disqualifying  religious  formula,^  would 
on  account  of  the  unpopularity  of  their  race  and  religion, 
find  it  trebly  hard.*'  As  non-Gilds uien,  they  would  be  at 
a  disadvantage  both  in  buying  goods  and  in  selling  them. 
They  would  find  it  hard  to  buy,  because,  in  some  towns  at 
any  rate,  the  Gildsmen  were  accustomed  to  "  oppress  the 
people  coming  to  the  town  with  vendible  wares,  so  that  no 
man  could  sell  his  wares  to  anyone  except  to  a  member  of 
the  society."^  They  would  find  it  in  all  towns  hard  to  sell, 
in  some  impossible.  In  some  towns  non-Gildsmen  were 
forbidden   to    deal    in   certain    articles   of    common    use, 


*  Blunt,  Establishment  and  Residence,  etc..  lil. 

^  This  is  the  number  of  those  who  left  the  country  in  1290.  Flares 
Historiarum  (Rolls  Series),  iii.  70.  Probably  the  nu-nber  of  t)iose  in  the 
country  in  1275  was  about  the  same. 

3  Gross,  The   Gild  Merchant,  I.  38.  ■•  Ibid.,  I.  39-40. 

*  Ibid.  II.,  68,  133,  2U,  243,  257. 

s  One  Jew  alone  is  known  to  hare  become  a  member  of  a  Gild  durinjjf 
the  residence  of  the  Jews  in  Eujjrland  before  1290.  He  became  a  citizen 
at  the  same  time.  His  election  took  place  in  1268  (Kitchiu's  Wincheder — 
Historic  Towns  Series,  p.  108),    After  1275  it  would  have  been  illegal. 

'  Gross,  The  Gild  Merchant,  I.  41. 


40         The  Erpulsion  of  the  Jcicsfrom  England  in  1290. 

such  as  wool,  liiiles,  ^niin,  iintanned  leather,  and  unfulled 
cloth  ;  in  others,  as  in  Southampton,  they  might  not 
buy  an3-thing  in  the  town  to  sell  again  there,  or  keep 
a  wine  tavern,  or  sell  cloth  by  retail  except  on  market  day 
and  fair  day,  or  keep  more  than  five  quarters  of  corn  in  a 
granary  to  sell  by  retail.  Thi^re  were  even  towns  where 
the  nuniicipjil  statutes  altogether  forbade  non-Gildsmen 
to  keep  shops  or  to  sell  by  retail.^ 

It  was  almost  as  difficult  fc»r  Jews  to  become  agriculturists 
or  artisans,  as  to  become  traders.  They  were  allowed  by 
the  statute  to  farm  land,  but  for  ten  years  only,  and  they 
were  far  too  ignorant  of  agricidture  to  be  able  to  take 
advantage  of  the  permission.  They  could  not  work  on  the 
land  of  others  as  villeins,  because,  even  if  a  Christian  lord 
had  been  willing  to  receive  them,  they  w'ould  have  been 
]n-evented  by  their  religion  from  taking  the  oath  of 
fealty.2 

Only  under  exceptional  conditions  could  they  work  at 
handicrafts.  A  Jew  who  possessed  manual  dexterity  miglit, 
as  was  sometimes  done  in  the  thirteenth  century,  have 
worked  for  himself  at  a  cottage  industry,  and  might,  though 
the  task  would  have  been  a  hard  one,  have  gained  a 
connection  among  Christians,  and  induced  them  to  trust 
him  with  materials.^  But  many  crafts  were  at  the  time 
coming  under  the  regulations  of  craft-gilds.  Certainly  as 
early  as  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  there 
were  in  London  fully-organised  gilds  of  Lorimers, 
Weavers,  Tapicers,  Cap-makers,  Saddlers,  Joiners,  Girdlers, 
and  Cutlers.'*  In  Hereford  there  were  Gilds  for  nearly  thirty 
trades.'"'  It  was  probably  very  often  the  case,  as  it  was  with 
the  Weavers'  Gild  in  London,  that   a  craft-gild  existing 

*  Gross,  The  Gild  Merchant,  I.  45,  46,  47. 

*  Tjihiv   Cmtumarnm  (Rolls  Series),  21.5. 

*  Ochenkowski,  Emjlandx   WlrthKchaftliche  Entwickelung  im  Arixgange 
drs  Mitfclaltcm,  i>\-\' 

*  Lihrr  Custumarum  (Rolls  Series)  80-81,  101-2,  121  ;  Liber  Albus  (Rolls 
Series),  720,  734.     Riley,  Memorials  of  London,  179. 

*  Johnson,  Customs  of  I/rre/ord,  115-6. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       41 

in  any  town  couM  forbid  the  practice  of  the  craft  in  the 
town  to  all  who  had  not  been  elected  to  membership,  or 
earned  it  by  serving  the  apprenticeship  that  the  Gild's 
statute  required.^  The  period  required  by  the  Loriuicrs' 
statute  was  ten  years,  by  the  Weavers',  seven,  and  in  some 
cases  certainly,  and  probably  in  all,  the  apprenticeship  had 
to  be  served  under  a  freeman  of  the  city.^  The  apprentice 
who  had  served  his  time,  was  still,  in  some  towns  and 
industries,  unable  to  practise  his  craft,  unless  he  became  a 
citizen  and  entered  the  frank  pledge.^  It  was  ditHcult  for 
a  Jewish  boy  to  become  an  apprentice,  since  the  Church 
threatened  to  excommunicate  any  Christian  who  received 
into  his  house,  as  an  apprentice  would  naturally  be  received, 
a  Jew  or  Jewess ;  it  was  impossible  for  a  Jewish  man  to 
become  a  citizen,  for  the  king  forbade  his  Jewish  "  serfs  " 
to  be  in  scot  and  lot  with  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  cities 
in  which  they  lived. 

Excluded  from  the  trades  and  handicrafts  of  the  towns, 
the  Jew  might  try  other  means  of  earning  a  livelihood. 
He  might  attempt  to  travel  with  wares  or  with  produce, 
from  one  part  of  England  to  another,  or  he  might  be  an 
importer  or  an  exporter.  But  wholesale  trade  of  this  kind 
would  be  open  to  those  alone  who  had  connnand  of  a  large 
capital.  And  this  was  not  the  only  difficulty  in  the  way. 
If  the  Jew  went  about  the  country  with  his  goods  from 
fair  to  fair,  or  from  city  to  city,  he  would  do  so  at  very 
great  risk.  He  would  have  to  travel  over  the  high  roads, 
the  perils  of  which  made  necessary  the  Statute  of  Win- 
chester, and  are  recounted  in  the  words  of  its  preamble, 
de  jour  en  jour  roberies,  homicides,  arsons,  plus  sovenerement 
sonf  fetes  que  avaunt  ne  soleyent}  If  he  survived  the 
dangers  of   the  road  and  reached  a  fair,  he  would  find 

'  Liher  Custumarum,  ilS-i2o. 

2  Liber  Custumarum,  78,  81,  124.  Riley,  Memorials  of  London,  179, 
216. 

3  Liber  Custuviantni,  79.  Ochenkowski,  02>.  Cit.,  64. 
*  Sitvhhs, Select  Charters,  470. 


42         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jctcsfrom  England  in  1290. 

there  an  a-sseiublago  made  u|)  in  part  of  "  daring  persons," 
such  as  those,  who,  in  spite  of  the  orderly  traders  and 
citizens,  had  caused  the  massacre  at  Lynn  in  1190,^  or 
those  who  at  Boston  killed  the  merchants  and  plundered 
tlu'ir  i;()o. Is,  until  "  the  streets  ran  with  silver  and  gold,"^ 
or  those  citizens  of  Winchester  who,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
III.,  carried  on  for  a  time  a  successful  conspiracy  to  rob  all 
itinerant  merchants  who  passed  through  the  country.^ 
With  his  foreign  face  and  striking  badge,  he  would  be  the 
first  mark  for  the  hatred  of  the  riotous  crowd.  And  if  he 
escaped  violence  and  robbery,  he  had  still  to  fear  the  officials 
of  the  lord  of  the  foir,  who  exercised  for  the  time  unlimited 
and  irresponsible  power,  and  who,  according  to  the  regula- 
tions of  some  fairs,  could  destroy  the  goods  of  any  trader 
if  their  quality  did  not  please  them.^  When  he  had 
managed  to  escape  from  the  mob  and  the  officials,  his 
difficulties  were  not  over.  He  might  make  his  bargains, 
but  there  was  no  court  of  justice  to  which  he  could  appeal 
to  enforce  the  completion  of  any  transaction  that  required 
a  longer  time  than  that  of  the  duration  of  the  fair.  Redress 
for  any  injustice  committed  at  a  fair,  or  for  the  failure  to 
carry  out  an  agreement  made  there,  could  be  obtained  only 
through  application  made  by  the  municipality  of  the  com- 
plainant to  that  of  the  wrong-doer.^  The  Jew  had  no 
municipality  to  present  his  claims.  If  those  with  whom 
he  had  transactions  deceived  him,  or  refused  to  pay  him,  he 
was  helpless.  There  was  no  power  to  which  he  could 
appeal. 

If  instead  of  going  to  a  fair  he  tried  to  sell,  in  a  town, 
produce  from  another  country  or  from  a  different  part  of 
England,  he  was  in  a  position  of  even  greater  difficulty. 


*  Jacobs,  116. 

*  Walsingham,  Tlistoria  Anglicana  (Rolls  Series),  I.  30. 
'  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  v.  56-8. 

*  Ochenkowski,  Englands  wlrthxchaftliche  EatwicUelung ,  157. 

*  Cunningham,  Growth  of  English  Industry  and   Commerce,  Early  and 
Middle  Ages,  17.'). 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeics  from  England  in  1290.       43 

In  a  strange  town  he  was  as  nnicli  an  alien  as  in  a  strange 
country,  and  there  was  scarcely  any  limit  to  the  vexations 
and  isutieiings  that  on  that  account  he  would  have  to  endure. 
In  London,  for  example,  alien  merchants  were  forhiilden  to 
remain  in  the  city  for  more  than  forty  consecutive  days. 
While  they  were  there  they  might  not  sell  anything  by  retail, 
nor  have  any  business  dealings  at  all  with  any  but  citizens. 
There  was  a  long  list  of  articles  that  they  were  altogether 
forbidden  to  buy.  They  might  not  stow  their  goods  in 
houses  or  cellars ;  they  had  to  sell  within  forty  days  all 
that  they  had  brought  with  them ;  they  were  allowed 
neither  to  sell  anything  after  that  time,  nor  to  take 
anything  back  with  them.  They  were  continually  annoyed 
by  the  officers  of  the  city.^  All  these  disadvantages  the 
Jew  would  have  to  endure  to  the  full  while  competing  with 
many  powerful  organisations  which  were  engaged  in  foreign 
trade,  and  had,  after  long  struggles,  secured  from  the  king 
special  charters  of  privilege.  Such  were  the  companies 
of  the  merchants  of  Germany,  who  had  their  steelyard  in 
London  and  their  settlements  at  Boston  and  Lynn ;  the 
Flemings,  who  had  their  Hanse  in  London  ;  the  Gascons 
who  enjoyed  a  charter;  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese;  the 
Florentines,  most  powerful  of  all,  and  the  Venetians, 
whose  enterprise  was,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century  at  any  rate,  carried  on  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Republic."^ 

The  last  opportunity  for  the  Jews  was  to  take  part  in 
the  export  of  English  produce.  English  wool  was  the 
most  important  article  of  international  trade  in  Western 
Europe.  It  was  brought  from  monasteries  and  landholders 
chiefly  by  the  rich  and  powerful  companies  of   Flemish 

'  Liber  Custumarum  (Rolls  Series),  xxxiv.-xlviii.,  61-72  ;  Liber  Alhux, 
3CCV.,  xcvi.,  287  ;   Macpherson,  Annals  of  Commerce,  I.  388-9. 

'  Liber  Custumaruvi  and  Liber  Alhus,  as  referred  to  in  preceding  note  : 
Cunningham,  Growth  of  EngH>ih  Industry  and  Commerce,  Early  and 
Middle  Ages,  181-6  ;  Ochenkowski,  Enylands  loirtlmehaftliche  Enhvicke- 
lung,  180  ;  Calendar  of  State  Papers  (Venetian),  Ix.-lxix.  ;  Peruzzi,  Sloriu 
dri  lianrhirri  e  del  Commcrcio  di  Firenze,  70. 


44         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Enghyid  in  1290. 

and  Itftlinn  inorclinnts,  <an<l  sent  to  Flanders  and  Italy  to  be 
wovLMi  aii<l  dyc'l.'  The  Jews  had,  apparently,  long  taken 
some  sliglit  jwirt  in  wholesale  trado,'^  but  the  amount  of 
caiiit.il  that  it  required,  and  the  power  of  the  rivals  who 
held  the  li.-ld.  made  it  impossible  for  many  of  them  to  take 
to  it  imme(liately  as  a  substitute  for  money-lending. 
Still  it  was  the  only  form  of  enterprise  in  which  they 
would  not  be  at  a  hopeless  disadvantage ;  and  some  Jews, 
those  probably  who  had  a  large  capital  and  were  able  to 
recall  it  from  the  borrowers,  followed  the  example  of  the 
Italians,  and  made  to  landholders  advances  of  money  to  be 
repaid  in  corn  and  wool.^ 

VIII. — The  Temptations  of  the  Jews. 

But  even  for  those  Jews  who  were  rich  enough  to  take 
part  ill  wholesale  trade,  there  was  still  a  great  temptation 
to  transgress  the  prohibition  against  usury.  All  the  legal 
machinery  that  was  necessary  for  the  due  execution  and 
validity  of  agreements  between  Jews  and  Christians — the 
chest  in  which  the  deeds  were  deposited,  and  the  staffs 
of  officers  by  whom  they  were  registered  and  supervised 
— were  still  maintained  in  some  towns,  since  they  were 
necessary  alike  for  the  recovery,  by  the  ordinary  process, 
of  the  old  debts  (many  of  which,  in  spite  of  the  order  for 
summary  repayment  in  the  Statute  of  1275,  still  remained 
outstanding)*  and  for  the  registration  of  any  new  agree- 

'  Cunningham,  Growth,  etc.,  185  ;  Macpherson.  Annals  of  Commerce 
pp.  415,  481  ;   Calendar  of  State  Pajters  QVenetia?)'),  Ixvi.-lxvii. 

^  Jacobs,  66-7  ;    Archaeological  Joiir»al,  xxxviii.  179. 

'  This  was  the  procedure  adopted  by  the  Italians  :  They  paid  down 
a  sum  as  earnest-money,  and  then  took  a  bond  (Peruzzi,  70).  Cf.  Tovey, 
207. 

