The Truth about the 1190 Massacre of the Jews in York

Cutting through the Myths and Misrepresentations

The Massacre of the Jews in Clifford’s Tower (= York Castle) in 1190 has long been one of best-known events in the history of the jewish residence in the British Isles. It is routinely features – along with the jewish ritual murder of William of Norwich in 1144 and the expulsion of the jews by Edward I in 1290 – as a defining event of the jewish residence in England during the medieval period.

It is also an event that has been routinely and dare I say systematically mispresented over the years with jewish historians like Cecil Roth placing the blame on the English peasants, urban bourgeoisie and knights that took part in the popular anti-jewish uprisings that led to the jews of York fleeing to the protection of the royal castle of York. (1)

According to this narrative the English peasants, urban bourgeoisie and knights were angry about their debts to their jews and cynically took the opportunity presented by the popular anti-jewish riots in London during the Coronation of King Richard I ‘the Lionheart’ of England in London on 3^rd September 1189 to eliminate their debts by eliminating the jewish holders of those debts. (2)

This is well represented by the official ‘History of York’ website, which asserts that:

‘After rioting had engulfed the towns of Norwich, Stamford and Lincoln they began in York with a mob attempting to burn down Benedict’s palatial house. The Jews were officially protected by the king as his feudal vassals and sought protection in the royal castle, barricading themselves into the wooden keep. The rioters, meanwhile, were egged on by members of the local gentry called Richard Malebisse, William Percy, Marmeduke Darell and Philip de Fauconberg. These men saw the riots as an opportunity to wipe out the extensive debts they owed to Jewish money-lenders in the city. These men had borrowed heavily from Jewish money-lenders but had failed to secure lucrative royal appointments and so could not afford to repay their debts. Indeed, after the massacre they proceeded to burn the records of their debts held in the Minster, so absolving themselves from repayment to the king, who would acquire the property and debts owed to the murdered Jews.’ (3)

Or alternatively the jewish historian Chaim Potok summarizes the events as follows:

‘In 1190 a mob of English crusaders attacked the prosperous Jewish community of York in the north of England. The Jews took refuge in the royal castle and then committed mass suicide.’ (4)

What this narrative pointedly leaves out – typically for jewish history I might add – is why ‘the prosperous jewish community of York’/jewish moneylenders like Benedict of York – who was killed in the anti-jewish riots in London during Richard I’s coronation on 3^rd September 1189 – (5) would hold such large debts from the English peasants, urban bourgeoisie and especially the knights and lords of the realm.

The answer as to why Richard Malebisse, William Percy, Marmeduke Darell and Philip de Fauconberg were in such debt to Benedict of York that they burned down his house and murdered his family at the first opportunity is simple enough.

The jews were – as already stated by the ‘History of York’ website – under direct royal protection. (6) Under Richard I’s father Henry II jews had increasingly come to dominate England. Henry II had turned to jewish moneylenders like Benedict of York as a means to raise money by placing an unbearable burden of taxation on to his people and forcing them to their services to pay what they owed to the Crown. (7)

Henry II was the first to implement this system of tallage (8) and formalised the already extent principle of royal ownership of the jews. (9) That jews dominated the kingdom of England’s financial system at this time is directly evidenced by the fact that they were the kingdom’s wealthiest citizens, (10) principle moneylenders to both Church (11) and State (12) and also effectively ran the all-important Royal Mint. (13)

We can see therefore that English knights like Richard Malebisse, William Percy, Marmeduke Darell and Philip de Fauconberg were thus in a precarious financial position as they had been drained dry of their rents and forced to become deeply in debt to the jews acting a proxy for Henry II.

That this didn’t just affect the knights and lords of the realm is also obvious from the fact that following the death of the jews of York in Clifford’s Tower on 16^th March 1190. The entirety of the mob of peasants, urban bourgeoisie and knights ran to York Cathedral straight away in order to burn the records of the debts to the jews that had been forced upon them by the scheming of both the jews and Henry II. (14)

However even this simply doesn’t tell the whole truth, because while the jews themselves were responsible for creating the situation where a popular uprising was certain to happen. The details also demonstrate how they themselves triggered the York uprising that resulted in their wholesale elimination, which albeit temporary since jews were back and more powerful than ever in York by 1201. (15)

If we go to the events in London at Richard I’s coronation on 3^rd September 1089, which were ostensibly the trigger for a series of anti-jewish uprisings in places as geographically diverse as Thetford and Lincoln. (16) Then we see that the riot’s actual cause was the fact that the jews had been officially told that they were not welcome at the coronation, but who decided to turn up anyway with their gifts and presents for the newly-crowned king.

This deliberate flouting of the rules for the coronation by the representatives of the jewish community resulted in various attendees beating and whipping them out of Westminster Abbey, which was interpreted by the large number of peasants and urban bourgeoisie waiting to greet the newly-crowned king outside as a symbol that they could finally rid themselves of the oppressive fetters of debt imposed upon them by the jewish moneylenders resident in England and acted accordingly. By attacking the jews wherever they found them, burning down their houses and destroying any debt registers that they could find.

Now had the jews not flouted the officially communicated request for them not to attend – most likely because they were hated and would be likely to provoke popular violence if they attended – the coronation of Richard I. Then the resulting violence would have occurred, and Richard I would have confirmed jewish privileges – as indeed he did – (17) and they would have continued to oppress the English people with the blessing and protection of the king.

