[1] – Miss Strickland gives the following as a reason for the exclusion of women:—“As the etiquette of the queen-mother’s recent widowhood prevented her from sharing in this splendid festival, all women were forbidden to be present at its celebration.”—Queens of England, vol. i., p. 373.
The issuing of such a proclamation at the commencement of the reign, was an ill omen of the treatment which the Jews were to expect under the government of the new monarch. They were desirous, if possible, to reconcile the mind of the king, and with a view to this purpose, deputed some of the chief men from amongst them to carry rich presents to him.[1] These persons, hoping that they would be protected by reason of the gifts of which they were the bearers—which, as Dr. Tovey says, “were full worthy of his acceptance”—ventured to approach the courtyard of the palace at the time of the coronation, in order to crave leave of admittance, but the confluence pressing forward, they were, before they could obtain permission to enter, forced within the gates. The attendants who were stationed at the entrance, charged them with disobedience to the king’s command, and with blows forced them back into the street. The mob who were assembled at the outside, when they saw what took place, raised a cry that the king desired the proclamation he had issued to be enforced, and forthwith fell upon such of the Jews as were mingled with the crowd, and beating them, many were severely wounded, some killed, and many were left half dead. A report was now quickly spread through the city that the king had ordered all the Jews to be put to death, for the disregard they had shown to his proclamation. The people lost no time in putting this supposed order into execution. The Jews were sought out by the populace in every quarter of the city, and wherever they were found, were slain without mercy. Many took refuge in their houses, and defended themselves with determined courage, till the rabble, whose fury was increased by the opposition they experienced, set fire to their houses and burned them to the ground, the Jews and their families perishing in the flames. The cruelties that were inflicted were so atrocious, that the more sober-minded citizens, who had in vain endeavoured to restrain the mob, sent information at length to the king of what was taking place. He was at the time seated at the banquet, but immediately gave directions to Randulph de Grandville, the Lord High Steward, to quell the tumult. This officer, taking with him some of the chief nobility, used his endeavours to put a stop to the outrage; but the populace would pay no regard to his authority, threatened him with violence, and compelled him to retire. No interference of the chief justice and his officers, whom the king had despatched to quell the tumult, availed, until the multitude were gorged with spoil, and tired with the labour of slaughter. The tumult continued during the whole night; the houses of all the Jews were plundered, and most of them burned, and it was not till the next day that an end was put to the proceedings, by a large force sent into the city by the king. A few of the most active of the rioters were apprehended, and three of them were afterwards executed; not, however, for the pillage and murder of the unfortunate Jews. One of them was hanged because he did not confine his villany to the Jews, but took advantage of the uproar to plunder the house of a Christian; and the other two—who also met with the same fate—because by setting fire to the house of a Jew they had exposed the dwellings of the neighbouring Christians to destruction. And we are further informed by another historian, “that the inquiry soon stopped, as many considerable citizens were involved in the guilt, and as the priests applauded the pious zeal which destroyed so many enemies to the Christian faith.”[2]
[1] – Those who came from a distance must have been totally ignorant of the royal proclamation since it was only one day old.
[2] – Noorthouck, p. 34.
The celebrated Rabbi, Jacob of Orleans, was among the great number of Jews who were slain on this night; as appears from the following short notice of that awful event, by Rabbi [♦]Gedaliah ben Joseph Jachija, in his Shalsheleth Hakabbalah, fol. cxi., col. i.:—“In the year 4930 [A.M. 1190, A.D.] when Richard became new king in the city of London, which is in England, our Rabbi, Jacob of Orleans, was put to death in glorification of God’s name, and many other Jews with him.”[1]
[♦] ‘Gedeliah’ replaced with ‘Gedaliah’
[1] – See [Appendix A].
The following circumstance, which occurred during that dreadful uproar, will give us some idea of the means which the Christian Church of that period employed in order to bring the Jews to a knowledge of salvation. Whilst animated by the above-mentioned mad frenzy and murderous rage, a Jew who was called Baruch (being interpreted, Benedict or Blessed), of York, was seized, and commanded to choose either to profess Christianity or to die immediately. This man, to save his life, called out that he would embrace the Christian faith, whereupon he was carried by the mob to the Prior of St. Mary of York, and was by him baptized. The king, hearing of the conversion, or rather of the baptism, commanded the Jew to be brought into his presence, and catechised him whether he had sincerely renounced his former faith. He answered that he had not, but only through fear of death submitted to whatever the Christians required of him. Richard, who was at the time attended by the chief dignitaries of the Church, asked the Archbishop of Canterbury what punishment should be inflicted on the apostate? The archbishop replied—“Not any; for if he will not be a man of God, let him be a man of the devil.”
“With which answer,” says the author of the Anglia Judaica, “the king being something surprised, suffered the man to slip away, and there was no further notice taken of him.” He continues—“This archbishop, delighting more in carnal than spiritual warfare, had his brains knocked out, within a few months after, at the siege of Acre.” Poor Benedict, however, did not survive more than a few days after that.
The Jews, in order to secure the king’s favour, came forward with large supplies of money towards the holy expedition—profanely so called—which the king undertook that year, and were therefore declared by proclamation to be under the king’s especial protection.