The English Statute of the Jewry 1275 prohibited Jews from lending money at interest or taking mortgages on land - which in England, as in much of the rest of medieval Europe, had been their chief commercial activity up to that time - but permitted them to work as merchants, craftsmen and laborers or to lease farmland for up to ten years. Jews were also permitted to interact with Christians for the purpose of commerce, although Christians were not to dwell among them. Opinions vary as to the intent of the law, but the consensus (and the opinion that makes most sense) appears to be that King Edward wanted to placate the nobles and merchants who were resentful of their debts to Jews while preserving the Jewish community as an economically viable entity that he could tax.
If so, it didn't work out that way. Jews were now legally entitled to pursue livelihoods other than moneylending, but they were prevented from doing so by other obstacles. For one thing, they still couldn't employ Christian workers. For another, they were blocked from being merchants by municipal restrictions limiting the markets to burgesses and from being craftsmen because the guilds that controlled craft work wouldn't admit non-Christian members. For a third, prevailing anti-Semitic attitudes meant that few Christians were willing to hire them as laborers or rent them land. And for a fourth, the ways that the statute continued to keep Jews apart - for instance, reaffirming the requirement that they wear a yellow badge and requiring them to live only in certain towns - enforced their separation from Christians and limited their ability to look for work in other parts of the country.
As a result, English Jews continued to practice moneylending in disguised forms, and were easily tempted into crimes such as coin-clipping (in 1278-79, every Jewish head of household in England was arrested for clipping coins, with some being hanged and others being imprisoned until they paid ransom). Eventually, in 1290, the Jews of England ran out of money, and since they were no longer useful to the royal treasury, the king expelled them.
The question is whether a better-thought-out Statute of the Jewry might work. It wouldn't be unheard-of for Jews in medieval Europe to make a living through craft work or even farming; they did this in other places, and some of the German and Italian states protected their right to do so. But the English monarchy wasn't going to allow Jews to be burgesses - that would compromise their status as, essentially, royal property - and had limited power to coerce the guilds to admit Jews. Might it have been possible to do an end run around these restrictions by legislating that municipal markets must allow Jewish merchants whether or not burgesses, and that certain crafts (more than likely the ones with the politically weakest guilds) would be open to non-guild members? Failing that, could some of the Jewish social restrictions be relaxed - that would be hard to do given that the Jewish badge and the ban on Jews employing Christians were canon law at the time, but some other cities and feudal domains did resist them?
Assuming that a better-crafted statute (a) would be politically possible, and (b) would keep the English Jews economically viable, what then? The Black Death is scheduled for the mid-14th century and was the catalyst for some of the most murderous anti-Semitism in OTL Europe, with many Jewish communities being massacred or expelled. Would this result in the expulsion of Jews from England as well, two generations later than OTL? Or would the Jews be able to stay longer as they did in Iberia, with the Hundred Years' War (and later the Wars of the Roses, assuming they aren't butterflied) playing a role similar to the wars of the Reconquista in ensuring that the monarchy continued to need them? Might the relatively small Jewish community of England even experience an influx of expellees from France and the German states during the 14th century, jump-starting its (IOTL relatively minor) intellectual life? How would they play into the struggles of the 15th and 16th centuries and, in general, what might be the effect of a continuous Jewish presence in the English-speaking world?
If so, it didn't work out that way. Jews were now legally entitled to pursue livelihoods other than moneylending, but they were prevented from doing so by other obstacles. For one thing, they still couldn't employ Christian workers. For another, they were blocked from being merchants by municipal restrictions limiting the markets to burgesses and from being craftsmen because the guilds that controlled craft work wouldn't admit non-Christian members. For a third, prevailing anti-Semitic attitudes meant that few Christians were willing to hire them as laborers or rent them land. And for a fourth, the ways that the statute continued to keep Jews apart - for instance, reaffirming the requirement that they wear a yellow badge and requiring them to live only in certain towns - enforced their separation from Christians and limited their ability to look for work in other parts of the country.
As a result, English Jews continued to practice moneylending in disguised forms, and were easily tempted into crimes such as coin-clipping (in 1278-79, every Jewish head of household in England was arrested for clipping coins, with some being hanged and others being imprisoned until they paid ransom). Eventually, in 1290, the Jews of England ran out of money, and since they were no longer useful to the royal treasury, the king expelled them.
The question is whether a better-thought-out Statute of the Jewry might work. It wouldn't be unheard-of for Jews in medieval Europe to make a living through craft work or even farming; they did this in other places, and some of the German and Italian states protected their right to do so. But the English monarchy wasn't going to allow Jews to be burgesses - that would compromise their status as, essentially, royal property - and had limited power to coerce the guilds to admit Jews. Might it have been possible to do an end run around these restrictions by legislating that municipal markets must allow Jewish merchants whether or not burgesses, and that certain crafts (more than likely the ones with the politically weakest guilds) would be open to non-guild members? Failing that, could some of the Jewish social restrictions be relaxed - that would be hard to do given that the Jewish badge and the ban on Jews employing Christians were canon law at the time, but some other cities and feudal domains did resist them?
Assuming that a better-crafted statute (a) would be politically possible, and (b) would keep the English Jews economically viable, what then? The Black Death is scheduled for the mid-14th century and was the catalyst for some of the most murderous anti-Semitism in OTL Europe, with many Jewish communities being massacred or expelled. Would this result in the expulsion of Jews from England as well, two generations later than OTL? Or would the Jews be able to stay longer as they did in Iberia, with the Hundred Years' War (and later the Wars of the Roses, assuming they aren't butterflied) playing a role similar to the wars of the Reconquista in ensuring that the monarchy continued to need them? Might the relatively small Jewish community of England even experience an influx of expellees from France and the German states during the 14th century, jump-starting its (IOTL relatively minor) intellectual life? How would they play into the struggles of the 15th and 16th centuries and, in general, what might be the effect of a continuous Jewish presence in the English-speaking world?
Last edited:
