In the year 1210, he laid a tallage upon the Jews, of 66,000 marks, and enforced payment by imprisonment, and by the infliction of various modes of bodily torture. He commanded all the Jews of both sexes throughout England to be imprisoned, till they would make a discovery of their wealth, which he appointed officers to receive in every county, and return to his exchequer. The generality of them had one eye put out. One Jew of Bristol, who hesitated to pay the sum at which he was assessed (no less than 10,300 marks of silver) is stated to have been condemned to the cruelty of having one of his teeth torn from his head each day, until he had discharged his quota. For seven days he submitted to the torture: on the eighth day, having lost all his teeth but one, he produced the amount demanded of him. Both these facts are briefly noticed in the chronological table of Valentine’s Hebrew and English Almanack.
The many wars King John was engaged in about that time, pressed him very hard for money. He not only waged war against France, Ireland, and Wales, but also against his own barons. Money was indispensable, and the poor Jews were the sufferers.
The next year a further tallage was levied, in respect of which one Jew alone paid 5,500 marks. In the sixteenth year of his reign, John imposed another heavy tax, and compelled its payment by imprisonment and other measures of violence. Some of the Jews of Southampton were rather backward in their payments; they were ordered to be imprisoned and sent to the castle at Bristol.
Besides the sums which were thus raised upon the Jews by means of taxes affecting their whole community, the king derived considerable advantages from appropriating the property of individuals amongst them. Was he desirous of making a handsome wedding-gift to any one? he did so by sending the favoured party a full receipt of all the debts owed to the poor Jew, as was the case with a certain Robert.[1] In some instances he would seize upon their houses, and grant them away to other persons, as was the case with Isaac of Norwich, who had a house in London, which the king without ceremony presented to the Earl of Ferrars.[2] But the mode which he more generally adopted to turn their acquisitions to account, was to enter into agreements and compromises with their debtors—either releasing in full the sum which was due, or discharging the interest payable upon the amount.
[1] – See [Appendix G].
[2] – See [Appendix H].
It would appear, that the right which the king thus assumed of treating the debts due to the Jews as his own, although it brought considerable advantage to the crown, was found, in some instances, to be grievous in its effects to the people in general; it placed all persons who were under engagements to the Jews, in the same situation as the debtors to the king, and thereby subjected them to liabilities much more extensive than those to which, in common cases, they would have been exposed. When, therefore, the barons forced from King John the great charter of liberty, they included in it two several clauses, which had for their object the regulation of the claims in respect to these debts, and the twelfth clause of Magna Charta declares—“If any one have borrowed anything of the Jews, more or less, and dies before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no interest paid for that debt, so long as the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold; and if the debt fall into our hands, we will take only the chattel mentioned in the charter or instrument.” The thirteenth clause further declares, that “If any one shall be indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower, and pay nothing for the debt; and if the deceased leave children under age, they shall have necessaries provided for them, according to the tenement of the deceased, and out of the residue the debts shall be paid, saving, however, the service of the Lord.”[1]
[1] – See [Appendix I].
The barons, who had assembled with the view of compelling the king to grant this charter, collected part of their forces in London; and whilst they remained there, imitated the king’s conduct, and broke into the residences of the Jews, and pillaged them of whatever valuables they could find; and then, pulling down the houses, carried the stones of which they were built, and used them for the purpose of repairing the walls of the city. About two hundred and sixty years ago, when Ludgate was rebuilt and enlarged, a very large stone was discovered, with the following Hebrew inscription—מצב ר׳ משה בן הרב ר׳ יצחק ח׳ ו׳—“The tombstone of Rabbi Moses, the son of the Rabbi Isaac the wise and learned.”[1]
[1] – The absurd criticism of Dr. Tovey on the above epitaph has been already refuted by Dr. Jost. See Geschichte der Israeliten, vol. vii., p. 405.