England's Jews: Finance, Violence, and the Crown in the Thirteenth Century

by John Tolan

In 1290, Jews were expelled from England and subsequently largely expunged from English historical memory. Yet for two centuries they occupied important roles in medieval English society. England’s Jews revisits this neglected chapter of English history―one whose remembrance is more important than ever today, as antisemitism and other forms of racism are on the rise.

Historian John Tolan tells the story of the thousands of Jews who lived in medieval England. Protected by the Crown and granted the exclusive right to loan money with interest, Jews financed building projects, provided loans to students, and bought and rented out housing. Historical texts show that they shared meals and beer, celebrated at weddings, and sometimes even ended up in bed with Christians.

Yet Church authorities feared the consequences of Jewish contact with Christians and tried to limit it, though to little avail. Royal protection also proved to be a double-edged when revolts broke out against the unpopular king Henry III, some of the rebels, in debt to Jewish creditors, killed Jews and destroyed loan records. Vicious rumors circulated that Jews secretly plotted against Christians and crucified Christian children. All of these factors led Edward I to expel the Jews from England in 1290. Paradoxically, Tolan shows, thirteenth-century England was both the theatre of fruitful interreligious exchange and a crucible of European antisemitism.

264 pages, Hardcover

Published March 7, 2023

About the author

John V. Tolan works on the history of religious and cultural relations between the Arab and Latin worlds in the Middle Ages. He received a BA in Classics from Yale, an MA and a PhD in History from the University of Chicago, and an Habilitation à diriger des recherches from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He has taught and lectured in universities in North America, Europe Africa and the Middle East and is currently Professor of History at the University of Nantes. He currently is director of a major project funded by the European Research Council, “RELMIN: The legal status of religious minorities in the Euro-Mediterranean world (5th-15th centuries)” (www.relmin.eu).

Reviews

[Reuven Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

England’s Jews: Finance, Violence, and the Crown in the Thirteenth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023) by John Tolan

Reviewed by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein (Rachack Review)

This scholarly book offers an in-depth look at the Jews' place in English history during the 1200s. The author meticulously researched the topic and provided exact dates, names of people and places within the context of the events that it describes. Although that sort of attention to detail makes the book somewhat overwhelming, the comprehensive index makes it easy to find specific topics.

Two major overarching topics that the book delves into are the Jewish involvement in the moneylending industry in England (a topic that has always been controversial) and how the Jews were precariously positioned in the rigid class of Medieval England. In discussing the second point, the author stresses how successive kings of England consistently referred to the Jews in the possessive "our Jews," and sought to assert their direct authority over them. However, as often happened throughout history, the Jews served as pawns in a greater power struggle between the Plantagenet Kings of England, English and French nobleman, the local English clergy, and the Pope in Rome.

Another interesting point emphasized in the book is how the Jews' situation and treatment in neighboring France was often even worse than in England itself, where anti-Jewish sentiments were even stronger and more official. Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, Jews were expelled from France multiple. One of the factions pushing for the expulsion of Jews was Church officials, who wanted to separate Jews from Christians to avoid social and sexual fraternization between them.

Besides the occasional massacres in which English Jews were actually killed, the author provides detailed accounts of the "punishments" levied against Jews for simply being Jewish, including special taxes called tallages and inheritance taxes ("Death Taxes"), making them wear distinct clothing, and forbidding Christians from working as maids and nurses in Jewish homes. The book also the aforementioned massacres against Jews, in addition to the various limits placed on the Jews’ ability to lend with interest and outright debt forgiveness for monies owed to Jews. Interesting, this book documents how ordinance that compelled Jews to wear special embroidered tablets to show their Jewishness was sometimes enforced by local grocers refusing to sell food to Jews who did not follow those rules, but was also sometimes not enforced on certain Jewish individuals or communities who paid for special exemptions.

The author also documents how Church officials commonly made up stories about Jews who were accused of unfair lending practices, insulting the Christian faith (especially desecrating the host and the cross), and even kidnapping Christian babies to circumcise them or kill them (“fake news”).

The book also covers the Jews' relationship to the Magna Carta and hones in on specific Jews who were active in lending money (such as Isaac of Norwich, David of Lincoln/Oxford, and Aaron of York). Although the primary focus of the book is on the reigns of King Henry III and his son Edward I, other important figures from English history (including Stephen Langton, Robert Grosseteste, and Simon of Montfort) are also discussed in the context of their role in the treatment of the Jews.

Overall, this book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the Jews' place in English history during the 1100s–1300s. The author has done an outstanding job of meticulously and critically piecing together information from documents and rolls of chancery records, plus other archival sources, to provide a comprehensive account of the Jews' role in English society during this period. The book ends with the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 under King Edward I, bringing the story to its logical, yet unfortunate, conclusion.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magisterial and timely engagement of