the decision not to expel the Jews reflected a larger economic-driven toleration
of non-Catholics that had allowed thousands of French Huguenots to remain.
In addition, the treaty reaffirmed the political status quo in central
Europe, recognizing each of the constituent members of the Holy Roman
Empire as sovereign states, a situation that would last until the reign of
Napoleon Bonaparte. In an effort to emulate the emperor and other leading
rulers, most of the more than 300 sovereigns regarded resourceful Jewish
merchants as an indispensable feature of government administration. This led
to a proliferation of large-scale Jewish merchants and moneylenders who
received an appointment as factor from a royal, ducal, or ecclesiastical court.
As a group, these Jews came to be known as court Jews.
Absolutism and the court Jews
The court Jews were a coterie of wealthy, well-connected Jews who were the
financial or commercial agents of a powerful sovereign. As a small and atypi-
cal but highly significant group, the court Jews can be defined by five general
characteristics. First, court Jews were not just wealthy, but also politically
well connected. They had direct access to a prince, king, or emperor. Court
Jews, also called court factors, supplied the emperor and other sovereigns
with cash, and provisioned virtually every army in central Europe. During the
1660s, Samson Wertheimer provisioned the emperor’s war efforts against the
Turks and enabled Prince Eugene of Savoy, the commander of the imperial
army, to provide medical attention to troops. In 1701, Wertheimer replen-
ished the imperial treasury at the outbreak of the War of the Spanish
Succession and provisioned troops in Hungary and the Italian states. The
same year, Wertheimer obtained 1 million florins for the king of Poland as a
dowry for the king’s daughter to marry the emperor’s brother-in-law Duke
Charles Philip.
Second, court Jews formed a separate caste within European Jewry. They
were an international community that transcended local and national borders,
not unlike the European high nobility. Members of the court Jews’ families
tended to intermarry among each other.
Third, court Jews and their families lived an exceptional lifestyle. They had
virtually no residential restrictions, and had access to the non-Jewish world.
Some court Jews lived outside the Jewish quarter, and in cities from which
most Jews were banned – even in Vienna. Bernard Lehmann lived in a huge
palace, drove a six-horse carriage, and owned several country villas. Samson
Wertheimer owned several palaces and gardens in Vienna, and had houses in
other cities. His house in Vienna was guarded by ten imperial guards. Court
Jews were not forced to conform to restrictions on Jewish dress.
Court Jews, moreover, provided their children with an exceptional educa-
tion by engaging private tutors, and were thus not confined by the limits of
114 World Jewry in flux, 1492–1750