In 1290, King Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England. The
expulsion edict remained in force for the rest of the Middle Ages. The edict
was not an isolated incident, but the culmination of over 200 years of
increased persecution. Oliver Cromwell permitted Jews to return to England in
1657, over 360 years after their banishment by Edward I, in exchange for
finance. Buildup to expulsion
The first Jewish communities of significant size came to England with
William the Conqueror in 1066. On the conquest of England, William instituted
a feudal system in the country, whereby all estates formally belonged to the
Crown; the king then appointed lords over these vast estates, but they were
subject to duties and obligations to the king. Under the lords were further
subjects such as serfs, who were bound and obliged to their lords, and their
lords' obligations. Merchants had a special status in the system as did
Jews. Jews were declared to be direct subjects of the King, unlike the rest of
the population. This was an ambivalent legal position for the Jewish
population, in that they were not tied to any particular lord, but were subject
to the whims of the king. This could at times prove advantageous and at other
times disadvantageous. Every successive King formally reviewed a royal charter
granting Jews the right to remain in England. Jews did not enjoy any of the
guarantees of Magna Carta of 1215. Economically, Jews played a key role in
the country. The church at the time strictly forbade the lending of money
for profit. This created a vacuum in the economy of Europe that Jews filled due
to extreme discrimination in every other economic area; canon law was not
considered applicable to Jews, and Judaism permits loans with interest
between Jews and non-Jews. As a consequence, some Jews made large
amounts of money. Taking advantage of their unique status as his direct
subjects, the King could appropriate Jewish assets in the form of taxation.
He levied heavy taxes on Jews at will without having to summon Parliament. The
Jewish community acted as a kind of giant monetary filter: Jews collected
interest on money lent to the people which the King could take at his
pleasure. Jews acquired a reputation as
extortionate moneylenders which made them extremely unpopular with both the
church and the general public. While an anti-Jewish attitude was widespread in
Europe, medieval England was particularly anti-Jewish. An image of
the Jew as a diabolical figure who hated Christ started to become widespread, and
antisemitic myths such as the tale of the Wandering Jew and allegations of
ritual murders originated and spread throughout England, as well as Scotland
and Wales. In frequent cases of blood libel, Jews were said to hunt for
children to murder before Passover so they could use their blood to make
matzah. An anti-Jewish attitude on a number of occasions sparked riots where
many Jews were murdered, most notably in 1190 when over a hundred Jews were
massacred in the city of York. Expulsion
The situation only got worse for Jews as the 13th century progressed. In 1218,
England became the first European nation to require Jews to wear a marking badge.
Taxation grew increasingly intense. Between 1219 and 1272, 49 levies were
imposed on Jews for a total of 200,000 marks, a vast sum of money. The first
major step towards expulsion took place in 1275, with the Statute of the Jewry.
The statute outlawed all lending at interest and gave Jews fifteen years to
readjust. In the duchy of Gascony in 1287, King
Edward ordered the local Jews expelled. All their property was seized by the
crown and all outstanding debts payable to Jews were transferred to the King’s
name. By the time he returned to England in 1289, King Edward was deeply in debt.
The next summer he summoned his knights to impose a steep tax. To make the tax
more palatable, Edward in exchange essentially offered to expel all Jews.
The heavy tax was passed, and three days later, on July 18, the Edict of
Expulsion was issued. One official reason for the expulsion was that Jews
had declined to follow the Statute of Jewry. The edict of expulsion was widely
popular and met with little resistance, and the expulsion was quickly carried
out. The Jewish population in England at the
time was relatively small, perhaps 2,000 people, though estimates vary. The
expulsion process appears to have been relatively non-violent, although there
were some accounts to the contrary. One perhaps apocryphal story told of a
captain taking a ship full of Jews to the Thames, en route to France, while
the tide was low, and convincing them to go out for a walk with him. He then lost
them and made it back to his ship quickly before the tide came back in,
leaving them all to drown. Many Jews emigrated, besides France and
the Netherlands, to countries such as Poland, which at that time protected
them. Intermediate period
Between the expulsion of Jews in 1290 and their formal return in 1655, there
is no official trace of Jews as such on English soil except in connection with
the Domus Conversorum, which kept a number of them within its precincts up
to 1551 and even later. An attempt was made to obtain a revocation of the edict
of expulsion as early as 1310, but in vain. Notwithstanding, a certain number
of Jews appeared to have returned; for complaints were made to the king in 1376
that some of those trading as Lombards were actually Jews.
Occasionally permits were given to individuals to visit England, as in the
case of Dr Elyas Sabot in 1410, but it was not until the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497 that any considerable number of
Sephardic Jews found refuge in England. One of these as early as 1493 attempted
to recover no less a sum than 428,000 maravedis which the refugees from Spain
had entrusted to Diego de Soria. In 1542 many were arrested on the suspicion of
being Jews, and throughout the sixteenth century a number of persons named Lopez,
possibly all of the same family, took refuge in England, the best known of
them being Rodrigo López, physician to Queen Elizabeth I, and who is said to
have been the origin of Shylock. Besides certain distinguished converts like
Immanuel Tremellius and Philip Ferdinand, the most remarkable visitor
was Joachim Gaunse, who introduced new methods of mining into England.
Occasional visitors, like Alonzo de Herrera and Simon Palache in 1614, are
recorded. The writings of John Weemes provided a positive view in favour of
the resettlement of the Jews in England. See also
History of the Jews in England History of the Jews in England
History of the Marranos in England Resettlement of the Jews in England
Menasseh Ben Israel Jewish Naturalization Act 1753
Influences on the standing of the Jews in England
Emancipation of the Jews in England Early English Jewish literature
History of the Jews in Scotland History of the Jews in Wales
Alhambra Decree Expulsion of the Moriscos
Edict of Fontainebleau 1731 Expulsion of Protestants from
Salzburg Notes
References External links
England related articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia