The first-recordedEarlier laws suggest, but do not confirm, the presence of a Jewish population during the Anglo-Saxon era. See An Inquiry Into the First Settlement of Jews in England By the Rev. Abraham De Sola Jews in England arrived after the Norman Conquest of the country by William the Conqueror (the future William I) in 1066, and the first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. After the coin clipping crisis, with thousands of Jews accused in the late 13th century, all Jews were expelled from England after the Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
In some accounts, the latter half of the period is contrasted with the earlier half, in terms of rising persecution and violence, but evidence of tolerance between people living close to each other continues to be found throughout. Persecution and violence appear to have been imposed and incited by people with power, whether from the Church, the crown, or the aristocracy. Plenty of evidence for the peaceful coexistence of different religious populations exists from the thirteenth century, such as references to Gentiles attending Jewish weddings. Ultimately, as Jewish people were dependent on the Crown for their presence and protection as non-Christians, the attitude and response of the English Crown was decisive for their safety or lack of it.
The experience of English Jewry was particularly significant, both in terms of its political, economic, religious and social importance to England as a whole,, and in terms of the development of antisemitism; many false accusations and associations were developed in England in this period, and prejudices were more deeply felt, than in other parts of Europe. Most notorious is the accusation of blood libel (ritual child murder), but also included an association of Jewry with international conspiracy and magic. Antisemitic prejudices were expressed in some of the "earliest and most elaborate" devotional artworks to do so, at Lincoln Cathedral and the Cloisters Cross, for example, or, more recently identified, the Hereford Mappa Mundi.
Edward I is also identified as internationally significant, as the first monarch to attempt state-sponsored conversions, to permanently exclude Jews from his kingdom, and the first English monarch to use anti-Semitism as an instrument of state policy.
The coin clipping crisis, ultimately leading to expulsion also led to the formation of a strong strain of antisemitism within English identity that outlasted the period, including the idea that England was unique precisely because it did not include Jews.
William I to Henry I: 1066–1135 There is no record of Jews in England before the Norman Conquest in 1066.For a full discussion, see The few references to Jews in the Anglo-Saxon laws of the Roman Catholic Church relate to Jewish practices about Easter.
Soon after William I's Conquest, Jewish merchants, probably from Rouen, in Normandy, began to settle in England. However, Jews were not permitted to own land or to participate in trades (except for medicine). They were limited primarily to money lending. As Catholic doctrine held that money lending for interest was the sin of usury, Jews dominated this activity. The earliest immigrants spoke Judeo-French founded on the Norman language.
Around 1092, Gilbert Crispin, the Abbot of Westminster, issued a disputation about his exchange with an erudite Jew, whom he knew as a friend and business colleague, entitled "Disputation of a Jew with a Christian about the Christian Bible." Crispin wrote:
This disputation was notable for the even-handed presentation of both the Christian and Jewish points of view, and for the congenial tone of the exchange.
At first, the status of Jews was not strictly determined. An attempt was made to introduce the continental principle that all Jews were the king's property and a clause to that effect was inserted under King Henry I in some manuscripts of the so-called Leges Edwardi Confessoris "Laws of Edward the Confessor".
However, during Henry's reign (1100–1135) a royal charter was granted to Joseph, the chief rabbi of London, and all his followers. Under this charter, Jews were permitted to move about the country without paying tolls, to buy and sell goods and property, to sell their pledges after holding them a year and a day, to be tried by their peers, and to be sworn on the Torah rather than on a Christian Bible. Special weight was attributed to a Jewish person's oath, which was valid against that of twelve Christians, because they represented the king of England in financial matters. The sixth clause of the charter was especially important: it granted Jews the right of movement throughout the kingdom, as if they were the king's own property (sicut res propriæ nostræ).
Jews did not settle outside of London before 1135.
Stephen to Henry II: 1135–1189 Christian–Jewish relations in England were disturbed under King Stephen, who burned down the house of a Jewish man in Oxford (some accounts say with the owner in it) because he refused to pay a contribution to the king's expenses. It was also during this time that the first recorded blood libel against Jews was brought in the case of William of Norwich (March, 1144).
During the Rhineland massacres perpetrated in the People's Crusade in what is now France and Germany, outbursts against Jews in England were, according to the Jewish chroniclers, prevented by King Stephen.
With the restoration of order under Henry II, Jews renewed their activity. Within five years of his accession, Jews are found at London, Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, Thetford, Bungay, Canterbury, Winchester, Newport, Stafford, Windsor and Reading. However, they were not permitted to bury their dead outside London until 1177. Their spread throughout the country enabled the king to draw upon them as occasion demanded; he repaid them by demanding notes on the sheriffs of the counties, who accounted for payments thus made in the half-yearly accounts on the pipe rolls.