*  For  pledgres  still  unredeemed,  land  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews 
and  old  debts  still  unpaid  long  after  the  Statutes  of  1270-1275  had  been 
passed,  see  MSS.  in  Public  Kecord  OflEice  (Queen's  Eemembrancer's 
Miscellanea,  557,  13-23);  Rymer,  I.  570;  John  of  Peckham,  I.  937; 
Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls,  1281-1292,  p.  81  ;  Prynne,  Second  Demurrer, 
pp.  74  and  80  (=154). 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       45 

ments  that  might  be  made  for   tlie   delivery  of  corn  ami 
wool,    or   for   the    repayment   of    money    lent    ostensibly 
without  interest.      Thei-e   was  no  lack    of   would-be  bor- 
rowers to  co-operate  with  the  Jews  in  using  this  machinery 
in  order  to  make  agreements    on   which,  in  spite  of  the 
prohibition  of  usury,  money  nnght  protital)ly  be  lent.     The 
demand  for  loans  was  great,  far  too  great  to  be  satisfied, 
as  the  Church  thought  it  reasonable   to  expect,^  by  money 
advanced  without  interest ;    and  owing  to   the   progress  of 
the  change  from  payment  of  rents  in  kind   or  service  to 
payment  in  cash,^  it  was  steadily  growing.     It  had  been 
met  by  the  money  of  the  Italian  bankers,  of  the  Jews,  of 
English  citizens,  and,  as  is  freely  hinted  by  writers  of  the 
time,  of  great  English  barons,  who  secretly  .shared  in  the 
transactions  and  the   profits  of   the  Jewish   and   foreign 
usurers.^     The  supply  had  suddenly  been  checked  by  the 
simultaneous  prohibition  of  all  usury  whether  of  Jews  or  of 
Christians.     Now  a  Jew  who  wished,  by  collusion  with  a 
borrower,  to  evade  the  law  against  usury,  had  only  to  study 
the  methods  that  had  been  followed  by  the  Caursines,  and 
those  that  were  still  followed  by  the  Italians  and  ac([uiesced 
in   by  the  heads  of  the  religious  houses   with   whom  they 
had    dealings.     The    Caursines,    for    example,    sometimes 
avoided   the  appearance   of  usury  by  lending  100   marks 
and   receiving  in  return  a  bond,  acknowledging  a  loan  of 
£100.^      Sometimes  they  lent  money  for  a  definite  period, 
on  an  agreement  that  they  were  to  get  a  "  gift,"  in  return 
for  their  kindness  in  making  the  loan,  and  "compensation  " 
in  case  it  were  not  repaid  in  time.^      Sometimes  by  a  still 
more   elaborate   device,   the   Italians  combined  their  two 

'  Labbeus,  Sacrosancta  Concilia,  XI.  649-.50. 

*  Vinogradoff,  VillciiKKjc  in  England,  179,  307. 

» -M.  Paris,  V.  24.")  ;  Wilkins,  Conr.,  I.  675  ;  De  Antiq.  Lrgihvs,  234  sq. 
(Archbishop  of  York's  remarks  on  the  corruption  of  the  Great  Council  aud 
on  tine  fautores  of  Jews.) 

*  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  V.  404-5. 

*  Muratori,  Antii/uitatcK  Italirre  Midii  Aevi,  I.,  893. 


46         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

professions  of  money-lenders  and  merchants,  by  inducing 
a  monastery  which  had  borrowed  money,  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt,  not  only  of  the  sum  actually  received,  but  also 
of  the  price  of  certain  sacks  of  wool  which  it  bound  itself 
in  I  hie  time  to  supply.^  The  Jews,  no  doubt,  followed  the 
example  of  the  Caursines  and  of  the  Italians.  In  official 
rcLristers,  which  are  still  extant,  there  are  mentioned  bonds 
which  secured  to  Jewish  creditors  a  large  payment  in  money 
together  wnth  a  small  paynvjnt  in  kind,  and  which  doubt- 
less represent  collusive  transactions,  in  which  tlie  offence  of 
usury  was  to  be  avoided  by  the  substitution  of  a  recom- 
pense in  kind  for  interest  in  money.  Other  bonds  for 
repayment  of  money  alone  are  mentioned  in  the  same 
registers  as  having  been  executed  after  1275,  and  every  one 
of  the  kind  that  was  executed  between  that  date  and  the 
date  of  the  amendment  of  the  Statute  against  usury  may 
be  safely  considered  to  represent  a  transaction  which  was 
an  offence,  either  veiled  or  open,  against  the  prohibition.^ 

The  temptation  to  transgress  the  Statute  of  1275  could 
appeal  only  to  Jews  with  capital,  but  on  the  poorer  Jews 
other  temptations  acted  with  even  more  strength  and  even 
worse  results. 

The  only  reputable  careers  known  to  have  been 
open  to  the  poorer  Jews  were  to  become  servants  in  the 
houses  of  their  rich  co-religionists,^  or  else  to  imitate  in  a 
humble  w^ay  their  financial  transactions,  either  by  keeping 
pawnshops,^  or  by  carrying  on,  in  towns  where  there  was 
no  recognised  Jewry,  business  of  the  same  kind  as  that 
of  the  rich  money-lenders  in  the  larger  Jc^wish  settlements. 
To  follow  these  pursuits  was  now  impossible,  in  consequence, 
not  onl}'-  of  the  prohibition  of  usury,  but  also  of  the  strict- 
ness  with    which   Edward   enforced    the    old    legislation 

'  llotuli  Parliamintorum,  I.  1,  2. 

*  "  The  Debts  and  Houses  of  the  Jews  of  Hereford,"  in  Transactions  of 
the  Jeulsfi  Jfhtorical  Stirirfi/  of  En<il(in(l,  vol.  I. 

^  Royal  Lrttrrs  (Rolls  Series),  11.  24. 

*  Lrvt  Jinhdicfion  of  Norwirh  (Selden  Society),  p.  10;  Cf.  Aneren 
Jiiwlr  (Camden  Society),  .H9.').  "  Do  not  men  account  him  a  g^ood  friend 
who  laye th  his  pledge  in  Jiwry  to  redeem  his  companion  ?  " 


The  Exjmkion  of  the  Je us  from  EtujliDid  in  1200.       47 

against  the  residence  of  Jews  in  towns  where  there  did  no 
exist  a  chest  for  the  deposit  of  Jewish  debts,  and  a  stalf  of 
clerks  to  witness  and  register  tlieni.^  There  was  thus 
nothing  to  which  the  poorer  Jews  could  turn.  Crowded 
as  unwelcome  intruders  into  a  small  and  decreasing  number 
of  towns,^  without  legal  standing  or  industrial  skill,  hated 
by  the  people  and  declared  accursed  by  the  Chairch,  they 
were  bidden  to  support  themselves  under  conditions  which 
made  the  task  impossible  unless  they  could  take  by  storm 
the  citadel  of  municipal  privilege  which  bade  defiance  to 
the  "greatest  of  the  Plantagenets  "  throughout  his  reign. 

Under  such  conditions  degeneration  was  inevitable.  Some 
of  the  Jews  are  said  to  have  taken  to  highway  robbery 
and  burglary  ; '  some  went  into  the  House  of  Converts, 
where  they  got  Hd.  a  day  and  free  lodging.*  But  to  the 
dishonest  there  was  open  a  far  more  profitable  form  of 
dishonesty  than  either  of  those  already  mentioned,  viz., 
clipping  the  coin. 

The  offence  had  long  been  prevalent.  In  1248  such 
mischief  had  been  done  that,  according  to  Matthew  Paris 
"no  foreififner,  let  alone  an  Enc^lishman,  could  look  on  an 
English  coin  with  dry  ej^es  and  unbroken  heart."  *  It  was 
in  vain  that  Henry  III.  issued  a  new  coinage,  so  stamped 
that  the  device  and  the  lettering  extended  to  the  edge  of 
the  piece,^  and  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed  in  every  town, 
village,  market-place,  and  fair  that  none  but  the  new  pieces 
with  their  shapes  unaltered  should  be  given  or  taken  in 
exchange.^  The  opportunity  for  dishonesty  was  too  tempt- 
ing.    The   coins  that  actually    circulated    in    the    country 

'  Rymer,  Faedera,  I.  503,  631  ;    Papers  of  the  Anglo-Jewish  Historical 
Exhibition,  187-190. 

*  Norfolk  Antiquarian  Miscellany,  I.  326,  quoted  su2>ra,  p.  20  («.  3). 

3  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls,  1281-1292,  p.  98  ;  Papers  Aiuilo-Jcwish  Hist. 
Ex.  167. 

*  See    Dictionary    of   Political    Economy,   Article   Jews,  (House    for 
Converted). 

*  Chronica  Majora,  V.  lo. 

*  Annales  Monastici  (Rolls  Series),  II.  S39. 
'  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  V.  15,  16. 


48         The  Exptilstoti  of  the  Jeusfrom  Eiujlaml  in  1200. 

were  of  many  different  issues,'  they  were  not  milled  at  the 
ctifi^es,'  they  were  so  liable  to  damai^e  and  mutilation  of  all 
kinds  that  their  deficiency  of  weight  had  to  be  recognised 
and  allowed  for.'  Hence  anyone  who  had  many  coin.s 
passing  through  his  hands  could  secure  an  easy  profit  by 
clipping  off  a  piece  from  each  one  before  he  passed  it 
again  into  circulation.  In  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of 
Edward  I.,  such  was  the  deficiency  in  the  weight  of  genuine 
coins  (an  annalist  of  the  period  estimates  it  at  50  per  cent.),' 
and  such  the  amount  of  false  coin  in  circulation,  that  the 
price  of  commodities  rose  to  an  alarming  height,  foreign 
merchants  were  driven  away,  trade  became  completely  dis- 
organised, shopkeepers  refused  the  money  tendered  to  them, 
and  the  necessities  of  life  were  withdrawn  from  the  mar- 
kets.' The  King  had  to  promise  to  issue  a  new  coinage, 
l)ut  the  announcement  of  his  intention  only  increased  the 
general  disturbance.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  com- 
plained that  in  consequence  of  the  disturbance  of  circulation, 
he  could  not  find  anyone,  except  the  professional  usurers, 
from  whom  he  could  borrow  money  on  which  to  live  during 
the  interval  before  the  revenues  of  his  see  began  to  come 
in.^  When  the  King  at  this  period  of  his  reign  went  to 
a  priory  to  ask  for  money,  the  first  and  most  cogent  of  the 
excuses  that  he  heard  was  that  "  the  House  was  im- 
poverished by  the  change  in  the  coinage  of  the  realm."  ^ 
Public  opinion  ascribed  to  the  Jews  the  greatest  share  in 
the  injuries  to  the  coinage.  "  They  are  notoriously  forgers 
and  clippers  of  the  coin,"  says  Matthew  Paris  ^  And  that 
the  suspicion  was  not  absolutely  without  justification  is 
shown  by  the  fact,  that  early  in  Henry  III.'s  reign,  the 


'  Ruding,  Annals  of  the  Coinage,  I.  179. 

'  Ashley,  Economic  Hist.,  Theory,  I.  161). 

*  A.shley,  I.,  215,  n.  95  ;  cf.  Jacobs,  73  and  225. 

*  Annates  Monastici  (Rolls  Series),  IV.  278. 

*  Annates  Monastici,  lY.  278;  Liber  Cusfnma rum,  ISO. 

*  John  of  Peckhara,  Rrrjistrum  Epistolnriim  (Roll-«  Series).  I.  22. 

"  Annahs  Mouastiei,  III.  295.  '  IliMoria  Amjlorum,  III.  7fi. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeinifrom  England  in  1290.       4-9 

community  made  a  payment  to  the  King  in  order  to  secure 
as  a  concession  the  expulsion  from  Englaml  of  sueli  of  its 
members  as  miglit  be  convicted  of  the  crime.'  When  in- 
quiries were  ordered  into  the  causes  of  tlie  debasement,  in 
1248,  it  was  generally  considered  that  the  guilt  would  be 
found  to  rest  with  the  Jews.-  The  official  verdict  included 
them  with  the  Caursines  and  the  Flemish  wool-merchants 
in  its  condemnation.^ 

It  was  not  unnatural  that  Edward,  when  the  evil  re- 
appeared in  his  reign,  should  share  the  general  suspicion 
against  the  Jews,  seeing  that  they  had  only  recently  begun  to 
give  up  dealing  in  money,  while  many  of  the  poorer  among 
them  must  have  become,  since  1275,  desperate  enough  to 
be  ready  to  take  to  any  tempting  form  of  dishonest}".  The 
King's  indio-nation  at  the  sufferino-  that  had  been  caused 

or?  ^ 

by  the  injury  done  to  the  old  coinage,  ami  at  the  expense 
that  was  involved  in  the  preparation  of  the  new  issue 
which  had  become  necessary,  prompted  him  to  act  on  his 
suspicions,  and  to  take  a  measure  of  terrible  severity 
in  order  to  make  sure  of  the  apprehension  of  the  most 
probable  culprits.  When,  in  1278,  he  was  making  prepa- 
rations for  an  inquiry  into  the  whole  subject  of  the 
coinage,  he  caused  all  the  Jews  of  England  to  be  im- 
prisoned in  one  night,  their  property  to  be  seized,  and 
their  houses  to  be  searched.  At  the  same  time  the  gold- 
smiths, and  many  others  against  whom  information  was 
given  by  the  Jews,  were  treated  in  the  same  way.^ 

The  prisoners  were  tried  before  a  bench  of  judges  and 
royal  officers.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  many  innocent 
men  were  accused,  even  if  they  were  not  condemned 
At  a  time  when  all  the  Jews  in  England  were  imprisoned, 
there  was  a  great  temptation  for  Christians  to  bring  false 

'  Tovey,  109  ;  Madox,  /fistory  of  the  Exchequer  I.  245,  z. 

^  M.  Paris,   Chronica  Majora,   IV.   608. 

3  Ihid.,  V.  16. 

*  Annalcf  Mnna.itiri,  IV.  278. 

D 


50         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

accusations  against  those  among  them  whom  they  dis- 
liked on  personal  or  religions  grounds,  especially  a;?  there 
-vvas  a  good  chance  of  extorting  hush-money  from  the 
accused,  or,  in  case  of  condemnation,  of  concealing  from 
the  escheators  some  of  their  property.^  The  Jews  and  the 
Kincr  recon-nised  the  dancfer  One  Manser  of  London,  for  ex- 
ample,  was  wise  enough  to  sue  that  an  investigation  might 
be  held  into  the  ownership  of  tools  for  clipping  that  were 
found  on  the  roof  of  his  house.'  The  King,  anxious  that 
punishment  should  fall  only  on  the  guilty,  issued  a  general 
writ,  in  which  the  various  motives  for  false  accusation  were 
recited,  and  it  was  ordered  that  any  Jew  against  whom  no 
ciiai'ge  had  been  brought  by  a  certain  date  might  secure 
himself  altogether  by  paying  a  fine.^  Nevertheless,  a  large 
number  both  of  Jews  and  Christians  were  found  guilty.  Of 
the  Christians  only  three  were  condemned  to  death,  though 
many  others  were  heavily  fined.  For  the  Jews,  however, 
there  was  no  mercy.  Two  hundred  and  ninety-three  of 
them  were  hanged  and  drawn  in  London,  and  all  their 
property  escheated  to  the  King.  A  few  more  had  been 
condemned,  but  saved  their  lives  by  conversion  to 
Christianity.* 

The  activity  with  which  Jews  took  part,  or  were  supposed 
to  take  part,  in  the  debasement  of  the  coinage,  and  in  the  pro- 
hibited practice  of  usury ,^  must  have  aroused  in  the  mind  of 


'  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  from  1281  to  1292,  128,  147,  173,  176,213, 
291,  451 ;  Citron.  Ed.  /.,  I.  93  ;  Eottdi  Parliamentorum,  I.  51a ;  Rymer, 
Faedera,  I.,  570. 

