The oppressions exercised towards the Jews by the king, rendered them obnoxious to the inhabitants of the places where they resided. The continual exactions to which they were subjected had necessarily the effect of withdrawing large sums from the towns of their abode; and it could not fail, sooner or later, to be discovered that though the tax, in the first instance, fell upon the Jews alone, yet that eventually the wealth of the neighbourhood was thereby considerably diminished. It was, it is probable, partly with a view to this consequence, that many towns obtained, during the present reign, from the king, charters or writs, directing that no Jews should reside within their walls. Charters or writs to this effect were granted to the towns of Newcastle, Derby, Southampton, as you have already heard, Wycomb, Newbery, and to other places; and the Jews were forced to remove with their families and effects. It would have been happy for the Jews, if the necessity of changing the places of their residence had been the only hardship to which, through the popular feeling, they were exposed. In many parts of the country, the people treated them with open violence; charges of the wildest description were raised against them, and made excuses for the exercise of every species of cruelty and extortion; tumults were excited; their houses were pillaged and burned; and hundreds fell victims to the frenzy of the populace. At Norwich, on the occasion of some Jews being executed upon a charge of having stolen a Christian child, which you have already heard, the citizens broke into the houses of the Jews there, and stripped them, and then setting fire to them, burned them to the ground. At Canterbury, the Jews were subjected to a similar violence, the immediate cause of which is not mentioned; but it is stated, that the clergy there did not scruple to encourage the outrage, and to take an active part with the mob on the occasion. At Oxford, the scholars of the university, having upon some pretext picked a quarrel with the Jews, broke into their houses and pillaged them of their property.[1]
[1] – Prynne; Tovey; J. E. Blunt.
When Prince Edward returned from his victorious campaign in Wales, he was so poor that he could not pay the arrears which he owed to the troops, and unwilling to disband men whom he foresaw his father’s cause would require, the king fixed on the expedient of presenting him with the Jews—the king of the Romans must have got, by this, all he wanted from them[1]—with a new privilege, viz., that of having all writs of judicature, which had been formerly sealed by the justices of the Jews, sealed by the chancellor of the exchequer, the profits of which were to be paid to the prince. Edward, however, did not keep them long in his grasp; being in want at once of ready cash, he assigned them with his father’s consent and signature, for two years to the Catercensian merchants. No more did the latter keep them long, for Edward was soon after accused of a conspiracy against his father; the king therefore seized upon the Jews—a trick of olden times in royal trade.
The battle of Lewes is another melancholy memorable event in the history of the Jews in this country. This battle, as all of you must be aware, terminated in the complete discomfiture of the king’s party. The common people being disbanded and out of employment, betook themselves to persecute the unfortunate Jews. They pretended that that people conspired with the king’s party to destroy the barons and the good citizens of London; which they thought gave them a right to plunder that defenceless people wherever they were found. They began with London, and the conduct of the metropolitans was soon followed by the inhabitants of other places. Lincoln, Northampton, Canterbury, and many other towns in the kingdom became the scenes of plunder and persecution. The London Jews were placed in imminent danger, and in all probability, those who survived the massacre of Montfort and John Fitz-John, would have shared the fate of their five hundred, or seven hundred, brethren, who perished there. But the constable of the tower opened the gates, to afford them a timely refuge.
The king, in conjunction with the barons, endeavoured to quell these riots, and issued letters patent to the mayor and sheriffs of London, and to the persons put under authority in all those places where outrages were committed, to suppress all sorts of disorders; and as peace had been established throughout the kingdom, the Jews should share in that peace. A proclamation was therefore to be published, for the Jews to return peaceably to their homes. Few, indeed, must have been the number who found homes. It was also announced that any molestation offered to the Jews would subject the offender to the danger of life and limb.
The king, being anxious to procure for himself the services of his friends, after his disastrous differences with his Gentile subjects, resolved to do so at the expense of his Jewish ones. He remitted the interest money which was owing to them from several of his friends. So that, though they were permitted to return to their homes, they had well nigh been deprived of any means of subsistence in those homes. Parliament, however, soon met, and enacted that their houses, goods, and chattels should be restored to them in the same condition they were in before the battle of Lewes. The Jews, therefore, enjoyed comparative tranquillity for the period of four years, since that meeting of parliament. They agreed to pay £1000, to be free from taxes during that period; under the proviso, however, that neither the king nor the prince should undertake any crusade during that time: and some few had even great favours bestowed upon them, especially those who rendered the king effectual service in his distresses. Yet was their tranquillity only comparative; they were by no means universally exempt from trouble and annoyance, and individuals were subject to grievous calumnies and accusations, as was the case with the Jews of Lincoln during that period.
The dean and chapter of that city would not pay their debts; they contrived to accuse their Jewish creditor of forging a bond. It is a faithful picture of the English of those days, “that when churchmen and laymen, prince and prior, knight and priest, come knocking at Isaac’s door, they borrow not his shekels with these uncivil terms. It is then, Friend Isaac, will you pleasure us in this matter, and our day shall be truly kept, so God save me?—and kind Isaac, if ever you served a man, show yourself a friend in this need. And when the day comes and I ask my own, then what hear I, but the curse of Egypt on your tribe, and all that may stir up the rude and uncivil populace against poor strangers.”[1]
[1] – Sir Walter Scott.
The Jews in Oxford for a long time seem, upon the whole, to have been more prosperous than their brethren in many other places. You have heard that they had schools and seminaries there at an early period of their history in England.[1] Their occupation there seems to have been almost altogether in the literary line, so that we do not find any documents respecting forged bonds. The Jews have always appreciated learning very much and encouraged it. We read of individuals selling some land at a very low rate indeed, for the erection of an institution for that purpose. The celebrated Sir Walter de Merton, the founder of a college in Oxford bearing his name, purchased a site from a Jew, as appears from a deed in the college treasury.[2]