Expulsion of Jews from England

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Domains

Population, migrations and new settlements

Dates

Date of occurrence 1291

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

Cultural Identities

Jewish European

Under the feudal system established in the reign of William I, Jews (along with merchants) had a special status as direct subjects of the monarch. As such, they were useful to the crown as sources of revenue, because they could be taxed directly. By the reign of Edward I, however, their involvement in money-lending had built up popular resentment towards the Jewish community. Edward ordered several punitive laws against the Jews from 1275, beginning with the Statute of the Jewry, which outlawed usury. Four years later, Jewish heads of households across the country were arrested and 300 of them executed. The following year, they were ordered to attend Dominican sermons aimed at converting them to Christianity. This wave of discrimination …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

138 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Expulsion of Jews from England". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 July 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1343, accessed 23 November 2024.]

Save this article