Although the riots were sparked by religious fanatics, the rioters had an
economic aim as well, looting the property of the Jews of York. When
Richard was captured several years later, the Jews were forced to contribute a
large sum of money toward his ransom. Upon his return, Richard investi-
gated and seized all loot taken from Jews during the riot. In order to preserve
Jewish economic records, contracts, and deeds in case of future violence, he
created a royal exchequer of Jews as a branch of royal administration. By the
end of his reign, the Jews were able to contribute significantly less in tax rev-
enue, but at least their situation had restabilized.
Conditions for Jews worsened during the reign of King John. Facing a
near-bankrupt treasury, the loss of Normandy, and severed ties with France,
and with a limited understanding of economics, in 1210 he tried to extort a
large sum from Jews in a single act. He had all Jews arrested and fined, seized
some Jewish assets, and taxed the remaining assets rather than the income
they produced. This led to widespread Jewish impoverishment by the 1220s.
John also required the children of deceased Jews to settle debts with the trea-
sury, precluding any economic recovery. Jewish capital and revenue from Jews
declined rapidly.
At the same time, English bishops became increasingly anti-Jewish,
telling Christians not to sell food to Jews. By 1253, the only Jews who
remained in England were those who provided a direct benefit to the king.
Edward I formalized this situation 1272 by banishing poor Jews. Then, in
1275, he tried to move Jews experimentally into more productive occupa-
tions. He forbade Jews from lending at interest by withdrawing state
enforcement, and then allowed them to become merchants and artisans, and
to lease land. The experiment failed.
By 1290, the Jewish community of England was only a shadow of what it
had been a century earlier. Thus, the expulsion edict of 1290 was more a cul-
mination of a century of economic decline than a sudden change of royal
policy. Interestingly, contemporary chronicles attributed the expulsion – in
addition to the influence of Dominicans on the queen mother, economic
excesses such as coin clipping, and impoverishment – to Edward’s expulsion
of the Jews from Gascony, an English holding on the Continent, a year earlier.
They regarded the expulsion from England as part of a larger effort toward
political and territorial consolidation, a way to bring all English territory
under a uniform royal law, and to rid all English crown lands of Jews. The
expulsion left the economic difficulties unresolved. As late as 1327, the
crown was still trying to collect money owed to Jews.
The expulsion of Jews from France was more complex and protracted,
punctuated by impetuous royal economic policies and complicated by the
inability of the king of France to subordinate the landed nobles. The situa-
tion of French Jews began to deteriorate by the late twelfth century during
the reign of the pious and anti-Jewish Philip II Augustus (1179–1223),
The Jews of medieval Christendom 93