Yet because the jews arrogantly turned up anyway - thus refusing an official request - with their presents. They managed to provoke not only violence from the attendees, but a wholesale popular uprising against them by the English people.

A similar situation can be seen in the case of the York massacre of 1190 in that when like Richard Malebisse, William Percy, Marmeduke Darell and Philip de Fauconberg burnt down Benedict of York’s house and executed all the members of his family. The jews of York – under the leadership of Josce of York who had been in London with Benedict at the time of the Coronation – fled to the royal castle of York with their families in order to protect themselves. (18)

Yet unlike the jews of Lincoln – who did the same thing and fled to the royal castle of Lincoln for protection – (19) once admitted the jews of York decided to refuse re-entry to the County Sheriff – who had opened the gates to them and granted them shelter – in what Pallister tries to palm off as a ‘tragic misunderstanding’. (20)

In essence the jews had been admitted to the royal castle of York, but had then seized possession of it after the County Sheriff – the king’s most important local representative – had left to go about his ordinary business. This was treason by definition and as such the County Sheriff immediately ordered that Josce and the jews of York be besieged and executed as traitors to the crown.

A ‘tragic misunderstanding’ this is not likely to have been. Precisely because it is hard to imagine that Josce of York and the jewish community would not have known that to refuse entry to the County Sheriff to a royal castle was treason and in so doing they had to have some kind of motive.

This is further supported by the fact that – led by Josce – the jews of York decide engage in a suicide pact, which is remarkably like that undertaken by the Sicarii at the Herodian fortress of Masada as famously described by Josephus in his ‘Jewish Wars’. (21)

The similarity between the two suicides – undertaken by jews with their wives and children surrounded by a hostile non-jewish force whom they had significantly angered – is remarkable and we can reasonably suggest that so famous account was in Josce of York’s mind when he entered the royal castle of York and then shut out the County Sheriff.

In essence Josce of York created a situation where Kiddush Hashem (= ‘Sanctification of the Name’ = martyrdom) was preferable to anything else in the minds of the members of the jewish community of York. The fact that it didn’t – and shouldn’t – have ended in a mass suicide by the jews is demonstrated by the case of the jews of Lincoln successfully taking shelter in the royal castle of Lincoln at the same time. Yet only if we see Josce of York’s actions as being a deliberate attempt to emulate the Sicarii at Masada when surrounded by the Romans does the situation make any sense.

Therefore, we can see that the jews both caused the initial anti-jewish uprising to occur in London by disobeying official advice not to attend Richard I’s coronation in Westminster Abbey and also put themselves in a situation in York where they were traitors to the crown and thus subject to summary execution as punishment.

While also noting that the reasons that the anti-jewish uprisings had occurred was the conduct of the jews as the willing financial agents of Henry II and then as the creditors of those who were unable to afford the heavy taxes unilaterally demanded of them by the king.

Therefore, we can see from the analysis above that the so-called ‘massacre’ of 1190 in York is nothing of the kind, but rather an intention mass suicide of jews led by Josce of York after having seriously violating both the king’s peace by seizing the royal castle of York and prior to that having routinely abused and oppressed the English people both on their own account as well as that of Henry II.

References

(1) Robert Chazan, 2006, 'The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom, 1000-1500', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, pp. 160-161

(2) D. M. Palliser, 2014, ‘Medieval York: 600-1540’, 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York, pp. 104-105

(3) http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/norman/the-1190-massacre

(4) Chaim Potok, 1978, ‘Wanderings: Chaim Potok’s History of the Jews’, 1st Edition, Fawcett Crest: New York, p. 415

(5) Palliser, Op. Cit., p. 104

(6) Chazan, Op. Cit., p. 160

(7) Ralph Turner, 2003, ‘Magna Carta: Through the Ages’, 1st Edition, Pearson Longman: New York, p. 44

(8) Richard Huscroft, 2006, ‘Expulsion: England’s Jewish Solution’, 1st Edition, Tempus: Stroud, pp. 61-62; Ralph Turner, 2005, ‘King John: England’s Evil King?’, 2nd Edition, Tempus: Stroud, pp. 68-74

(9) Chazan, Op. Cit., p. 160

(10) Cecil Roth, 1941, 'A History of the Jews in England', 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: London, p. 15

(11) Rodney Hilton, 1975, 'The English Peasantry in the Later Middle Ages', 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York, p. 183

(12) Christopher Dyer, 2002, 'Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain 850 – 1520', 1st Edition, Yale University Press: New Haven, pp. 148; 178

(13) John Guy, 2013, ‘Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim’, 1st Edition, Penguin: New York, p. 7; Leon Poliakov, 2003, [1975], 'The History of Anti-Semitism', Vol. I, 1st Edition, University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, p. 77

(14) Palliser, Op. Cit., pp. 104-105

(15) Ibid, p. 105

(16) Ibid, p. 104

(17) Hilton, Op. Cit., p. 183; Palliser, Op. Cit., p. 105; Roth, Op. Cit., p. 18

(18) Palliser, Op. Cit., p. 104

(19) Ibid.

(20) Ibid.

(21) Joseph. Bel. Jud. 7:9