'  Papers  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  Exhibition,  42-3. 

*  Tovey,  211-13. 

*  Chronicles  of  Edward  1.  and  Edward  IT.  (Rolls  Series),  I.,  88  ; 
Chronicon  Petrohurgcnse  (Camden  Society),  29. 

*  "  Whereas  in  the  time  of  our  ancestors,  kings  of  England, 
loans  at  interest  were  wont  and  were  allowed  to  be  made  by  Jews 
of  our  kingdom,  and  much  of  such  profits  fell  into  the  hands  of 
tbose  onr  ancestors,  as  the  issues  of  our  Jewry ;  and  we,  led  on 
by    the  love    of    God,  and  wishing  to  follow    more    devoutly    in    the 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.        51 

the  King  some  misgivings  on  the  subject  of  his  new  policy. 
Nevertheless,  he  did  not  as  yet  despair  of  its  ultimate 
success.  The  crimes  of  the  Jews  were  no  greater  than 
those  of  the  Christians  around  them,  though  they  called 
forth  heavier  punishment.  Christians  clipped  and  coined  ; 
Christians  still  lent  money  on  usury .^  And  a  certain 
amount  of  crime  among  Jews  could  not  but  be  looked  for 
as  a  natural  result  of  the  terrible  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
the  social  revolution  that  had  been  demanded  of  them. 
Edward  saw  that  he  had  been  trying  to  do  too  much  at 
once.  The  Jews  could  not  change  their  occupation  as 
suddenly  as  he  had  wished.  The  country  could  not  d(; 
without  money-lenders.  By  making  the  lending  of  money 
at  interest  a  penal  offence,  and  thus  encouraging  debtors 
and  creditors  to  keep  their  transactions  secret,  Edward  had 
weakened  the  supervision  that  had  been  exercised  by  the 
Treasury,  since  1194,  over  the  business  and  property  of 
the  Jews,  and  thus  he  hacl  increased  the  chance  of  fraud  in 
the  collection  of  tallages,  and  in  the  apportionment  of  the 
share  of  each  estate  that  had  long  been  claimed  by  the 

path  of  the  Holy  Church,  did  forbid  unto  all  the  Jews  of  our 
kingdom  who  had  viciously  lived  from  such  loans,  that  none  of  them 
henceforth  in  any  manner  be  guilty  of  resortinpf  to  loans  at  interest, 
but  that  they  seek  their  living  and  sustain  themselves  by  other  legitimate 
work  and  merchandise,  especially  since  by  the  favour  of  Holy  Church 
they  are  suffered  to  sell  and  live  among  Christians.  Nevertheless, 
afterwards,  in  a  blind  and  evil  spirit,  turning  to  evil,  under  colour  of 
merchandise  and  good  contracts  and  covenants,  what  we  established 
by  rational  thought,  premeditating  mischief  anew,  they  do  it 
with  Christians  by  means  of  bonds  and  divers  instruments,  which 
remain  with  the  Jews,  and  in  which,  on  a  given  debt  or  contract, 
they  put  double,  treble,  or  quadruple  more  than  they  lend  to  the 
Christians  [this  reads  like  an  exaggeration],  penally  abusing  the  name 
of  usury.   .   .  ."     (Papers  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  ExhihitAou,  22.5-6). 

1  For  Coining,  see  E,uding,  Annals  of  the  Coinage  I.  197  ;  Calendar  of 
Patent  Rolls  from  1281  to  1292,  97  ;  Abbreviatio  Rotidorum  Originalium 
(Record  Commission),  49  ;  Peckham,  liegistrum  Epistolaruni,  1. 14i».  For 
Usury,  Forty-fourth  Report  of  the  Deputy-Keeper  of  tlie  Public  Records, 
pp.  8  and  9  ;  Archteologia,  XXVIII.,  227-9 ;  Peckham,  II.,  542  ;  and  for  a 
later  neriod.  Rotuli  Parliamentorim,  II.  332«,  (VII.)  350/y. 

d2 


52         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeics  from  England  in  1290. 

Crown  as  the  succession  due  on  Jewish  property.^  But  he 
hafl  not  stamped  out  usury,  though  the  Statute  of  1275 
had  forbidden  it.  Ho  liad  not  even  secured  the  redem])tion 
of  all  pledges  of  Christians  from  the  hands  of  the  Jews, 
though  the  Statute  of  1275  had  demanded  it.  And,  there- 
fore, in  order  that  he  might  not  keep  on  the  Statute  Book 
a  law  of  which  the  etfective  administration  w^as  impossible, 
he  mitigated  the  severity  of  the  provisions  of  1275,  and 
issued,  probably  a  few  years  later,  a  new  Statute,  in  which 
he  prescribed  certain  conditions  under  which  usury  was  to 
be  permitted.  He  allowed  loans  to  be  made  under  con- 
tract for  the  payment  of  interest  at  the  rate  of  half  a  mark 
in  the  po\ind  yearly,  but  for  three  years  only  ;  and,  in  order 
to  reduce  the  temptation  to  conclude  secret  transactions, 
restored  legal  recognition  to  all  debts  of  the  value  of  £20 
or  upwards  that  were  made  under  the  prescribed  condi- 
tions, and  were  registered  before  the  chirographer  and 
clerk,  and  threatened  heavy  penalties  against  all  who 
should  lend  up  to  that  amount  without  registration.^ 

Edward  was  wise  in  thus  substituting  for  his  earlier, 
harassing  measure,  one  that  allowed  for  gi-adual  change, 
and  that  attempted  to  control  the  evil  of  which  the  imme- 
diate suppression  was  impossible.  But  the  few  years' 
experience  that  he  had  already  had  ought  to  have  made 
him  go  farther  still.  It  ought  to  have  shown  him  that  it 
was  hopeless  to  expect  the  Jews  to  give  up  usury  so  long 
as  the  greater  part  of  them  were  practically  excluded 
from  all  other  pursuits,  and  that,  if  ever  he  was  to  bring  to 
a  successful  issue  the  policy  that  he  had  inaugurated,  he 
would  have  to  find  some  means  of  enabling  them  to  work 
side  by  side  with  Christians,  and  to  compete  with  them  on 
equal  conditions. 

Such  a  task  would  have  been  full  of    difficulties,  the 

'  Papers  of  Anglo-Jewish  Historical  Exhibition,  p.  VJ2  (note  54)  and 
p.  222. 

^  Papers  of  Aiujlo-Jcwish  Historical  Exhibition,  pp.  224-9. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       53 

greatest  of  which  resulted  from  the  active  hostility  with 
which  the  rulers  and  teachers  of  the  Christian  Church  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  unlike  their  predecessors,  regarded 
the  Jews.  The  growth  and  nature  of  this  hostility  must 
now  be  considered. 


IX. — The  Jews   in   Relation  to  the  Church  of  the 
Thirteenth  Century. 

The  Popes  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  Middle  Ages  had 
found  enough  employment  for  their  energies  in  the  effort 
to  maintain  their  o^vn  position  in  Christendom ;  and  they 
had  neither  the  wish  nor  the  power  to  seek  a  conflict  with 
a  race  that  remained  wholly  outside  the  Church.  In  the 
twelfth  century  there  was  no  other  general  Church  Law 
directed  against  the  Jews  than  that  which  forbade  them  to 
live  in  the  same  houses  with  Christians,  and  to  have  Chris- 
tian servants.^  In  England  especially,  Churchmen  of  the 
twelfth  century  showed  towards  the  Jews  a  tolerant  spirit, 
and  made  no  effort  to  augment  their  unpopularity  or  to 
diminish  their  privileges.  The  examples  of  Anselm,  and  of 
his  contemporary,  Gilbert  of  Westminster,  show  that  in  the 
attempts  made  at  that  time  by  men  of  high  position  in  the 
Church  to  convert  the  Jews,  no  method  was  employed 
except  that  of  reasonable  persuasion.^  Churches  and 
monasteries  took  charge,  at  times  of  danger,  of  the  money, 
and  even  of  the  families,  of  Jews.  Such  friendly  inter- 
course as  existed  between  Jews  and  Christians  was 
allowed  to  go  on  without  any  attempt  at  ecclesiastical 
interference.^ 

The  accession  of  Innocent  the  Third  to  the  pontificate 

•  See  the  Decrees  of  the  Third  Lateran  Council  of  1179,  Mansi,  Concilia, 
XXII.,  231. 

-  St.  Anselm.  Ejn-stoUc,  III.,  117  (Migne,  Patrologm  Cursus  Covipletui, 
Vol.  lo9,  columns  153-1.55)  ;  Gilbert  of  Westminster,  I)i.ijmt<itio  Judnici 
cum  C/iristiaiio  (Ibid.  10115-1030). 

»  Chrnnirlci  of  Stephen,  Henry  II.,  and  liirliard  I.  (Rolls  Series),  I., 


o-t         The  E.rpulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

brought  about  a  rapid  change  in  the  attitude  of  the 
Church  towards  the  Jews.  Innocent  was  the  first  to  ad- 
vance, on  behalf  of  the  Papacy,  the  claim  that  the  Lord 
gave  Peter  not  only  the  whole  Church,  but  the  whole 
world  to  inile,^  and  he  endeavoured  with  a  merciless 
enthusiasm,  from  which  all  unbelievers  and  heretics  in 
Christian  countries  had  to  suffer,  to  make  good  his  claim, 
and  to  establish  in  Europe  one  united  Catholic  Church. 
He  took  his  stand  on  the  doctrine,  which  his  predecessors 
had  held  -  in  a  modified  forai,  and  without  ever  acting  on 
it,  that  the  Jews  were  condemned  to  perpetual  slavery  on 
account  of  the  wickedness  of  their  ancestors  in  crucifying 
Christ ;  and  he  thought  that  they  ought  to  be  made  to  feel, 
and  their  neighboui's  likewise,  that  it  was  only  out  of 
Cliristian  pity  that  their  presence  was  endured  in  Christian 
countries. 

The  position  of  the  Jews  at  the  time  of  Innocent's  acces- 
sion to  the  pontificate  was  very  far  from  being  such  as  his 
theory  required.  They  had  magnificent  synagogues,  they 
employed  Christian  servants,  they  married,  or  were  said  to 
marry,  Christian  wives ;  they  refused,  in  what  some  Chris- 
tians regarded  as  a  spirit  of  outrageous  insolence,  to  eat 
the  same  meat  and  to  drink  the  same  wine  as  the  Gentiles, 
and  they  made  no  secret  of   their  disbelief  in  the  sacred 

310  (among  the  victims  of  the  massacre  at  Lynn  in  1190  was  quidam 
Jud(BUs,  iiiidgiiis  mcdieiis,  qui  et  artis  et  modestice  suce  gratia  ChHstianis 
quojue  fainiliaris  et  Jimwruhilis  fiieraf) ;  Gervase  of  Canieriury  (Rolls 
Series).  I..  405.  (The  Jews  help  the  monks  of  Canterbury  in  their  stmg-gle 
with  the  Archbishop  in  1188)  ;  Rotuli  Litteranim  Clausarum  (Record 
Commission),  L,  20b.  (^Rex,  <5'c.,  domino  Lincolniensi  Bpiscopo,  Sfc; 
viaiidamus  robis  quod  non  permittatis  injuste  catalle  Judeeorum  rccfptaH 
in  ecclesiis  in  dioeesi  rt'^^ra,  February  28th,  120.5) ;  Chronica  Jocelini  ds 
Brakelondf  (Camden  Society),  p.  33.  (a.d.  1190,  Abbas  jusiit  solempniter 
excommunicari  illos  qui  de  cetero  receptarent  Jud^ios  vel  in  hospicio 
reciperent  in  villa  Santi  ^dmundi') ;  Jacobs,  The  Jewi  of  Angevin 
England,  269.     Q-Engligh  Jews  drink  with  Gentiles.") 

'  3Ioeller,  History  of  the  Christian  Church.  Middle   Ages  (Eng.  Tr.). 
p.  279. 

*  Mansi.  ronciUa.  XXII.  231. 


The  Ej-pnlsion  of  the  Jeics  from  Enf/lanf  in  1290.        .55 

history  of  Christianity.  Moreover,  they  were  suspected  of 
exercising  a  considerable  influence  on  the  gro^vth  of  the 
heresies  which  it  was  the  chief  work  of  Innocent's  life  to 
combat.  The  Vaudois,  the  Cathari,  and  the  Albigenses,  all 
kept  up  Jewish  observances,  and  were  said  to  have  learnt 
from  the  Jews  their  heretical  dogmas  ;  the  Albigenses, 
indeed,  were  accused  of  maintaining  that  the  law  of  the 
Jews  was  better  than  the  law  of  the  Christians.  And, 
nevertheless,  Christian  kings  supported  the  Jews  in  every 
way.  They  countenanced  their  usury,  they  refused  (so, 
at  least,  Innocent  said)  to  aUow  evidence  against  them  on 
any  charge  to  be  given  by  Christian  witnesses,  and  they 
even  employed  them  in  high  offices  of  State.  In  view  of 
these  facts,  Innocent  thought  that  a  great  effort  of  repres- 
sion should  be  made,  and  he  wrote  to  the  King  of  France, 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  other  monarchs,  asking  for 
their  assistance  in  the  work  of  reducing  the  Jews  to  that 
condition  of  slavery-  which  was  their  due.  He  decreed  in 
his  general  Church  Council  that  Jews  shoidd  be  excluded 
in  future  from  public  offices,  and  that  they  should  wear 
a  badge  to  distingmsh  them  from  Christians;  and  he 
renewed  the  old  regulation  of  the  Church,  which  required 
them  to  dismiss  Christian  ser^'ants  from  their  houses.  In 
order  to  ensure  that  the  last  provision  should  be  observed, 
he  decided  that  any  Christians  having  any  intercourse 
vrith  Jews  that  transgi'essed  it  should  be  subject  to  excom- 
munication. For  the  enforcement  of  his  other  anti-Jewish 
measui-es  he  rehed  on  the  help  of  the  temporal  power  in  all 
Cliristian  countries.^ 

The  declaration  of   war  made   by  Innocent  III.  was  a 
terrible  calamity  for  the  Jews:  but  though  it  affected  at 


'  Letters  of  Innocent  (Migne.  Patrologite  Cursus  Comphtu*,  Vols.  214- 
217)  ;  Lib.  Til..  ISG  :  Lib.  TIIL.  50.  121  :  Lib.  X..  61,  190  ;  C<^rpui  JvrU 
Canonici  (Leipzig.  1S39).  11..  747-S  :  Graetz.  Geschichte  der  Juden,  YII., 
7,  8  ;  Depping,  Lei  Juifg  dam  le  Moytn  Age.  183  :  Hahn,  Gcfchichte  der 
Ketzer,  III.,  6,  7  ;  Hurter.  Geschichte  Pap$t  Innocenz  der  Britten.  II..  234  ; 
Gudemann.  Geschichte  de-t  Brziehungtwetetu,  u.*.ir.,  I..  37  :  Rule.  Uiitory 
.■\fthr  Tnqni^ition.  I.  10.  17. 


