CHAPTER VI.

THE EXCHEQUER OF THE JEWS.

The Jews in England settled in the towns. Exactions of the king from the Jews. The revenue of the Judaism. The custodes Judaeorum. Expulsion of the Jews by Edward I. in 1290.

THE Jews in this country were a source of considerable revenue to the king until 1290, when they were expelled. A numerous body, settled, as usual with the Jews in all countries, in the towns, especially the great towns, and principally employed in usury, which was then contrary to law, and mortgage transactions, many of them by these means acquired considerable wealth. They were allowed by the king thus to enrich themselves for the same reason that a sponge is used to collect water which may be squeezed out of it. They formed a pump to suck up the golden stream from below and render it to the king above. The king was, in effect, absolute lord of their goods, persons, wives, and children. Sometimes he taxed them in a body, making them answer the tallage one for another under penalties of great fines or compositions for fines:-For instance, Henry II., about the thirty-third year of his reign, 'took of the Jews a fourth part of their chattels, by way of tallage.' John, in 1210, imprisoned all the Jews throughout England, and despoiled them to

the amount of 66,000 marks.1 And Henry III., in or about the twenty-eighth year of the reign, received from them a fine of 20,000 marks; about which time there was also imposed upon them a tallage of 60,000 marks, and because some of them had not paid their contingent of this tallage, the king commanded that their wives and children should be arrested and their lands, rents, and chattels seized.' At other times the exaction was local or personal, and took the form of amerciaments for misdemeanours, fines for the king's good-will, protection, or license to trade, fines relating to law proceedings or ransoms for release from imprisonment. Of these there are some curious instances on record on the rolls-as for fines for trespasses committed by taking in pledge vessels appointed for the service of the altar, or certain consecrated vestments, and the transgression of circumcising a Christian boy, and so on.2

The revenue of the Judaism, as it was termed, was managed by a separate branch of the exchequer, termed the exchequer of the Jews, with separate curators, who were usually styled Custodes and Justiciarii Judaeorum.' The following is a form of patent of the appointment of such justices, 50 Hen. III. : 'Rex omnibus, &c., salutem. Sciatis quod assignavimus dilectos et fideles nostros Johannem le Moyne et

1

Spoliavat eos catallis suis ad valenciam LXVI mille marcarum.

2 Judaei Norwici capti et detenti in prisona regis, pro transgressione quam fecerunt de quodam puero Christiano circumcidendo debent c. marcas pro habendo respectu.' This case is mentioned by Matthew Paris, ii. 375, who states that they had a mind to crucify the boy at the Passover.

Robertum de Fulleham, justiciarios nostros ad custodiam Judaeorum nostrorum quamdiu nobis placuerit. In cujus, &c.' 1

6

But the revenue of the Judaism' and the exchequer of the Jews all came to an end in 1290, when the Jews were expelled by Edward I., who took their lands and chattels, except some little money, which he allowed them in order to bear their charges into foreign countries; of this they were robbed by the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports. The Jews were not readmitted into England until the time of the Commonwealth.

1 Madox, p. 159.

BOOK V.

THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR.

FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH AND TENTH IN 1334, TO THE END OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR, 1453.

CHAPTER I.

THE DIRECT TAXES, INCLUDING FIFTEENTHS AND TENTHS, POLL TAXES AND LAND TAXES.

CHAPTER II.

THE CUSTOMS SUBSIDIES OF WOOL, SKINS AND LEATHER, TUNNAGE ON WINE AND

POUNDAGE ON GOODS.