Strongbow's conquest of Ireland (1170) was financed by Josce, a Jewish man from Gloucester; and the king accordingly fined Josce for having lent money to those under his displeasure. As a rule, however, Henry II does not appear to have limited in any way the financial activity of Jews. The favourable position of the English Jews was shown, among other things, by the visit of Abraham ibn Ezra in 1158, by that of Isaac of Chernigov in 1181, and by the resort to England of the Jews who were exiled by Philip II of France in 1182, among them probably being Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon.
In 1168, when concluding an alliance with Frederick Barbarossa, Henry II seized the chief representatives of the Jews and sent them to Normandy, while tallaging the rest 5000 marks). When, however, he asked the rest of the country to pay the Saladin tithe for the Crusade in 1186, he demanded a quarter of the Jewish chattels. The tithe was reckoned at £70,000, the quarter at £60,000. It is improbable, however, that the whole amount was paid at once, as for many years after the imposition of the tallage, arrears were demanded from the Jews.
The king had probably been led to make this great demand upon English Jewry by the surprising windfall which came to his treasury at the death of Aaron of Lincoln. In this period, Aaron of Lincoln is believed to have been the wealthiest man in 12th-century Britain in terms of liquid assets. All property obtained by usury, whether Jewish or Christian, fell into the king's hands on Aaron's death; his estate included £15,000 of debts owed by some 430 debtors scattered around the English counties. To track down and collect these debts, a special section of the Exchequer was constituted, known as the "Aaron's Exchequer". The cash treasure of Aaron's estate that came into the king's hands, however, was lost on a shipwreck during a transport to Normandy.
In this era, Jews lived on good terms with their non-Jewish neighbours, including the clergy; they entered churches freely, and took refuge in the abbeys in times of commotion. Some Jews lived in opulent houses and helped to build a large number of abbeys and monasteries. However, by the end of Henry's reign, they had incurred the ill will of the upper classes, and anti-Jewish sentiment spread further throughout the nation, fostered by the crusades.
Massacres at London, Bury and York (1189–1190)
Richard I had taken the cross before his coronation (3 September 1189). A number of the principal Jews of England presented themselves to do homage at Westminster; but there was a long-standing custom against Jews (and women) being admitted to the coronation ceremony, and they were expelled during the banquet which followed the coronation, whereupon they were attacked by a crowd of bystanders. The rumour spread from Westminster to London that the king had ordered a massacre of the Jews; and a mob in the Old Jewry, after vainly attacking the strong stone houses of the Jews throughout the day, set them on fire at night, killing those within who attempted to escape. The king was enraged at this insult to his royal dignity, but was unable to punish more than a few of the offenders, owing to their large numbers and to the considerable social standing of several of them. After his departure on the crusade, riots with loss of life occurred at Lynn, where some Jews attempted to attack a baptised coreligionist who had taken refuge in a church. The Christian population burned down the Jews' houses and murdered them. At Stamford Fair, on 7 March 1190, many were slain, and on 18 March, 57 were slaughtered at Bury St Edmunds. The Jews of Lincoln saved themselves only by taking refuge in the castle.
Isolated attacks on Jews also occurred at Colchester, Thetford and Ospringe.
A significant loss of life occurred at York on the night of 16 March (Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Passover) and 17 March 1190. As crusaders prepared to leave on the Third Crusade, religious fervour resulted in several incidents of anti-Jewish violence. Josce of York, the leader of the Jews in York, asked the warden of York Castle to receive them with their wives and children, and they were accepted into Clifford's Tower. The tower was then besieged by the mob of crusaders, demanding that the Jews convert to Christianity and be baptized. Trapped in the castle, the Jews were advised by their religious leader, Rabbi Yomtov of Joigny, to kill themselves rather than convert; Josce began by slaying his wife Anna and his two children, and then was killed by Yomtov. The father of each family killed his wife and children, before Yomtov and Josce set fire to the wooden keep, killing themselves. The handful of Jews who did not kill themselves died in the fire, or were murdered by rioters. Around 150 people are thought to have been killed in the incident.
Ordinance of the Jewry, 1194 During Richard's absence in the Holy Land and during his captivity, the Jews of England were harassed by William de Longchamp. The Jewish community was forced to contribute 5,000 marks toward the king's ransom, more than three times as much as the contribution of the City of London.
On his return, Richard determined to organise the Jewish community in order to ensure that he should no longer be defrauded of his just dues as universal legatee of the Jewry by any such outbreaks as those that occurred after his coronation. Richard accordingly decided, in 1194, that records should be kept by royal officials of all the transactions of the Jews, without which such transactions would not be legal.
Every debt was to be entered upon a chirograph, one part of which was to be kept by the Jewish creditor, and the other preserved in a chest to which only special officials should have access. By this means the king could at any time ascertain the property of any Jew in the land; and no destruction of the bond held by a Jew could release the creditor from his indebtedness.