5<i         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jnrs/roni  England  in  1290. 

once  the  whole  of  Christian  Europe,  still  its  evil  results 
might  h:i\e  passed  away  in  time.  Popes  were  but  men 
and  politicians ;  and  just  as  Innocent  had,  by  the  pubhca- 
tion  of  his  ^vishes  and  decrees  concerning  the  Jews,  set 
himself  in  opposition  to  his  predecessors,  so  might  his 
successors,  in  their  turn,  moved  by  different  feelings  or 
taking  a  different  view  of  the  interests  and  duties  of  the 
Church,  set  themselves  in  opposition  to  him,  and  go  back 
to  the  old  lenient  opinions  and  practice.  But  witliin  a 
few  years  of  the  death  of  Innocent,  the  work  of  attacking 
the  Jews  ceased  to  be  in  the  hands  of  any  one  man,  and 
passed  over  to  a  body  of  men  habitually  influenced  not  by 
personal  or  political  considerations,  but  only  by  what  they 
conceived  to  be  the  interest  of  religion,  and  filled  with  a 
hatred  of  the  Jews  more  fierce  and  fanatical  and  steadfast 
than  that  of  the  Popes  could  ever  have  been. 

The  Dominican  order  was  formally  constituted  in  1223, 
and  from  the  earliest  j^^ears  of  its  existence  devoted  itself 
to  the  task  of  rooting  out  unbelief  from  the  Christian 
world.  The  work  that  its  members  at  first  professed 
to  regard  as  peculiarly  their  own  was  that  of  preaching^ 
but  on  the  Jews  their  preaching  had  no  effect.  With  an 
ingenuity  and  determination  worthy  of  the  order  that  in  a 
later  century  was  to  provide  the  Inquisition  with  its  chief 
minister,  the  Dominicans  devised  and  carried  out  another 
plan  of  action.  Assisted  by  converted  Jews  who  had  joined 
them,  they  undertook  the  study  of  Hebrew,  and  their 
master,  Raymundus  de  Penaforte,  induced  the  King  of 
Spain  to  build  and  endow  seminaries  for  the  purpose.^ 
Ai'med  with  this  new  knowledge,  they  were  able  to  attack 
first,  what  they  represented  as  the  foolish  and  pernicious 
contents  of  such  Jewish  books  as  the  Talmud,  and 
secondly,  the  stubbornness  of  the  Jews  who  refused  to 
accept  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  the  truth  of  which 
the  Dominicans  professed  to  be  able  to  demonstrate  from 
the  Old  Testament.     Two   incidents   which   must   at    the 

'  Graetz.   Geschichte  dcr  Juden,  VII..  27. 


The  Exjmlsion  of  the  Jeusfrom  England  in  1290.       57 

time  have  been  famous  throughout  Europe  illustrate  their 
method  of  warfare.  In  1239  Nicolas  Donin,  a  converted 
Jew  who  had  become  a  Dominican  friai-,  laid  before 
Gregory  IX.  a  series  of  statements  concerning  the  Talmud. 
Helped,  no  doubt,  by  all  the  influence  of  his  order,  he 
induced  the  Pope  to  issue  bulls  to  the  Kings  of  France, 
England,  and  Spain,  and  the  bishops  in  those  countries, 
ordering  that  all  copies  of  the  Talmud  should  be  seized, 
and  that  public  inquiry  should  be  held  concerning  the 
charges  brought  against  the  book.  In  England  and  Spain 
nothing  seems  to  have  been  done,  but  in  Paris  the  Pope's 
instructions  were  carried  out,  and,  at  the  instigation 
of  the  leading  Dominicans,  St.  Louis  ordered  that  all 
copies  of  the  Talmud  that  could  be  found  in  France 
should  be  confiscated,  and  that  four  Rabbis  should,  on 
behalf  of  the  Jews,  hold  a  public  debate  with  Donin,  in 
order  to  meet,  if  they  could,  the  charges  that  he  was 
prepared  to  maintain.  In  the  course  of  the  debate,  which 
was  held  in  the  precincts  of  the  Court  and  in  the  presence 
of  members  of  the  Royal  family  and  great  dignitaries  of 
the  Church,  Donin  asserted  that  the  Talmud  encouraged 
the  Jews  to  despise,  deceive,  rob,  and  even  murder 
Christians,  that  it  contained  blasphemous  falsehoods  con- 
cerning Christ,  superstitions  and  puerilities  of  all  kinds, 
and  passages  disrespectful  to  God  and  inconsistent  with 
morality.  The  Rabbis  answered  as  best  they  could,  but 
the  court  of  Inquisitors  decided  that  the  charges  had  been 
substantiated,  and  ordered  that  all  the  confiscated  copies 
of  the  Talmud  should  be  burnt.  After  a  delay  of  about 
two  years  the  Auto-da-fe  took  place,  and  fourteen  cartloads 
of  the  Talmud  were  sacrificed.^  The  other  famous 
incident  of  the  kind  took  place  in  Spain.  Pablo  Christiano, 
a  converted  Jew,  who,  like  Donin,  had  joined  the 
Dominicans,  challenged  the  Jews  of  Aragon  to  a  dis- 
cussion on   the   differences   between  Judaism   and   Chris- 

'  Revue  des  Etudes  Juires,  I.  247,  293  ;  II.  248  ;  III.  39  ;  Noel  Valois, 
Guillaume  d'Auvrgne,  pp.  118,  137. 


58         The  Ejcpiihion  of  the  Jeictifrom  England  in  1290. 

tiaiiity,  and  induced  James  I.  to  compel  them  to  take 
up  tlie  challenge.  The  famous  Nachmanides  came  for- 
ward as  the  representative  of  his  co-religionists.  Pablo 
undertook  to  show  that  the  Old  Testament,  and  other 
books  recognised  by  the  Jews,  taught  that  the  Messiah 
liad  come,  that  he  was  "  very  God  and  very  man," 
that  he  suffered  and  died  for  the  salvation  of  mankind, 
and  that  with  his  advent  the  ceremonial  law  ceased  to 
be  of  any  effect.  Nachmanides  denied  that  any  of  these 
propositions  could  be  substantiated  from  the  Jewish 
sacred  books.  For  four  days  the  disputation  was  carried 
on  in  the  presence  of  the  king  and  many  great  personages 
of  Church  and  State.  Of  course  the  verdict  was  that  the 
Christian  disputant  had  beaten  the  Jew.^ 

The  method  of  conducting  these  two  controversies  showed 
that  the  Dominicans  were  determined  to  use  every  possible 
weapon  against  the  Jews.  The  Talmud,  a  huge,  hetero- 
geneous and  unedited  compilation,  contains  passages 
which  are  trivial  and  foolish,  and  others,  written  by  men 
who  had  memories  of  persecution  fresh  in  their  minds, 
which  express  bitter  hatred  towards  the  "  Gentiles,"  that  is, 
the  Romans  who  had  taken  Jerusalem,  and  had  destroyed 
the  nationality  of  the  Jewish  race.  It  was  easy  for  an 
opponent  to  pick  out  such  passages,  to  assert  that  what 
was  said  against  the  "  Gentiles  "  expressed,  not  the  feehngs 
of  the  victims  of  persecution  against  the  Romans  of  the 
second  century,  but  the  feelings  of  all  Jews  towards  all 
non- Jews,  at  every  time  and  at  every  place,  and  to  convince 
an  uncritical  audience  that  those  who  held  in  honour  the 
book  that  contained  such  passages  were  enemies  of  religion, 
against  whose  influence  it  behoved  all  Christian  powers  to 
guard  the  faithful.  Similarly,  by  compelling  the  Jews  to 
take  part  in  a  discussion  concerning  the  prophecies  of  the 
Old  Testament,  the  Dominicans  imposed  on  them  the  choice 
between  the  two  alternatives  of  betraying  their  rehgion  by 

'  IIMoire  Litteraire  dc  la  France,  XXVII.,  562-3 ;  Graetz,  Geschichte, 
VII.,  131,  13.5. 


The  ExpuUion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1200.       59 

acquiescing  in  what  they  believed  to  be  a  false  intei-preta- 
tion  of  their  scripture,  or  else  of  proclaiming  publicly  their 
disbelief  in  doctrines  which  were  at  the  very  foundation 
of  Christianity.  The  efiect  on  the  ruKng  classes  in  Europe 
of  the  two  discussions  just  mentioned  must  have  been  very 
great.  And  the  Dominicans  were  continually  carrying  on 
the  same  work,  though,  of  course,  seldom  before  audiences 
so  distinguished.  Pablo,  for  example,  travelled  about  Spain 
and  Provence,  compelling  the  Jews,  by  virtue  of  a  royal 
edict  that  had  been  issued  in  his  favour,  to  hold  disputes 
with  him  on  matters  of  religion.^  Many  other  members  of 
the  order  devoted  their  lives  to  the  same  pursuit,^  and  thus 
did  their  best  to  fill  the  rulers  of  the  Church  with  a  dread 
of  the  terrible  consequences  that  the  existence  of  Judaism 
threatened  to  the  Christian  religion. 

And,  unfortunately  for  the  Jews,  their  religion  began  to 
be  feared  at  the  same  time  as  cruel  and  powerful  fanatics 
like  Innocent  and  the  Dominicans  were  doing  their  best  to 
cause  it  to  be  hated.  There  is  good  reason  to  believe, 
though  detailed  evidence  is  not  abmidant,  that  towards  the 
end  of  the  Middle  Ages  Judaism  exercised  over  the  super- 
stitions of  other  faiths  the  same  fascination  as  in  the  first 
century  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Thomas  Aquinas  beheved 
that  unrestricted  intercourse  between  Jews  and  Christians 
was  likely  to  result  in  the  conversion  of  Christians  to 
Judaism,  and  for  that  reason  he  thought  it  right,  in  spite 
of  the  general  liberality  of  his  opinions  concerning  the 
Jews,  that  intercourse  with  them  should  be  allowed  to  such 
Christians  alone  as  were  strong  in  the  faith,  and  were  more 
likely  to  convert  them  than  to  be  converted  by  tliem.^  "  It 
happens  sometimes,"  wrote  a  Pope  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, "  that  Clunstians,  when  they  are  visited  by  the  Lord 
with  sickness  and  tribulation,  go  astray,  and  have  recourse 

'  Graetz,  Geschichte  cler  Jinlcn,  VII.,  135  ;  J.  Jacobs,  Inquiry  into  the 
Sources  of  the  Ulstory  of  the  Jews  in  SjMin,  xviii.,  18. 

^  Seriptores  Ordinis  Prcedicatorum  (Quetif  and  Echard),  I.,  246,  396, 
308,  5'.»4. 

'  Thomas  Aquiuas,  Summa  Theologice,  Secunda  Secundaj,  Quaestio  X. 


CO         The  Expiihioii  of  the  Jens  from  England  in  1290. 

to  tlic  vain  help  of  the  Jewisli  rite.  They  hold  in  the 
8yna(]^ogues  of  the  Jews  torches  and  lighted  candles,  and 
make  otierings  there.  Likewise  they  keep  vigils  (especially 
on  the  Salibiith),  in  the  hope  that  the  sick  may  be  restored 
to  health,  that  those  at  sea  may  reach  harbour,  that  those 
in  childbirth  may  be  safely  delivered,  and  that  the  barren 
may  become  fruitful  and  rejoice  in  offspring.  For  the  ac- 
complishment of  these  and  other  wishes,  they  implore  the 
help  of  the  said  rite,  and  \n  idolatrous  fashion  show  open 
signs  of  devotion  and  reverence  to  a  scroll,  not  without 
nuicli  liarm  to  the  orthodox  faith,  contumely  to  our  Creator, 
ari<i  oppx'obrium  and  shame  to  the  Universal  Church."^ 

The  anti-Jewish  feeling  that  grew  up  from  the  causes 
that  have  just  been  described  called  into  existence  new 
institutions  and  measures  designed  for  the  purpose  of 
humbling  the  Jews  and  checking  the  growth  of  Judaism. 
In  compliance  with  the  cruel  request  of  Innocent,  most  ot 
the  monarchs  of  Europe  compelled  their  Jewish  subjects  to 
wear  a  badge.^  Local  church  councils,  which  hitherto  had 
contented  themselves  with  the  attempt  to  enforce  the  old 
prohibition  against  the  employment  by  Jews  of  Christian 
servants  and  nurses,  now  went  further,  and  forbaae 
Christians  to  allow  the  presence  of  Jews  in  their  houses 
and  taverns,  to  feast  or  dance  with  them,  to  be  present  at 
the  celebration  of  their  marriages,  their  new  moons,  and 
their  festivals,  and  to  employ  their  services  as  doctors.^ 
The  Popes  of  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  century 
appointed  Dominicans  in  various  countries  of  Europe  to 
perform  the  duty  of  preaching  to  the  Jews,  and  of  holding 
inquisitions  into  their  heresies,  in  the  hope  that  with  the 
help  of  the  secular  power  they  might  stamp  them  out.'' 

In  England  the  relation  of  the  Jews  to  the  Christians 
underwent  somewhat  the  same  changes  as  in  Continental 

'  Baronius,  Annaleg  Ecclesiastici  (ed.  Theiner),  XIII.,  87. 
2  Itcvuv  des  Etudes  Julves,  VI.  81  ;  VII.  94. 

'  Mansi,  Concilia.  XXIII.,  11 74-0  ;  Martene,  riu'mnrus,lY.,  769. 
*  Deppinj^,  108  ;  Hahn,  Gc.irhichtc  dcr  Kctzcr,  III.,  13  ;  Rule,  History  of 
the  Intjuixition,  27.  80,  81,  91,  .^.12,  3:$.5-6. 


The  Expuhnon  of  fho  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       Gl 

Europe.     Before  the  tliirteenth  century  tlie  Jews  in  Enor- 
land  had,  as  has  been  said  above,  been  free  frotn  molestation 
by  the  Church,^  and  their  chief  danger  had  been  from  tlie 
brutality  and  greed  of  the  disorderly  populace,  of  desperate 
outcasts,  and  of  marauding  Crusaders.-     The   first   great 
attack  made  on    them   by   any   constituted   power  came 
from    Stephen    Langton,  who,   not   content   with    passing 
at  his  Provincial   Synod   a   decree   wdiich,   in   accordance 
with   the   regulations   of   Innocent,   enforced   the   use    of 
the  badge  and  prohibited  the  erection  of  new  synagogues, 
went  so  far  as  to  issue  orders  that  no  one  in  his  diocese 
should  presume,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  to  have 
any  intercourse  with  Jews,  or  should  sell  them    any   of 
the   necessaries    of  life.       The    Bishops   of    Lincoln   and 
Norwich  issued  the  same  orders  in  their  dioceses.^     Many 
other  bishops  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.   did  their  best, 
partly    by    legislation     in     their     diocesan     synods    and 
partly  by  the  use  of  their  personal  and  spiritual  influence, 
to  check  intercourse  between  Jews  and  Christians.*     Of 
course  the  king's  guardians,  in  the  interest  of    the  royal 
income,  a  considerable  part  of    which  was  derived  from 
the  Jewry,  interfered  to  prevent  the  measures  of  Langton 
and  his  colleagues  from  being  carried  into  eflEect.      And 
Henry,  when  he  took  into  his  own  hands   the   work  of 
government,    while,    on    the    one    hand,    he   showed  his 
sympathy  with    the    fears  of    the    Church    by   building 
a   house   for   the   reception   of   Jewish   converts,^  and  by 
lending  the  sanction  of  the  civil  power  to  the  decree  that 
ordered  the  use  of  the  badge,®  nevertheless  followed  the 
example  that  his  guardians  had  set,  and  protected  the  Jews 
against  the  aggression  of  the  Church. 


