Anti-Semitism in Medieval England

by Tishe Osunlana

Edict of Expulsion, 1290

When asking my friends what they knew about anti-Semitism almost all of their examples of events were from Nazi Germany and figures associated with them. But there was anti-Semitism before then, so what would it have been like? This is why for me it was important to explore anti-Semitism in the period known to be the most religious period in Europe. The Middle Ages.

Since the spread of Christianity in Europe the Jews were often oppressed, often being forced to convert in fear of persecution. But what are examples of this in Medieval England, since many don’t know about the origins of the anti-Jewish sentiments especially in England?

The earliest migration of Jewish people to England was during the Norman Conquest in 1066. William I needed money to consolidate his position as ruler and as money lending was a sin in Medieval Christianity he had to look to the Jewish population of Rouen in Normandy. William I essentially was the reason England became an interfaith country since many Jews migrated over due to his invitation. 

This changed the economy in England; Members of the Jewish community, unlike members of the Christian community, were legally permitted to loan money; therefore, Jewish communities settled i commercial centres such as London, Norwich, and Lincoln. In return for royal protection, many of their money-lending profits had to be given to the royal revenue. Their fealty to the king can be seen in some of the historians' earliest documents from that period, such as the Laws of Edward the Confessor and the Charter of Liberties. As a result, there were essentially separate laws, and courts (the Exchequer of the Jews) for Jewish people in medieval England.

Jealousy and mistrust spread in the Christian community of England towards members of the Jewish community, which culminated in false allegations, which became referred to as the “blood libel”. These were completely false claims that Jewish people would abduct and murder English children for magic rituals. These libels led to heightened hostility towards the Jews.

The Crusades are what further cemented anti-Semitism in Europe; they began in 1096 when the recently elected Pope Urban II called on his followers to liberate the Holy Lands from the  Islamic Ottoman Empire. He labelled the Muslims, as the enemy but never said what this meant for the Jews. Some Christians took this as an excuse, from the head of the Christian church, the Pope, to target Jews as well as Muslims. Not only were Jews attacked and killed in the Levant, during the Crusades, but in England this manifested through riots and renewed violence against members of local Jewish communities. An infamous example was the outbreak of violence coinciding with Richard the Lionheart's coronation and the Third Crusades in 1189, which took place in London and York. Following this Richard I made a law that income that the Jews made had to be stored in a special chest in their settlement to avoid the loss of records, like the one in York. The trick about this law was that these special chests called an archa had a mechanism where they could only be opened with the key from a Christian, Jew, and scribe. This limited the freedom members of the Jewish community had when it came to business.

Even during the reign of King John, they were forced to pay special taxes called tallages and in 1210 King John even summoned the Jewish leaders to imprison and torture them. He did it under the accusation they misrepresented their assets during 1207; soon after this treatment was given to Jews across England. To stop this abuse the Jewish community had to promise 1 million pounds to the king; if they did not pay, this treatment would continue. Roger of Wendover, a chronicler of the time, recorded that once a Jewish man had a molar pulled out each day he failed to pay the promised sum. 

This all concluded when in 1290 King Edward I, who needed money, expelled all Jews from England, for a tax from Parliament (see the image of the Edict of Expulsion, above). This meant the Jews after about two centuries of development and culture were forced to leave England. Members of the Jewish community thus could not return to England for nearly four centuries, until invited back by Oliver Cromwell in 1656.