[1] – “In Claus. 39, H. 3, pars 2, dors. 16, 17, there is a large catalogue of the lands, houses, rents, mortgages, real and personal estate, and debts of Abraham, a Jew, in several counties, amounting to a vast sum, taking up near two membrances, which were imbreviated and confiscated to the king’s use. And a proclamation by the king, that no Jew should be suffered to depart out of the realm of England.”—Prynne. See also pp. 242, 243.
Lord Coke states, that the crown received from the Jews, in the short space of seven years, viz., from the 17th of December, in the 50th year of Henry III., until Shrove Tuesday, the 2nd of Edward I., the sum of £420,000 15s. 4d.
“Death,” using the words of a quaint writer, “as inexorable as himself, seized him, and gave the Jews some respite from these afflictions—the king leaving behind him but a very indifferent character either as a man, or a prince.”
For nearly two years after, the government of this country remained in the hands of the Archbishop of York, and the Earls of Cornwall and Chester, Edward being abroad, engaged in the holy war, as it was called; during which time the Jews seem to have been left pretty much unnoticed, and consequently, we may conclude, in peace. Edward’s return, however, brings them again prominently before our view, and under more distressing circumstances than ever.
The first public act of his reign which had reference to the Jews, was in conformity with the example set by his ancestors: he held out to them hopes of safety and protection. Shortly after the death of the late king, proclamations of peace and security were issued, extending to the Jews as well as to the nation in general.[1] It was, however, quickly evident that, as far as regarded the former, there was no peace for them.
[1] – See [Appendix A].
Edward knew well that his father’s and mother’s unenviable unpopularity with his subjects, and the incessant civil wars which distracted the kingdom during the preceding reign, owed their existence to his royal parents’ insatiable demands for money from the English barons. Edward, though equally in want of large sums of money, determined, however, to obtain those sums from the Jews alone, and not ask anything from his Christian subjects—an expedient whereby he expected to gain popularity, as well as the supplies he wanted. Accordingly, the king, soon after his coronation, began to regulate the Jewish affairs after his father’s model. Steps were, in a short time, taken to facilitate the levying of taxes upon them. New officers of their exchequer were appointed; directions were given to enforce the regulations, by which they were obliged to confine themselves within particular towns and cities; and orders were forwarded to the sheriffs of the different places where they resided, to examine the registers of their debts and possessions, and make a faithful return of their estates and effects. As soon as the necessary information upon these orders was received from the sheriffs, a new tallage was imposed upon the Jews. The children began to be taxed as well as the parents, which made the tallage enormous; and authority was given to enforce the payment, together with that of all arrears due on former assessments, by measures of the greatest severity. The collectors were directed to levy the sums which were demanded, upon the goods and chattels of those who hesitated to contribute their proportion; and if the amount could not by this means be obtained—which, as a matter of course, proved those impoverished Jews to be useless, since everything, indeed, was taken from them—the king thought best to change the punishment from imprisonment to transportation. Accordingly, the sheriffs were empowered to punish the refractory (that is, those who had not money enough) with banishment from the kingdom; to imprison all such as common thieves, who should be found in the country after three days from the time they were, under these orders, directed to leave it; and the lands, houses, and effects of those who should be banished, were to be forthwith taken possession of and sold. The persons who were appointed to carry these directions into effect were, an Irish bishop—Bishop elect of Waterford—and two friars; and they appear to have executed the office entrusted to them with such relentless severity, that the king’s mind was moved to pity, and in many cases he gave orders to release particular individuals amongst the Jews from a part of the demands made upon them.
The complaints which had been made, towards the end of the last reign, of the injuries which were experienced by the people in general, from the laws and proceedings respecting the Jews, it seems were now again brought forward. And the extent to which the Jews were permitted to take interest by the canon law, in order to fill the coffers of the king, was, it appears, also the subject of increased remonstrance. It must be borne in mind that the Gentiles were by far the greater usurers than the Jews, but they could practise the foul profession with impunity, by stating that they laboured for the pope: for instance, in the thirty-sixth year of the preceding reign, Henry ordered that the Causini should be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law for their usuries; but they pleaded that they were the servants of the pope, and employed by him, and were therefore not only left alone, but countenanced in that nefarious traffic.
In the third year of this reign, the king, in order to please his Christian subjects, was pleased to pass the statute which is known by the name of the Statutum de Judaismo. This statute acknowledged that the king and his ancestors had had great profit from the Jews, yet that many mischiefs and disinheritances of honest men had happened by their usuries; and it therefore enacted, that from thenceforth no Jew should practise usury,—that no distress for any Jew’s debt should be so grievous as not to leave the debtor the moiety of his lands and chattels for his subsistence; that no Jew should have power to sell or alien any house, rents, or tenements, without the king’s leave, but that they might purchase houses in cities as heretofore, and take leases of land to farm for ten years; and that they should be at liberty to carry on mercantile transactions in the cities where they resided; provided, however, that they should not, by reason of such dealings, be talliable with the other inhabitants of the cities, seeing that they were only talliable to the king, as his own bondsmen; and it directed that they should reside only in such cities and boroughs as were the king’s own; and that all Jews above the age of seven years should wear a badge, in the form of two tables of yellow taffety,[1] upon their upper garments; and that all above twelve years of age should pay to the king, at Easter, the sum of three pence. Lord Coke recommends that statute as very worthy to be read. It was drawn up in French, and the following is an English translation of the same:—
[1] – I should not wonder that some royal merchant arrived into this country to dispose of a certain quantity of yellow taffety, which perhaps not proving saleable, the merchant procured the interest of the king or that of his counsellors, and thus yellow taffety became the Jewish badge. C. White, in his “Three Years in Constantinople,” relates a circumstance which gives colour to the above suggestion. He says—“Sometimes French ambassadors carry their powers of protection to strange lengths, and apply them to singular purposes. It is related that one La Rose, first valet-de-chambre to M. d’Argental, in 1690, was persuaded by some one in Paris to lay out his savings in wigs, as a good speculation to take to Turkey. Finding, upon reaching Constantinople, that his stock remained on hand, and that he had been duped, he fell into low spirits, and had nigh died of despondency. The ambassador seeing this, bethought himself of applying to the grand vizir, to see if he could not devise some plan for getting rid of the cargo. ‘Nothing can be more easy,’ replied the sultan’s alter ergo; ‘leave the affair to me.’ On the following day, a firman was issued, and read in the Jewish synagogues, commanding all Jews to wear wigs. Terrible was the confusion and running to and fro among the unfortunate Israelites of Balat and Khass Kouy. Few knew the meaning of wigs: none knew where to find them. This having quickly reached La Rose’s ears, he joyously delivered his store to a broker, who disposed of the whole in a few hours, and the speculator reaped a rich harvest. He was, however, directed by his master not to renew the venture. This was not the only strange proceeding on the part of M. d’Argental: indeed he carried his vagaries so far, that he was eventually put under restraint by his own secretaries.”