'  Supra,  p.  53.  "  Suj^ra,  pp.  12,  1:5,  lit. 

»  Wilkins,  Magnce  Britannice  Concilia.  I.,  591  ;  Tovey,  Anglia  Juihiica, 
83  ;  Rye,  Hlstury  of  Norfolk,  87. 

*  Wilkim?,  Magna    Britannia;    Concilia,  I.,  657,   693,    719  ;    Letters    of 
Biahq)  Grosni'te.'ste  (Rolls  Series),  318. 

^  Matthew  Paris,  Clironica  Majora,  III.,  262. 

*  Tovey,  Anglia  Judaica,  148. 


02         The  E.vpnlsiiin  of  the  Jeirsfrom  England  in  1290. 

Thore  were  many  reasons  wliicli  niiylit  have  caused 
Edward  to  sympathise  more  strongly  than  his  father 
had  done,  with  the  anti- Jewish  feelings  of  the  Church. 
He  was  a  pious  man  and  a  pious  king,  fdled  with  a  sense 
of  his  kingly  duty  towards  "the  living  God  who  takes 
to  himself  the  souls  of  Princes."^  He  was  a  Crusader, 
tliougli  tlie  great  crusading  age  was  over,  a  founder  of 
monasteries,  a  pilgrim  to  holy  places;  and  through  his 
confessors  he  was  in  close  connection  with,  and  under 
the  influence  of,  the  Dominican  order.'-'  Some  of  his 
bishops  were  determined  enemies  of  the  Jews.  John 
of  Peckham,  for  example,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
insisted  at  one  time  on  the  demolition  of  all  the  small 
private  synagogues  in  London,  at  which  the  Jews  were 
in  the  habit  of  worshipping  after  the  confiscation  of 
their  great  public  synagogues  at  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  III. ;  at  another  time  he  demanded  from  the 
king  the  help  of  the  temporal  power  against  Jews  who 
having  once  been  converted  to  Christianity,  wished  to  go 
back  to  their  old  faith ;  on  another  occasion  he  took  the 
bold  step  of  writing  to  the  Queen  concerning  her  business 
transactions  with  the  Jews,  solemnly  warning  her  that 
unless  she  gave  them  up  she  could  never  be  absolved  from 
her  sins,  "nay,  not  though  an  angel  should  assert  the 
contrary."^  At  Hereford,  Bishop  Swinfield  was  so 
determined  to  prevent  intercourse  with  Jews  that,  when 
he  heard  that  certain  Christians  intended  to  be  present 
at  a  marriage  feast  to  be  given  by  some  rich  Jews  of  the 
city,  he  issued  a  proclamation  threatening  with  ex- 
communication any  who  should  carry  out  their  intention, 
and,  when  his  proclamation  was  disregarded,  he  carried  out 
his  threat.'* 

'  Rymer,  Foedcra,  I.,  743. 

-  Tout,  Edward  I.,  pp.  69,  149. 

*  John  of  Peckham,  Erg  id  mm  Ejnstolarum  (Rolls  Series),  I.,  239; 
II.,  4U7 ;  III.,  937 ;  Wilkins,  Marjnce  Britannia;  Concilia,  II.,  88-9  ; 
Prynne,  Second  Dcmvrrer,  121-2. 

*  IlovKiliold  Roll  of  Bixhop  Swinfield  (Camden  Society),  pp.  c.  ci. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeivs/rom  Enghind  in  1290.       G3 

Certain  events  that  happened,  or  were  said  to  have 
happened,  in  England  in  Edward's  lifetime,  some,  indeed, 
under  his  own  observation,  may  well  have  seemed  to  him 
to  justify  the  attitude  of  the  Church.  In  1275  a  Domini- 
can friar  was  converted  to  Judaism.^  In  1268,  while 
Edward  was  in  Oxford,  the  Chancellor,  masters  and 
scholars  of  the  University,  and  the  Parochial  Clergy,  were 
going  in  procession  to  visit  the  shrine  of  St.  Friedswide 
when,  according  to  a  story  that  gained  general  credence, 
a  Jew  of  the  city  snatched  from  the  bearer  a  cross  that 
was  being  carried  at  their  head  and  trod  it  under  foot.^ 
At  Norwich,  early  in  Edward's  reign,  a  Jew  was  burnt 
for  blasphemy.^  At  Nottingham,  in  1278,  a  Jewess  was 
charged  with  abusing  in  scandalous  terms  all  the  Christian 
bystanders  in  the  market-place.'* 

Edward's  conduct  could  not  but  be  influenced  by  the 
general  tone  of  opinion  in  the  Church,  by  the  strong 
anti-Jewish  feeling  of  some  of  his  bishops,  and  by  the 
follies,  real  or  supposed,  of  the  Jews  themselves.  In 
continuation  of  his  father's  policy  he  made,  throughout 
his  reign,  such  contributions  as,  with  his  scanty  means,  he 
could  afford,  to  the  support  of  the  House  of  Converts.^  He 
renewed  the  edict  concerning  the  wearing  of  the  badge, 
and  extended  it  to  Jewesses,  whereas  it  had  formerly 
applied  only  to  Jews.®  In  order  that  the  Dominicans 
might  be  able  to  carry  on  in  England  the  same  efforts  at 
conversion  as  they  were  already  pursuing  in  France,  Spain 
and  Germany,  he  issued  to  all  the  sheriffs  and  bailiffs  in 
Encrland  writs  bidding^  them  do  their  best  to  induce  all 

'  Graetz.    Gcschickte  der  Juden,   VII.,  note  11.     Florence   of    Worccxter 
(English  Historical  Society),  II.,  214. 
"  Tovey,  Anglia  Judnicu.  1G8. 

*  Forty-ninth   Report  of    the    Deputy-Keeper   if    the   Public   Records. 
p.  187. 

■•  Forty-seventh  Report  of  the  Deputy-Keeper  of  the   Public   Records, 
p.  306. 

*  Dictionary   of  Political   Economy.   Article,   "Jews   (House  for  Con- 
verted)." 

'  Tovey.  Anglia  Judaica,  208. 


G4         The  Expulsion  of  the  Jcirsfrotn  England  in  1290. 

the  Jews  iu  the  counties  and  towns  under  their  charge 
to  assemble  and  hear  the  Avord  of  God  preached  by  the 
friars.'  To  meet  tlic  danger  to  religion  that  miglit  arise 
from  the  blasphemous  utterances  of  Jews,  he  ordered  that 
proclamation  should  be  made  throughout  England  that 
any  Jew  found  guilty  (after  an  enquiry  conducted  by 
Christians)  of  having  spoken  disrespectfully  of  Christ,  the 
Virgin  Mary,  or  the  Catholic  faith,  should  be  liable  to  the 
loss  of  life  or  limbs.^ 

Thus  far,  and  no  farther,  was  Edward  prepared  to  go 
with  measures  for  the  suppression  of  Judaism  as  a  religion. 
He  believed  that  the  Jews,  so  long  as  they  remain  Jews, 
lived  in  ignorance  and  sin,  and  he  did  what  he  could  to 
help  the  friars  in  the  effort  to  convert  them.  He  believed 
that  some  among  them  were  likely  to  make  blasphemous 
attacks  on  Christianity,  and  he  did  what  he  could  to  keep 
them  in  check.  But  he  believed  that  it  was  possible  for 
them  to  live  in  peace  and  quietness,  carrying  on  trades  and 
handicrafts,  among  Christian  neighbours  in  Christian 
towns.  And  it  was  to  enable  them  to  do  so  that  he 
adopted  the  policy  of  1275,  and  bade  the  Jews  renounce 
usury,  giving  them  at  the  same  time  permission  "  to  prac- 
tise trade,  to  live  by  their  labour,  and,  for  those  purposes, 
freely  to  converse  with  Christians."  But,  as  we  have  seen, 
there  were  imposed  on  the  Jews  who  attempted  to  avail 
themselves  of  this  permission,  legal  disadvantages  which 
wholly  unfitted  them  for  industrial  competition  wdth  non- 
Jews,  and  compelled  them  to  continue  the  practice  of 
usury.  That  Edward  recognised  this  fact  is  showai  by 
the  issue  of  the  revised  Statute  of  Usurers  some  years 
after  1275;  but  that  measure  was  inconclusive  and  incon- 
sistent with  the  rest  of  his  policy.  Sooner  or  later  the 
conclu.sion  would  have  forced  itself  on  him  that  until  the 
Jews  were,  by  the  acquisition  of  the  right  to  become 
burgesses  and  gildsmen,  enabled   to   enter   into  industrial 

'  Forty-ninth   Itrporf   of   the   Dcjmty-Kriprr   of    the   Piihlic   Records, 
p.  9.^  ;  Rymer,  I.,  .576  ;  Madox,  Excheipirr.  I..  2.")!t.  ^  Tovey,  p.  208. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Je/cs  front  England  tn  1290.        65 

competition  on  equal  terms  with  Christians,  all  his  efforts 
to  make  them  traders  instead  of  usurers  would  be  wasted. 
He  would  tlien  have  had  before  him  two  alternatives.  He 
might,  on  the  one  hand,  have  declined  to  sacrifice  his 
seignorial  rights  over  the  Jews,  whom  he  had  described 
in  the  Statute  of  1275  as  "  talliable  to  the  king  as  his  own 
serfs,  and  not  otherwise,"  and  in  that  case  he  would  have 
had  to  recognise  that  his  whole  Jewish  policy  was  an 
impossible  one.  Or  he  might,  on  the  other  hand,  have 
revoked  the  provision  in  tlie  statute  which  forbade  the 
Jews  to  be  in  "  scots,  lots,  or  talliage  with  the  other 
inhabitants  of  those  cities  or  burgesses  where  they  re- 
mained." Such  a  measure  would  have  been  a  step  in  the 
only  direction  which  could  possibly  lead  to  the  success  of 
his  policy.  But  it  would  not  by  itself  have  been  enough 
to  secure  success ;  for,  when  the  legal  difficulties  of  the 
Jews  had  been  removed,  there  would  still  have  remained 
the  social  difficulties  which  proceeded  from  the  dislike  in 
which  they  were  held  by  the  Church  and  the  people ;  and, 
unless  these  difficulties  also  could  be  removed,  so  that  the 
Jews  might  be  in  a  position  of  social  equality,  as  well  as 
legal  equality,  with  Christians,  and  associate  with  them 
in  friendly  intercourse,  the  king's  policy  would  be  as  far 
from  success  as  ever.  Which  alternative  Edward  would 
have  decided  to  adopt  is,  of  course,  a  question  we  have 
no  means  of  answering;  but  the  decision  was  taken  out 
of  his  hands  by  the  interference,  for  the  first  and  last 
time  in  English  history,  of  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  the  relations  between  the  Jews  and  the  king. 

At  the  end  of  1286,  Honorius  IV.  addressed  to  the 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury'  and  York^  and  their  sufii-agans 
the  following  bull : — 

"  We  have  heard  that  in  England  the  accursed  and 
perfidious  Jews  have  done  unspeakable  things  and  horrible 
acts,  to  the  shame  of  our  Creator  and  the  detriment  of  tlie 

'  Baronius,  Annales  EeclesM.it iri  (ed.  Theiner),  XIII..  U).  11. 
-  Ilevtif  (If.t  Et inlet  Jniven,  I.,  2'JS. 

E 


()()         The  E.i-piih^ioii  of  the  JiHsfrom  KikjJiukJ  in  1290. 

Catliolic  faith.  Tlu-y  aiX'  said  to  have  a  wicked  and 
deceitful  book,  wliich  they  coininonly  call  Thalmud,  con- 
taininjr  manifold  ahoniinationH,  falsehoods,  heresies,  and 
abu.ses.  This  damnable  work  they  continually  study,  and 
with  its  nefarious  contents  their  base  thoughts  are  always 
engatjiied.  Moreover,  they  set  their  children  from  their 
tender  years  to  study  its  lethal  teacliing,  and  they  do  not 
scruple  to  tell  them  that  tlicy  ou^'ht  to  believe  in  it  more 
than  in  the  Law  of  Moses,  so  that  the  said  children  may 
iieo  from  the  path  of  God  and  go  astray  in  the  devious 
ways  of  the  unbelievers.  Moreover,  they  not  only  attempt 
to  entice  the  minds  of  the  faithful  to  their  pestilent  sect, 
but  also,  with  many  gifts,  they  seduce  to  apostasy  those 
who,  led  by  wholesome  counsel,  have  abjured  the  error  of 
infidelity  and  betaken  themselves  to  the  Christian  faith ; 
so  that  some,  being  led  away  by  the  treachery  of  the  Jews, 
live  wdth  them  according  to  their  rite  and  law,  even  in 
the  parishes  in  wdiich  they  received  new  life  from  the 
sacred  font  of  baptism  ;  and  hence  arise  injury  to  our 
Saviour,  scandal  to  the  faithful,  and  dishonour  to  the 
Christian  faith.  Some  also  who  have  been  baptised  they 
send  to  other  places,  in  order  that  there  they  may  live 
unknow^n  and  return  to  their  disbelief.  They  invite  and 
urgently  persuade  Christians  to  attend  their  synagogues  on 
the  Sabbath  and  on  other  of  their  solemn  occasions,  to  hear 
and  take  part  in  their  services,  and  to  show  reverence  to 
the  parchment-scroll  or  book  in  which  their  law  is  written, 
in  consequence  of  which  many  Cliristians  Judaise  with  the 
Jews. 

"  Moreover,  they  have  in  their  households  Christians 
whom  they  compel  to  busy  themselves  on  Sundays  and 
feast-days  with  servile  tasks  from  which  they  should  re- 
frain. And  so  the}'^  cast  opprobrium  on  the  majesty  of 
God.  They  have  in  their  houses  Christian  women  to  bring 
up  their  children.  Christian  men  and  women  dwell  among 
them  ;  and  so  it  often  happens,  when  occasion  offers  and 
the  time  is  favourable  to  shameful  actions,  that  Christian 


The  E.rpuhio)i  of  the  Jeirs  from  EiKjlaml  in  1290.       G7 

men  have  unblessed  intercourse  with  Jewisli  women  and 
Christian  women  with  Je^vish  men. 

"  Yet  Christians  and  Jews  go  on  meeting  in  each  others' 
houses.  They  spend  their  leisure  in  banqueting  and  feast- 
ing together,  and  hence  the  opportunity  for  mischief  be- 
comes easy.  On  certain  days  they  publicly  abuse  Christians, 
or  rather  curse  them,  and  do  other  wicked  acts  which  ofl'end 
God  and  cause  the  loss  of  souls. 

"  And  although  some  of  you  have  been  often  asked  to 
devise  a  fitting  remedy  for  these  things,  yet  you  have 
failed  to  comply.  Whereat  we  are  forced  to  wonder  the 
more,  since  the  duty  of  your  pastoral  office  binds  you  to 
show  yourselves  more  ready  and  determined  than  other 
men  to  avenge  the  wrongs  of  our  Saviour,  and  to  oppose 
the  nefarious  attempts  of  the  foes  of  the  Christian  faith. 

