‹ Expulsion of the Jews from England, 1290
Why did the expulsion of the Jews from England, 1290 happen?
Shows causes on the record, then each account's causes side by side.
Not a single settled cause.
A connection is not evidence of wrongdoing.
Each account
One account recorded. Others may exist.
According to The National Archives (UK)
-
Parliament’s tax grant to Edward I, 1290
caused
Jul 1290
Primary record
12
The Archives’ account: the expulsion was the price Edward agreed to pay for the tax. Ariel Hessayon notes that several reasons have been suggested, among them that Jews had become less useful to the crown as a source of tax.
-
Seizure of Jewish debts and property by the crown
caused
Primary record
1
In Gascony in 1287 Edward had already expelled Jews and taken their property and the debts owed to them.
Proof 2 sources
-
Jews in England in 1290 (teaching resource with transcribed and translated royal records), The National Archives (UK).
Primary record
The expulsion of the Jews was the price he agreed to pay.
In 1287, in the duchy of Gascony (an area of modern-day France under English rule), King Edward ordered the local Jews to be expelled. All their property was seized by the crown and all outstanding debts owed to Jews were transferred to the king’s name.
Jews were allowed to take their possessions with them, but the vast majority had their houses forfeited to the king.
-
Jews in England: From Expulsion (1290) to Readmission (1656), by Ariel Hessayon, Jewish Communities and Records UK (JCR-UK); article by Ariel Hessayon, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2006.
Scholarship & press
Several reasons have been suggested for why Edward I expelled Jews from England in 1290.
once Jews were barred from usury in 1275 their wealth declined and consequently they became less useful to the Crown as a source of revenue through taxation.
engaged in usury disguised as trading in grain and wool.
How this answer is built
Lines on the record come first: sourced links that no one presents as their own account, each with its strongest source. Then every account recorded here gets its own column, A to Z, none ranked above another. A column quotes only that account's own words and shows the strength of its own sources. Disputed lines are listed apart, with the reason, and lines still being verified come last. Neither is counted. Withdrawn lines are never shown.
When a list is longer than the page shows, the links the public methodology ranks strongest stay (methodology 0.3), and the rest open in the explorer.
Know a source we are missing? Propose it with a pull request to content/entities/event/ex/expulsion-of-the-jews-from-england-1290.md.