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.