"  An  e\al  so  dangerous  must  not  be  made  light  of,  lest, 
being  neglected,  it  may  grow  great.  You  are  bound  to  rise 
up  with  ready  courage  against  such  audacity  in  order  that  it 
may  be  completely  suppressed  and  confounded  and  that  the 
dignity  and  glory  of  the  Catholic  Faith  may  increase.  There- 
fore by  this  apostolic  writing  we  give  orders  that,  as  the  duty 
of  your  office  demands,  you  shall  use  inhibitions,  spiritual 
and  temporal  penalties,  and  other  methods,  which  shall  seem 
good  to  you,  and  which  in  your  preaching  and  at  other 
fitting  times  you  shall  set  forth,  to  the  end,  that  tliis  dis- 
ease may  be  checked  by  proper  remedies.  So  may  you 
have  your  rew^ard  from  the  mercy  of  the  Eternal  King. 
We  shall  extol  in  our  prayers  your  wisdom  and  diligence. 
Let  us  know  fully  by  your  letters  what  you  do  in  this 
matter." 

X. — The  Effects  of  the  Clerical  Opposition. 

Edward  was  too  religious  to  disregard  the  wishes  of  the 
Pope,  expressed  thus  formally  and  solemnly  and  with  the 
utmost  strength  of  language.  And  lie  had  special  reasons 
for  paying  heed  to  the  words  of  Honorius  IV.,  on  whose 
money-lenders    he    w^as   dependent    for    loans,    and    whose 

E  2 


68        The  Ej-puhim  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290. 

pivdocossor  hail,  by  tlie  c'xercise  of  liis  spiritual  powers, 
secured  for  liiin  a  tt'utli  part  of  the  goods  of  the  clergy  of 
England.^  From  the  moment  of  the  issue  of  the  bull,  the 
policy  inaugurated  b}?^  the  statute  of  1275  was  doomed. 
For  of  tlie  two  alternatives  that  Edward  would  have  had 
before  hin\  in  any  further  Jewish  legislation  that  he  might 
have  undertaken — the  alternatives  of  the  abandonment  of 
the  policy  of  1275,  or  the  extension  of  it  by  further 
measures  for  the  assimilation  of  the  status  of  Jews  to  that 
of  Christians — the  Church  now  demanded  that  he  should 
at  once  adopt  the  former.  It  demanded  that  the  Jews  of 
England  should  live  isolated  from  the  Christians ;  and  this 
they  coulil  do  only  so  long  as  they  kept  to  pursuits,  such  as 
usury,  for  the  practice  of  which  they  required  no  connec- 
tion with  the  organisation  of  a  gild  or  a  town. 

For  a  time  Edward  could  take  no  decisive  measures,  since 
when  the  bull  reached  England,  he  had  left  for  Gascony.^ 
In  that  province  nothing  had  apparently  as  yet  been  done 
to  satisfy  the  demand  made  by  the  Council  of  Lyons,  in 
1274,  that  alien  usurers  should  no  longer  be  tolerated  in 
the  land  of  Christians.  It  was  hopeless  to  try  to  enforce 
in  a  distant  dependency  the  policy  that  had  been  beset  in 
England  with  so  many  difficulties,  and  had  now  incurred 
the  direct  opposition  of  the  Church.  The  only  alternative 
was  expulsion,  a  measure  that  on  French  soil  suggested  it- 
self the  more  naturally,  since  two  French  kings  had  practi- 
cally adopted  it  already.  Before  he  returned  home,  Edward 
issued  an  order  that  all  Jews  should  leave  Gascony.^ 

The  application  of  the  same  measure  in  England  was  a 
more  serious  matter,  since  the  English  Jews  were  doubtless 
a  much  larger  community  than  those  of  Gascony.  But, 
determined  not  to  tolerate  them  as  usurers,  and  convinced 


'  Rymer,  I.,  560-1. 

*  Edward  left  England  in  May,  1280.  Florence  of  War  center  (English 
HLstorical  Society),  II.,  2.36. 

'  Willelmi  liixhavgcr  Clirnvicn  et  Avmilett  (Rolls  Series).  1 16  ;  Ilorct 
J/utori/irujii  (Rolls  Serie.<*),  III.,  70-71. 


The  Ed-puUion  of  the  Jtivs  front  Enijlaud  in  12'JU.        GU 

of  the  hopelessness  of  his  efTorts  to  change  them  into 
traders,  Edward  had  no  alternative  but  to  treat  them  as  he 
had  treated  their  coreligionists  in  Gascony. 

No  doubt  he  was  influenced  in  his  resolution  by  the  mem- 
bers of  his  family  and  court.  His  wife  and  mother  and 
various  of  his  officers  had  been  in  the  habit  of  receiving 
liberal  grants  from  the  property  and  forfeitures  of  the 
Jews.^  They  must  have  known  that  this  resource  was 
decreasing  steadily,  and  was  not  worth  husbanding,  and 
they  must  have  welcomed  a  measure  which  would  bring 
into  the  King's  hands  a  fairly  large  amoinit  of  spoil  capa])le 
of  immediate  distribution.  And,  probably,  some  of  the 
ecclesiastical  members  of  the  court  felt,  as  his  mother 
certainly  did,-  a  religious  hatred  of  the  Jews  and  a  religious 
joy  at  the  prospect  of  their  disappearance. 

XI. — The  Expulsion. 

Of  the  course  of  events  for  the  first  few  months  after 
Edward's  return  to  England,  very  meagre  accounts  have 
come  down  to  us.  His  searching  inquiry  into  the  conduct 
of  the  judges  during  his  absence^  must  have  taken  up 
most  of  his  time  and  energy.  As  soon  as  he  had  meted 
out  punishment  to  those  whom  he  had  found  guilty  of 
corruption,  he  turned  to  the  Jewish  question.  On  the 
18th  of  July,  1290,  writs  were  issued  to  the  sherifls  of 
counties,  informing  tliem  that  a  decree  had  been  passed 
that  all  Jews  should  leave  England  before  the  feast  of 
All  Saints  of  that  year."*   Any  who  remained  in  the  country 

'  Forty-second  Rejjort  of  the  Dejmty-Kecjn'.r  of  the  Public  Records, 
593 ;  Forty-fourth  Bcjwrt,  109,  29.5 ;  Forty-fifth  Report,  72,  1(13  ; 
Forty-ninth  Report,  81  ;  Calendar  of  Patent  Rolls  from  1281  to  1292, 
62,  193  ;  Arehwologia,  VI.,  339  ;  Madox,  History  of  the  Exchequer,  I. 
225  w  ;  230  h  ;  231  I ;  John  of  Peckham,  Ref/istruin  Epistolarum,  II. 
619  ;  III.,  937 ;  Rogers,  Odfnrd  City  Documents  (Oxford  Historical 
Society),  208,  219  ;  Tovey,  Anylia  Judaica,  200. 

*  Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Judcn  (Second  Edition),  VII.,  note  11. 

*  Clironicles  of  Edward  I.  and  Edward  II.  (Rolls  Series),  I.,  97  ;  The 
Chronicle  of  Pierre  de  Lanytoft  (Rolls  Series),  II.,  185-6. 

*  Tovey,  Anglit  Judaica,  240. 


70  The  Erpulaioit  of  the  Jeirs  from  Enylnnd  in  1290. 

after  tlic  prescribed  day  were  declared  liable  to  the  penalty 
of  death.' 

Every  efFort  was  made  by  the  King  to  secure  the  peace 
and  sjxfety  of  tlie  Jews  during  the  short  period  for  which 
they  weni  allowed  to  ivinain,  and  in  the  coui-se  of  their 
journey  fi"om  their  homes  to  tlie  coast,  and  from  the  coast 
.to  their  ultimate  destination.  The  sheriffs  were  ordered 
to  liave  public  proclamation  made  tliat  "no  one  within 
the  appointed  period  should  injure,  harm,  damage,  or 
grieve  them,"  and  were  to  ensure,  for  such  as  chose  to  pay 
for  it,  a  safe  journey  to  London.  The  wardens  of  the 
Cinque  Ports,  within  the  district  of  whose  jurisdiction 
many  of  the  Jews  would  necessarily  embark,  received 
orders  in  the  same  spirit  as  those  that  had  been  addressed 
to  the  sheriffs  of  the  counties.  They  were  to  see  that  the 
exiles  were  provided,  after  payment,  with  a  safe  and 
speedy  passage  across  the  sea,  and  that  the  poor  among 
them  were  enabled  to  travel  at  cheap  rates  and  were  treated 
with  consideration.-  These  general  orders  were  reinforced 
by  the  issue  of  special  writs  of  safe-conduct  for  individual 
Jews.^  The  exiles  were  allowed  to  carry  with  them  all 
of  their  own  property  that  was  in  their  possession  at  the 
time  of  the  issue  of  the  decree  of  expulsion,  together  with 
such  pledges  deposited  with  them  by  Cliristians  as  were 
not  redeemed  before  a  fixed  date.  A  few  Jews  who  were 
high  in  the  favour  of  royal  personages,  such  as  Aaron,  son 
of  Vives,  who  was  a  "  chattel "  of  the  King's  brother 
Edmund,*  and  Cok,  son  of  Hagin,  who  ]3elonged  to  the 
Queen,^  were  allowed  before  their  departure  to  sell  their 
houses  and  fees  to  any  Christian  who  would  buy  them. 

On  St.  Denis's  Day  all  the  Jews  of  London  started  on 
their  journey  to  the  sea-coast.''  The  treatment  that  they 
met  with  was  not  so  merciful   as   the   king  had  wished. 

'  BnHliolomai  de  Cotton,  IlUtoria  Anglioana  (Rolls  Series),  p.  178. 

*  Tovey,  Anf/lm  Judaiea,  240-2. 

»   Th,  241  ;   C<ih-nd(tr  of  Patent  RolU  from  1281  to  1292,  378,  381,  382. 

•  Oih-ndar  of  Patent  Rolh,  379.  *  lb.  384.  «  //;.  232. 


The  Expiihioii  of  the  Ji'ic-s  J'ruin  Eiiijlamt  in  12J>0.         71 

Many  of  the  richer  among  tlieni  enil)arke<l  with  all  their 
property  at  London.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  the 
master  cast  anchor  during  the  ebb-tide,  so  tliat  his  vessel 
grounded  on  the  sands,  and  invited  his  passengers  to  walk 
on  the  shore  till  it  was  again  afloat.  He  led  them  to  a 
great  distance,  so  that  they  did  not  get  back  to  the  river- 
side till  the  tide  was  again  full.  Then  he  ran  into  the 
water,  climbed  into  the  ship  by  means  of  a  rope,  and  bade 
them,  if  they  needed  help,  call  on  their  Prophet  Moses. 
They  followed  him  into  the  water,  and  most  of  them  were 
di'owned.  The  sailors  appropriated  all  that  the  Jews 
had  left  on  board.  But  subsequently  tlie  master  and  his 
accomplices  were  indicted,  convicted  of  nnirder,  and  hanged.^ 
One  body  of  the  exiles  set  sail  for  France.  During  their 
voyage  fierce  storms  swept  the  sea.  Many  were  drowned. 
Many  were  cast  destitute  on  the  coast  that  they  were 
seeking,  and  were  allowed  by  the  King  to  live  for  a  time 
in  Amiens.^  This  act  of  mercy,  however,  called  forth  the 
censure  of  the  Pope,  and  the  Parlc))ient  de  la  Chaiidc/eur, 
which  met  in  the  same  year,  decreed  that  all  the  Jews 
from  England  and  Gascony  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the 
French  king's  dominions  should  leave  the  country  by  the 
middle  of  the  next  Lent.^  i\jiother  body,  numbering  1,335, 
and  consisting,  to  a  great  extent,  of  the  poor,  went  to 
Flanders.^  The  only  kno"\vn  fact  that  we  have  to  guide 
our  conjectures  as  to  the  ultimate  place  of  settlement  of 
any  of  those  who  left  England  is  that,  in  a  list  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Paris  Jewry,  made  four  years  after  the 
Expulsion,  there  appear  certain  names  with  the  additions 
of  /  'Englische  or  /  'Englais.^     It  may  well  be  that  many  Jews 

'  Walter  of  Hemingburgh,  Clironicon  (English  Historical  Society),  I., 
21,  22;  Bartlioloma!U3  Cotton.  Hi-sturia  Angl'tcana  (Rolls  Series),  178; 
Annalct  Mona.sticl,  III.,  362,  IV.,  327. 

-  0pm  Chroideorum  in  C7i  run  ides  of  S.  Allians,  J.  de  Trokelowe,  etc., 
.Annates  (Rolls  Series),  57. 

*  Lauriere,  Ordonnances  des  Rois  de  la  France,  I.,  317, 

*  Fortietti  lieport  of  Beputij-Keeper  of  Public  liecord^,  p.  474. 
»  Bevue  des  L'tu  lex  Juires,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  66,  67,  69. 


72         The  Erpuhio)!  of  the  Joes  front  Eiiglatid  in  1290. 

from  Enfjliintl,  speaking  the  French  language,  were  able,  in 
spite  of  the  Act  of  the  Pdrknient  de  la  CJiandeleur,  to  become 
merged  in  the  general  body  of  the  Jews  of  France,  who 
were  many  times  as  numerous  as  those  of  England  had 
been.^  Many,  too,  may  have  thrown  in  their  lot  with  their 
850,000  coreligionists  of  Spain.-. 

The  property  that  the  Jews  left  behind  them  in  England 
consisted  of  such  dwelling-houses,  and  other  houses,  as 
remained  to  them  in  spite  of  the  strict  conditions  imposed 
by  the  Statue  of  1275,  of  the  synagogues  and  cemeteries 
of  their  local  congregations,  and  of  bonds  partly  for  the 
repayment  of  money,  and  partly  for  the  delivery  of  wool 
and  com  for  wdiich  the  price  had  been  paid  in  advance 
All  feU  into  the  hands  of  the  King,^  except,  possibly,  the 
houses  in  some  of  those  towns,  such  as  Hereford,  Win- 
chester, and  Ipswich,  of  which  the  citizens  had  by  the 
purchase  of  manorial  rights  become  entitled  to  all  fines  and 
forfeitures.'*  The  annual  value  of  the  houses,  as  shown  in 
the  returns  made  by  the  sheriffs,  was,  after  allowance  had 
been  made  for  the  right  of  the  Capital  Lords,  about  £130. 
The  value  of  the  debts,  as  shown  in  the  register  made  by 
the  officers  of  the  Exchequer,  was  about  £9,100,  but  the 
amount  for  realisation  was  diminished  by  the  King's  re- 
solve to  take  from  the  debtors,  not  the  full  amount  for 
which  they  were  liable,  and  which,  under  the  amended 
statute  of  the  Jewry ,^  could  include  tliree  years'  interest, 
but  only  the  bare  principal  that  had  been  originally 
advanced.  Even  this  was  not  fully  collected;  payment 
was,  by  the  King's  permission,  delayed,  and  confirmations, 

'  Graetz,  VII..  267.  =  Ihld..  X:,:,. 

'  Langtoft,  II.,  189  ;  Hemingburgh.  II.,  21  ;  Madox,  Exch.,  I.,  261. 

