The first Jewish communities of significant size…

1290 CE

The first Jewish communities of significant size had come to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

Every successive King has formally reviewed a royal charter granting Jews the right to remain in England.

Jews do not enjoy any of the guarantees of Magna Carta of 1215.

Economically, Jews have played a key role in the country.

The Christian doctrine to which European nations subscribe forbids Christians to take interest on loans.

Jews are thus required to engage in money lending, making them an economic necessity in the very countries that persecute them.

While the Jews bear the inevitable popular resentment against usurers, the European royal treasuries take a large part of the profits.

The Jews residing in most countries are generally excluded from ownership of land and from the guilds that control the skilled trades.

As Christian moneylenders develop ways to collect interest under other names, however, Jews are no longer needed.

Besides London's Jews, other important trading groups, who have assimilated easily into the city's population, are the Gascons, Flemish, and northern Italians.

When members of the last group are firmly established as bankers, the Jews, who Edward I has systematically stripped of their remaining wealth, are banished with the support of the church, and their property confiscated.

In the duchy of Gascony in 1287, King Edward I had 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 the king was deeply in debt.

The next summer he summoned his knights to impose a steep tax.

To make the tax more palatable, King Edward I in exchange essentially offers to expel all Jews.

The heavy tax is passed, and three days later, on July 18, the Edict of Expulsion is issued.

One official reason for the expulsion was that Jews had neglected to follow the Statute of Jewry.

The edict of expulsion is widely popular and meets with little resistance, and the expulsion is quickly carried out.

By the Edict of Expulsion, Edward has ordered all Jews (at this time probably numbering around two thousand) to leave England by November 1 (All Saints Day); on the Hebrew calendar this is Tisha B'Av, a day that commemorates many calamities.

Many Jews emigrate to countries such as Poland, which at this time protects them.

The expulsion edict will remain in force for the rest of the Middle Ages.

Oliver Cromwell will permit Jews to return to England in 1657, over three hundred and fifty years years since their banishment by Edward, in exchange for finance.