The King's Jews Money, Massacre and Exodus in Medieval England

by Mundill, Robin R.

• ISBN13: 9781847251862
• ISBN10: 1847251862
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-08-09
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

A readable account considering the Jews of medieval England as victims of violence (notably the Clifford's Tower massacre) and as an isolated people. In July 1290, Edward I issued writs to the Sheriffs of the English counties ordering them to enforce a decree to expel all Jews from England before All Saints' Day of that year. England became the first country to expel a Jewish minority from its borders. They were allowed to take their portable property but their houses were confiscated by the king. In a highly readable account, Robin Mundill considers the Jews of medieval England as victims of violence (notably the massacre of Shabbat haGadol when York's Jewish community perished at Clifford's Tower) and as a people apart, isolated amidst a hostile environment. The origins of the business world are considered including the fact that the medieval English Jew perfected modern business methods many centuries before its recognised time. What emerges is a picture of a lost society which had much to contribute and yet was turned away in 1290.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Colonisation and confinement	p. 1
Jews and the economy	p. 21
A community within a state	p. 43
Saints and martyrs	p. 67
Christians and Jews	p. 97
Church and Synagogue	p. 123
Dissolution and Diaspora	p. 145
Glossary	p. 167
Abbreviations	p. 173
Money	p. 175
Notes	p. 177
Manuscript sources	p. 213
Bibliography	p. 215
Index	p. 233
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