*  Johnson,  Cn.stoms  of  Ih-rcford,  p.  100 ;  Madox,  Flrmn  Buiuji,  12, 
19,  23.  I  am  not  at  all  confident  of  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Johnson's  state- 
ment, on  which  the  latter  half  of  this  sentence  is  founded.  Certainly  some 
of  the  houses  of  the  Jews  of  Hereford,  Winchester,  and  Ipswich,  were 
granted  away  by  the  king  (JLinxditwnc  J\ISS.,  British  Museum,  Vol.  82P, 
part  ;"),  Transcript  4),  Rotul'i  Originalium  (Record  Commission),  I.,  73J- 
7iifl.  *  Papcrx  Anijlo-Jcwhh  Historwal  Exhlhithni,  p.  230. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  EiKjland  in  12'J0.        73 

made  in  1315  and  1327,  of  the  renunciation  of  interest, 
show  how  long  some  of  the  debts  remained  outstanding. 
Edward  III.  finally  gave  up  the  claim  to  all  further 
payment.^ 

It  was  ordered  that  the  houses  should  be  sold  and  the 
proceeds  devoted  to  pious  uses.-  But  it  appears  that 
they  were  nearly  all  given  away  to  the  King's  friends.' 

XII. — The  Necessity  for  the  Expulsion. 

The  Expulsion  was  not  the  act  of  a  cruel  king.  The 
forbearance  which  marks  the  orders  to  the  officers  who 
were  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  decree  had  been 
shown  by  Edward  many  a  time  before,  when  he  protected 
Jews  against  claims  too  rigorously  enforced,  and  ordered 
that  his  own  rights  should  be  waived  where  insistence  on 
them  would  have  deprived  his  debtors  of  their  means  of 
subsistence.* 

Nor  was  it  prompted  by  greed.  It  is  true  that  im- 
mediately after  it,  and  according  to  the  account  of  many 
chroniclers,  as  an  expression  of  gratitude  for  it,  tlie 
Parliament  voted  a  tenth  and  a  fifteenth.^     But  this  can- 

•  Rotuli  Parliamentorum,  I,  3-l:6&;  II.,  8a,  402a;  StaUitcs  of  Realm,  1 
Ed.  III.,  Stat.  2,  §  3. 

-  Tovey,  235  ;  Prynne,  Second  Demurrer,  127  ;  Pajyers,  Anglo-Jewish 
Historirnl  Exhibition,  21. 

'  A  list,  not  quite  complete,  of  the  houses  belonging  to  the  expelled 
Jews  is  contained  in  the  Manuscript  known  as  Q.  R.  Miscellanea  :  "  Jews,' 
No.  557,  9  and  11  (Public  Eecord  Office).  A  list  of  persons  who  received 
from  the  King  grants  of  Jews'  houses,  to  hold  at  a  nominal  rental,  is 
printed  in  Rotulorum  Origi)uilinm  Ahhreviatio  (Record  Commission) 
pp.  73'-7()'',  and  the  deeds  of  gift  are  copied  in  full  in  Lansdoione  MSS. 
(British  Museum)  Vol.  82(5,  Part  5,  Transcript  4.  Nearly  all  the  houses 
mentioned  in  Q.  R.  3Ii.scellanea  are  granted  away  by  deeds  included  in  the 
Rotuli  Originalium  and  the  Lansdowne  Transcript. 

<  Madox,  Etch.  I.  2,  248/<,  258 f,  etc. ;  Tovey,  207  ;  Prynne,  2«rf  Demurrer, 
59,  76  ;  Rymer,  Faedera,  523,  598. 

*  CJiro/iiea  Mona.sterii  de  MeUa  (Rolls  Series),  II.,  251-2.  Annales  Monas- 
tici.  III.,  362  ;  W.  de  Hemingburgh,  Chronicoii  (English  Historical 
Society)  II..  22. 


74-  IVie  E.i'pulaion.  of  the  Jtus  fruni  Eiujland  in  1290. 

not  liave  been  a  bribe  offered  beforehand,  for  the  writs 
announcini^  tlie  decree  were  issued  on  the  fourth  day  after 
that  for  whieli  the  Parliament  was  summoned.^  It  is 
impossible  to  suppose  tliat  in  so  short  an  interval  the 
question  was  brought  up,  the  policy  chosen,  the  price 
fixed,  and  the  decree  issued.  It  is  equally  impossible 
that  Edward's  conduct  should  have  been  affected  by  the 
prospect  of  the  confiscation  of  the  small  amount  of  property 
that  the  Jews  left  behind  tliem. 

The  Expulsion  was  a  piece  of  independent  royal  action,)^, 
made  necessary  by  tlie  impossibility  of  carrying  out  the 
only  alternative  policy  that  an  honourable  Christian  king 
could  adopt.  And  the  impossibility  was  not  of  Edward's 
making.  It  was  the  result  of  many  causes,  and  the  know- 
ledge of  it  had  been  brought  home  to  him  by  many  proofs. 
The  guesses  of  our  contemporary,  and  all  but  contemporary, 
autliorities  who  take  on  themselves  to  explain  his  action, 
show  how  many  were  the  obstacles  before  which  he  had  to 
confess  himself  vanquished.  In  one  chronicle  the  Expulsion  "^-, 
is  represented  as  a  concession  to  the  prayer  of  the  Pope ;-  in 
another,  as  the  result  of  the  efforts  of  Queen  Eleanor  f  in  a 
third,  as  a  measure  of  summary  punishment  against  the  blas- 
phemy of  the  Jews,  taken  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  English 
clergy  f  in  a  fourth  as  an  answer  to  the  complaints  made  by 
the  magnates  of  the  continued  prevalence  of  usury  f  in  a  fifth 
as  an  act  of  conformity  to  public  opinion  f  in  a  sixth,  as  a 
reform  suggested  by  the  King's  independent  general  enquiry 
into  the  administration  of  the  kingdom  during  his  absence, 


'  Parliament  was  summoned  for  July  15tli ;  see  Parliamentary  Paper  69, 
of  1878  (H.  of  C.)  "Parliaments  of  England."  The  writs  ordering'  the 
Expulsion  were  issued  on  July  the  18th  ;  see  Tovey,  2-tO. 

-  French  Chronicler  of  London,  in  Riley's  Citron  ides  of  Old  London, 
242. 

'  Annalfl.i  Monastici,  II.,  409. 

*  Ih.,  III.,  361. 

*  W.  de  Hemingburgh,  II.,  20. 

*  Chronlcle.i  oj  Edward  I.  and  Edioard  II.  (Rolls  Scries)  Vol.  I.  99 
('•  Omnes  Judaei  .  .  .  .  o)»^e<ie»<e  Rege  Edwardo exulantur"). 


The  Expiihio)i  of  the  Jens  from  Eiigldiid  in   1290.      75 

and  his  discovery,  through   the  complaints  of  the  Council, 
of  the  "  deceits  "  of  the  Jews.^ 

Each  of  these  statements  gives  us  some  information  as 
to  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  failure  of  Edward's  policy. 
None  gives  the  true  cause,  for  none  sets  before  us  the  true 
position  of  the  Jews  and  their  relations  with  their 
neighbours.  It  is  true  that  it  was  the  bull  of  Honorius 
that  finally  compelled  Edward  to  give  up  his  attempt  to 
assimilate  the  position  of  the  Jews  to  that  of  Christian 
traders.  It  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  his  mother  had  from  tlie 
first  dissuaded  him  from  generous  treatment,  and,  perhaps, 
had  induced  him  to  lessen  the  chance  of  the  success  of  his 
policy  by  asserting  his  right  over  them  as  over  his  serfs.^ 
But  the  bull  of  the  Pope  and  the  personal  influence  of  the 
Queen-mother  were  ahke  unnecessary.  If  Edward  had 
waived  all  his  rights,  if  the  Church  had  in  his  reign  relented 
towards  the  Jews  instead  of  increasing  its  bitterness  towards 
them,  both  acts  of  generosity  would  have  come  too  late. 
The  same  causes  that  had  made  the  Jews  accept  the  posi- 
tion of  royal  usurers  at  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century, 
and  of  royal  chattels  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth,  made 
it  impossible  for  them  to  give  up  either  position  at  the 
end  of  tlie  tliirteenth.  From  the  moment  of  their  arrival  in 
England  they  had  been  hated  by  the  common  people. 
They  never  had  an  opportunity  of  acquiring  interests 
in  common  with  their  neighbour,  or  of  entering  tlieir 
social  or  industrial  institutions.  Isolation  brought  w4th 
it  danger.  For  the  sake  of  safety  they  had  to  accept  royal 
protection  ;  and  their  protectors  long  held  them  in  a  close 
grip,  until  one  at  last  refused  to  tolerate  them  under  the 
same  conditions  as  had  satisfied  his  predecessors.     But  to 

'  Tlte  Chronicle  of  Pierre  Langtoft  (Rolls  Series),  II.,  187-89. 

^  Cum  .  .  concesserimus  KarissimiE  matri  nostrae  Aleanorae  Reginae 
Angliae  quod  nuUus  Judaeus  habitet  vel  moretur  in  quibuscunque  villis 
quas  ipsa  mater  nostra  habet  in  dotem.  .  .  Papers  of  the  Anglo-Jcici.'<h 
Jliitorlcal  Ejhihition.  pp.  187-8.  Forty-fourth  Beport  of  the  Deputy 
Keeper  of  the  Puhlle  liecordx,  p.  fi.  Graetz,  Geschichte  der  Juden  (Second 
edition),  VII..  note  11. 


7G        The  Kr/ui/sion  of  the  Jciva  from  Emjland  iti  1290. 

have  given  them  their  freedom  would  only  have  been  to 
expose  them  to  the  old  dislike  and  the  old  danger.  If 
Edward  had  allowed  them  to  become  citizens,  and  had  set 
at  naught  the  bull  of  Honorius,  he  would  have  seen  the 
English  towns  refusing  to  support  his  policy  and  denying 
to  the  Jews  the  right  to  join  the  gild  merchant,  to  learn 
trades  and  to  practise  them,  and  to  enjoy  the  protection  of 
municipal  laws  and  customs. 

For  towards  all  new-comers,  of  whatever  race  or  religion, 
the  English  burgesses  of  the  Middle  Ages  showed  a 
spirit  of  unyielding  exclusiveness.^  But  the  feeling  against 
the  Jews  was  far  greater  than  that  against  any  other 
class.  Every  reference  to  them  in  English  literature, 
before  the  Expulsion  and  long  after  it,  shows  its  strength 
and  bitterness.  "  Hell  is  without  light  where  they 
sing  lamentations,"  says  one  poet  of  them.-  Another  who, 
writing  a  few  years  after  the  Expulsion,  mentions  the 
massacre  at  the  coronation  of  Richard  I.,  finds  in  it 
nothing  to  wonder  at,  and  nothing  to  regret.  To  him  it 
is  only  natural  that  "  The  king  took  it  for  great  shame 
That  from  such  unclean  things  as  them  any  meat  to  him 
came."  '  The  chroniclers  of  the  time  refer  to  them  again 
and  again,  and  always  in  the  same  tone  of  dislike.  "  The 
Jews,"  says  Matthew  Paris,  in  his  account  of  one  of  the 
most  cruel  of  Henry  III.'s  acts  of  extortion,  "  had  nearly 
all  their  money  taken  from  them,  and  yet  they  were  not 
pitied,  because  it  is  proved,  and  is  manifest,  that  they  are 
continually  convicted  of  forging  charters,  seals  and  coins."  ■* 
"  They  are  a  sign  for  the  nation  like  Cain  the  accursed,"  he 
says  elsewhere.^  The  eulogist  of  Edward  I.,  when  he 
recounts  the  great  deeds  of  liis  hero,  tells  with  pride  and 

'  Compare  the  treatment  of  the  Flemings,  who  settled  as  weavers  in 
different  towns  of  Eng^land  soon  after  the  Conquest,  but  had  to  retreat 
to  one  district  in  Wales,  where  they  lived  under  special  royal  protection. 
Cunninjyham,  The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Cornmerce,  176  ;  and 
see  Gross.  Gild  Merchant,  II.,  1.5.5-(!. 

^  Jacobs.  14.  3  Ibid..  107. 

*  IIi.sf»ria  .in;/loriim,  III..  70.  =-  Ibid.,  III.,  ^0\i. 


7%  J  Ezpulaion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  12U0.        77 

without  I  word  of  pity  how  "the  perfidious  and  un- 
believing horde  of  Jews  is  driven  forth  from  Enol.nid  in 
one  day  into  exile."  ^  And  just  as  no  punislmient  that  they 
can  sufter  is  regarded  as  too  heavy  for  thoir  sins,  so  no 
story  of  their  misdoings,  whether  it  be  of  tlie  nuu'der  of 
Christian  children,  of  insults  to  the  Christian  religion,  or 
of  fraud  on  Christian  debtors,  is  too  improbaljle  or  too 
brutal  or  too  trivial  to  be  repeated.^ 

The  popular  hatred  showed  itself  in  deed  as  well  as  in 
word.  The  massacres  of  1190  were  imitated  on  a  small 
scale  at  intervals  during  the  sojourn  of  the  Jews  in  Eng- 
land. Bradiers  and  hosiers,  bakers  and  shoemakers,  tailors 
and  copperers,  priests  and  Oxford  scholars  were  all  ready 
to  take  part  in  the  looting  of  a  Jewry.^ 

Nor  was  there  an}^  influence  exercised  by  tlie  higher 
classes  to  make  the  populace  less  intolerant.  A  great 
lady  declared  that  it  was  a  disgrace  for  one  of  her  rank  to 
sit  in  a  carriage  in  which  a  Jewess  had  sat.^  A  great  noble 
thought  it  a  good  jest,  when  a  Jew  on  his  estate  fell  into  a 
pit  on  a  Friday,  to  order  that  he  should  not  be  helped  out 
either  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath  or  on  the  Christian,  in  order 
that  the  absurdity  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  might  be 
demonstrated — at  the  cost,  as  it  resulted,  of  the  Jew's 
life.^ 

Bishops  supported  with  eagerness  the  charge  of  child- 
murder  repeatedly  brought  against  the  Jews,"  though  Popes 
and  Councils  had  declared  it  to  be  groundless  ^ ;  and  the 
judge  who  showed  the  greatest  eagerness  for  the  punish- 

'  CJironides  of  Edward  I.  and  Edward  II.  (Rolls  Series),  Coinmcndutio 
Lamentabilis,  II.,  14. 

*  M.  Paris,  Clironica  Majorn,  V.,  114;  Annalen  Mo/ia.stiri,  IV.,  503; 
Gesta  Ahhatum  Monasterii,  S.  Albani  (Rolls  Series),  I.,  471. 

'  Annalcs  MomistiH,  IV.,  91  ;  JVor/alh  Atitiquarmn  Mixcell'iny,  I.,  331  ; 
Forfy-fiinrth  IlejM'rt  of  the  Diqndy -Keeper  of  the  Pulllr  liccurdu,  188  ; 
Be  Aidiquis  Legihns,  Camden  Soc,  .")() ;  Tovey,  \'>C) ;  Prynne,  Second 
Demurrer,  118.  '  Jacobs,  2f>. 

*  W.  Rishanger,  Chronica  et  Annales  (Rolls  Series),  p.  4. 

*  M.  Paris,  Chronica  Majora,  IV.  30,  31. 

'  Ilahn.  Cr.^rhirhte  ilrr  Kitzer,  III..  3.->.  n.  2. 


78         Till'  E.v/>i(/.sioii  of  f/ic  Jeirx  fro))i  EiKjhmd  in  1290. 

nient  of  the  Jewish  prisoners  who  w'ere  accuj-ed  on  the 
monstrous  charge  of  having  murdered  Hugh  of  Lineobi, 
was  a  man  who  w^as  held  in  especial  honour  by  his  con- 
temporaries as  a  scholar  and  "  a  circumspect  and  discreet 
man.   ^ 

Thus  the  Christians  were  not  likely  to  endure  the  Jews 
as  neighbours  and  fcllow-w^orkers,  and  the  Jews,  even  if 
they  had  been  permitted,  would  have  been  as  little  willing 
to  live  the  life  and  follow  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  citizens. 
It  was  not  that  they  loved  usury  as  a  calling.  On  the 
contrary,  they  entered  willingly  into  all  those  professions 
that  gave  them  the  opportunity  of  being  their  own  masters 
and  living  according  to  their  own  fashion.  Many  of  them 
were  physicians,  and  among  the  most  esteemed  in  Europe.^ 
In  Italy,  where  the  municipal  and  gild  organisations  were 
easier  to  enter,  and  less  narrow  and  exacting  in  their  con- 
stitution, than  those  of  England,^  they  worked  at  trades.* 
In  Sicily,  under  Frederic  II.,  some  Jews  were  employed 
as  administrators,  and  many  more  were  agriculturists."'' 
In  Rome,  one  w^as  treasurer  of  the  household  of  Pope 
Alexander  III.,  and  in  Southern  France  another  filled  the 
same  office  under  Count  Raymond,  of  Toulouse.^  In 
Austria,  they  were  the  financial  ministers  of  the  Archduke,^ 
and  in  Spain,  one  Avas  chamberlain  to  Alphonso  the  Wise, 
and  many  others  w^ere  in  the  service  of  the  same  king.^ 
In  England,  some  Jew^s  were  attached  to  the  Court  of 
Henry  III.,  and  treated  with  special  favour :  others  w^ere 
useful   and   valued   adherents  of    Richard,   King   of    the 

'  M.  Paris,  Chroiiica  Majora,  V.  .")17  ;  A/males  Monastici.  I.  34.^. 

''■  Rhue  dcs  Etudes  Juives,  XVIII.,  258  ;  JSast  Anglian,  V.  10  ;  Jacobs, 

es-9. 

^  Perrens,  Histoire  de  Florence,  III.,  220-1,  226.  Gregorovius,  Gcsch.  der 
Sffidf  Tiinn..  V.,  808. 

'  Thomas  Aquinas,  Opu.sculuni,  XXI. 

'  Gufk'iTiann,  Gesrh.  den  Erzirhungnwesens,  etc..  II.,  287. 

«  Giidemann,  II.,  71  ;  Hid.  Litt.  de  la  France,  XXVII.,  r>20. 

'  Gractz,  VII..  !)7. 

«  Ih..  125-7. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Enghoid  in  12JJ0.       79 

Romans,^  and,  after  tlie  proliibition  of  usury,  others,  as  wo 
have  seen,  became  corn-mercliants,  and  wool-merchants. 

But  the  whole  character  of  the  Jews,  their  religious 
beliefs,  and  their  national  hopes,  were  such  as  to  make 
reiiollent  to  them  those  close  relations  with  Christians  and 
Englishmen  which  would  have  been  necessary  if  they  had 
entered  into  the  feurlal  or  municipal  organisations  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Though  there  was  no  religious  obstacle  to 
prevent  them  from  entering  a  Gild,  still  they  could  not, 
wathout  violating  their  religion,  eat  at  a  Gild  feast,  or  take 
part  in  its  religious  ceremonies.  Their  teachers,  like  those 
of  the  Church,  warned  them  against  social  intercourse  with 
the  Christians,  "  lest  it  might  lead  to  inter-marriage."^ 
They  did  not  speak  the  English  language.^  They  remained 
willingly  outside  the  national  and  municipal  life. 

Their  isolation  caused  them  no  sorrow.  Rather  must 
it  have  been  dear  to  them  as  a  sign  that  they  were  faith- 
ful members  of  the  one  race  to  which  in  truth  they 
belonged,  the  race  of  Israel.  The  interests  that  filled  their 
mind  were  those  that  were  common  to  them,  not  wnth 
the  inhabitants  of  the  country  in  which  they  lived,  but 
with  their  brethren  in  faith  and  race  scattered  throughout 
the  world.  The  rapidity  and  copiousness  w'ith  which  the 
stream  of  Jewish  literature  poured  forth  in  the  IMiddle 
Ages,  showed  how  unfailing  was  the  strength  of  the 
Jewnsh  life  which  was  its  source.  In  Southern  Europe  the 
Jews  waged  among  themselves  fierce  controversies  over 
problems  such  as  were  suggested  by  the  support  that  some 
of  their  Rabbis  gave,  or  appeared  to  give,  to  the  Aristotelian 
doctrines  of  the  eternity  of  matter  and  the  uncreativeness 
of  God."*  Among  the  English  Jew^s,  and  in  the  communities 
of  Northern  France  with  whom  the  English  Jews  were  in 
continual   communication,   literature,   thougli    less   contro- 

'  Hinjal  Latfcvs  (Rolls  Series),  II.,  4() ;  Madox,  I.,  257  «/  ;  Rymer,  Fadn-d, 
I.,  Sr.ti.  -  Jacobs.  2(V.). 

'  Jewish  Quakterlv  Review,  IV.  12,  5.")1  ;  Hint.  Litt.  de  la  France, 
27,  485,  650,  xq. 

*   Hixt.  TMf.  (If  Frinirr,  XXVII.,  27.  (550.  sq. 


■SO        The  Expulsion  of  the  Jeua  from  England  in  1290. 

versial  and  engaged  witli  loss  deep  questions,  sufficed, 
nevertheless,  even  better  to  provide  continual  and  engros- 
sing interest  for  the  orthodox.  There  were  read  and 
written,  down  to  the  last  years  before  the  Expulsion, 
coninientaries  and  super-commentaries  on  the  Bible  and 
the  Talmud,  lexicons  and  grammars,  treatises  on  ritual 
and  ceremonial.  The  Rabbis  discussed  what  blessings  it 
wjis  right  to  use  on  all  the  occasions  of  life,  on  rising  in 
the  morning,  or  on  retiring  to  rest  at  night,  on  eating,  on 
washing,  on  being  married,  on  hearing  thunder.^  The 
English  Jews  were  strict  observers  of  the  ceremonial  law,^ 
they  made  use  in  daily  life  of  the  minutifB  of  Rabbinical 
.scholarship,  they  drew  up  their  contracts  "  after  the  usage 
of  the  sages,"  ^  and  thus,  like  all  the  Jews  of  mediaeval 
Europe,  they  were  continually  reminded,  in  the  pursuit  of 
their  ordinary  interests  and  occupations,  that  they  were  a 
peculiar  people.  How  proud  they  were  of  the  position  is 
shown  by  the  poetical  literature  which,  as  preserved  in 
the  Jewish  prayer  book,  is  the  most  precious  legacy  that 
mediaeval  Judaism  has  left  us.  It  was  common  to  Jews  in 
all  lands  •.  it  commemorated  all  the  sorrov.^s  of  their  nation, 
and  gave  expression  to  all  their  hopes.  It  made  them 
feel  that,  scattered  as  they  were,  they  yet  had  a  destiny 
of  their  own,  and  it  banished  from  their  minds,  as  a 
counsel  of  baseness,  the  thought  of  making  themselves 
one  with  the  "  Gentiles  "  around  them.  It  reminded  them 
that  exile  and  persecution,  and  ultimate  triumph  were  the 
appointed  lot  of  Israel,  and  that  the  same  teachers  M^ho 
had  prophesied  that  the  Chosen  People  should  suffer,  had 
also  prophesied  that  in  the  fulness  of  time  they  should 
be  redeemed.  They  knew  that  in  the  hour  of  danger  and 
persecution  there  had  never  been  wanting  martyrs  to 
testify  in  death  to  the  unity  of  God  and  to  the  Glory  of 

'  Jn^t.  Lift.,  43.-),  441,   4G2,   484,  487,  507,  sq.  ;  Jewish  Quartekly 
Review,  IV.,  25. 
«  Jacobs.  2SG. 
'  Arehernloijirnl  Jtmrrtnl,  XXVIII..  ISO. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.        8l 

his  Name.  And  they  could  not  doubt  that  the  Lord  of 
Mercy  and  Justice  would  mete  out  due  recompense  to  the 
oppressors  and  the  oppressed.^ 

Thus  the  memory  of  their  past,  and  the  commonplace 
occurrences  of  their  daily  life,  continually  strengthened 
the  bonds  that  bound  Jews  together  after  twelve  centuries 
of  dispersion.  In  the  thirteenth  century  of  the  Christian 
era,  as  in  the  first,  they  still  regarded  the  Holy  Land  as 
their  true  home.  Three  hundred  Rabbis  from  France  and 
England  went  thither  in  1211.-  There  Jehudi  Halevi 
ended  his  days.^  There  Nachmanides  taught  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  every  Jew  to  live,  and,  true  to  his  own  lesson, 
he  set  out  on  his  pilgrimage  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age. 
And  in  his  own  and  the  next  generation  many  Jews  from 
Spain  and  Germany  followed  his  example.*  A  Jewish 
traveller  of  the  Middle  Ages  says  of  certain  of  the  communi- 
ties of  his  coreligionists  that  he  visited  :  "  They  are  full  of 
hopes,  and  they  say  to  one  another,  '  Be  of  good  cheer, 
brethren,  for  the  salvation  of  the  Lord  will  be  quick  as  the 
glancing  of  an  eye  : '  and  were  it  not  that  we  have  hitherto 
doubted,  and  thought  that  the  end  of  our  Captivity  has  not 
yet  arrived,  we  should  have  been  gathered  together  long  ago. 
But  now  this  will  not  be  till  tlie  time  of  song  arrives,  and 
the  sound  of  the  turtle-dove  gives  warning.  Then  will  the 
message  arrive,  and  we  shall  ever  say  '  The  Name  of  the 
Lord  be  exalted.'  "^ 

Nowhere  in  Europe  could  such  men  have  been  content  to 
live  the  life  of  those  around  them,  to  bind  themselves  with 
the  ties  of  citizenship,  to  find  their  highest  hopes  on  earth 
in  the  destiny  of  the  town,  or  the  country,  in  which  they 
dwelt.  They  were  but  sojourners.  They  lived  in  ex- 
pectation of  the  time  when  the  Lord  should  return  the 
Captivity  of  Zion,  and  they  should  look  back  on  their 
exile  as  reawakened  dreamers. 

'  Cf.  L.  Zunz,  Die  Syiuigogale  Poesie  des  Mittelalters,  Berlin,  18.56. 

*  Graetz,  VII.,  6.        »  Ibid.,  VI.        "  VII.,  138  ;  VII.,  307-8  ;  VII.,  188-9. 

*  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  trans.  Asher,  I.,  1G3. 


82        The  ExptiLsion  of  the  Jcica  from  EiKjJdiid  in  1290. 

Without  the  ,privilcf]jo  of  isobition  tliey  could  not  live: 
;in<l  if  in  Enjj^land  the  coninmnities  of  the  Gentiles  had  been 
open  to  theui,  they  would  never  have  entered  them. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Eni^dish  Jew.s  was  an  event  of 
small  importance  alike  in  English  and  in  Jewisli  history. 
In  Eno-land  the  effect  that  it  produced  was  barely  per- 
ceptible. The  loss  of  their  capital  was  too  slight  to 
produce  any  economic  change.^  The  only  class  that  bene- 
fited from  their  departure  was  the  Florentine  merchants, 
whose  trade  gr6w  from  this  time  even  greater  than  before.^ 
Political  results  of  importance  have  sometimes  been  at- 
tributed to  the  Expulsion.  The  victory  of  the  towns  over 
the  King  has  been  said  to  have  been  hastened  by  the  loss 
of  the  financial  support  of  the  Jews.^  But  it  cannot  have 
come  any  the  sooner  for  the  disappearance  of  a  community 
from  whom  the  King  had  long  ceased  to  get  any  real  help 
in  his  enterprises  abroad,  or  in  his  struggles  at  home.  The 
trading  classes  still  complained  after  the  Expulsion,  as  they 
had  done  before  it,  of  the  prevalence  of  the  "  horrible 
practice  of  usury,  which  has  undone  many,  and  brought 
many  to  poverty j'"*  and  the  "  horrible  practice  "  prevailed 
none  the  less ;  and  perhaps  the  poorer  agricultural  classes 
of  England,  the  newly  enfeoffed  rent-payers,  found,  as  did 
the  corresponding  class  in  France,^  that  the  expulsion  of 
the  Jews  only  compelled  them  to  go  to  more  cruel  money- 
lenders than  before.  The  coin  was  clipped  as  regularly 
after  the  Expulsion  as  before  it,  and  the  Christian  gold- 
smiths were  as  rigorously  treated  as  the  Jewish  money- 

'  See  the  Tables  in  Thorold  Rogers'  IHstory  of  Agriculture  and  Prices 
Vols.  I.  and  II. 

*  Penizzi,  Storui  del  Cummerrio  e  del  Banchieri  de  Firenze,  17.5. 

*  Papers,  Anglo- Jew i.sJi  Hi-storieal  Exhibition,  p.  211. 

*  Ifofuli  P(irli(i  mentor  urn,  II.,  33:2-:?50.  *  Graetz,  VII.,  101. 


The  Expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  England  in  1290.       So 

lenders  had  been.'  The  Church,  which  had  helped  to 
drive  out  the  Jews,  soon  found  itself  in  conflict  with  Chris- 
tian heresy,  compared  with  which  Jewish  unbelief  was 
harmless. 

The  Jews,  on  their  side,  were  driven  from  a  land  which 
thirty-five  years  earlier  they  had  begged  in  vain  to  Iji- 
allowed  to  leave.-  They  went  forth  to  join  the  far  greater 
bodies  of  their  countrymen  in  other  lands,  and  with  them 
to  fulfil  the  career  of  sorrow  that  they  had  begun.  Thf 
loss  of  their  inhospitable  home  in  England  was  but  one 
episode  in  their  tragic  history.  From  France  they  were 
again  to  be  expelled,  despoiled  and  destitute.''  In 
Germany  the  blood-accusation  met  them  as  in  England.'* 
In  Spain  popular  massacres  and  clerical  persecution  were 
already  preparing  the  ground  for  the  Inquisition.'^  The 
time  was  still  far  off"  w^hen  Jew  and  Christian  could  live 
side  by  side  and  neither  suffer  because  he  would  not 
worship  after  his  neighbour's  fashion.  That  time  could 
not  come  until  society  was  more  heterogeneous,  and  the 
circles  of  interest  of  ordinary  men  wider,  than  they  coul<l 
be  in  the  thirteenth  century,  until  the  citizen  ceased  to 
live  his  life,  bodily  and  spiritual,  within  the  walls  of  his 
native  town,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Church. 

'  J.  de  Trokelowe,  etc..  Chronica  et  Annales  (Rolls  Series),  58  ;  Rutling 
Ammls  of  the  Coinage  (Third  Edition),  I.,  198-202. 
-  M.  Paris,  CJironica  Majora.  V.,  441,  487. 

»  Graetz,  VII..  2G4-7  ;  Depping,  228-9.  ♦  Graetz,  YII..  181-8.  2.->2. 

*  Hid.,  163-4,  318-20,  3G3. 


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