STIRRED UP THE ENVY OF THE POPULACE. 303

maintained that the king was not a good Christian in consequence; till they wrought him up to the pitch they aimed at. Eleanor even, who was as unprincipled a plunderer of the Jews as the king himself, whenever an opportunity occurred, was also accused of patronizing them, simply because it was supposed that when Eleanor was married to Henry, a great number of Jews followed her to this country, hoping to experience the same favour they enjoyed in her paternal country. All these pretences pressed heavily upon the poor Jews. New cruel enactments were devised against them; and the king was obliged to sanction them, in order to retain the pretensions to the name Christian. Cruelty to the Jews seems, then, to have been an infallible feature of a good Christian. Thus, in the fifty-first year of this reign, when the statute of Pillory passed, it was enacted, amongst other things, that "no person should purchase flesh of a Jew." "The regulations of these statutes," says Mr. Blunt, had reference principally to the conduct of

304 HENRY'S PLUNDERING THE JEWS PROVED

the Jews, and to their intercourse with the Christians." If their fury went no further, the Jews would have had no reason to be sorry; for truth to speak, the less intercourse the Jews had with those Christians, the safer they were. But the people did not stop here. Indeed, there were circumstances arising out of the authority claimed by the crown over the Jews, which induced the nation to require some regulations with respect to their property and possessions. The right of the crown with respect to them, was not unfrequently, in the exercise, oppressive to the Christian inhabitants. When the king seized the estate of a Jew into his hands, he claimed to be entitled, as part of his effects, to all the debts which were at the time owing to him, and the debtor to the Jew thereby became the debtor of the king— a situation which the wants of the crown in these times rendered dangerous and oppressive. It was the custom of the Jews, instead of advancing money on mortgage, to purchase certain rent-charges on annuities, secured

OPPRESSIVE TO THE NATION AT LARGE. 305

upon the landed estates of the debtor. These rent-charges had increased to a very large extent, and by becoming vested in the king, were probably found to give the crown a dangerous hold upon the landed proprietors of the country. As a further consequence, also, of the title claimed by the king to the property and estates of the Jews, an encroachment was made upon the accustomed rights of the tenure. When a Jew became entitled to any landed property, the fruits and privileges of the lord of the fee became immediately endangered or suspended; for, besides that the land was liable at any time to be seized into the hands of the king, who, upon feudal principles, could not hold of any inferior, the lord was deprived at once of his chance of escheat and the advantages of reliefs, as the king claimed in all cases to succeed to the lands of a Jew upon his death; and the heir, for permission to take the land of his ancestors, paid his relief to the king. In cases of outlawry, moreover, the king

306

HENRY'S CHARTER

stepped in and deprived the lord of his escheat.

In consequence of this state of circumstances, the king was constrained, towards the conclusion of his reign, to grant the following charter :

"Henry, by the grace of God, king of England, &c. To all our sheriffs, bailiffs, and liege subjects, to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye, that for the honour of God and the universal Church, for the amendment and advantage of our kingdom, and for relieving Christians from the damages and grievance which they have suffered by the freeholds which our Jews claimed to have in lands, tenements, fees, rents, and other tenures; and that no prejudice may hereafter happen to us, to the commonweal of our kingdom, or to the kingdom itself, we, by the advice of our bishops, nobles, and great men who are of our council, have provided, ordained, and enacted, for us and our heirs, that no Jew shall from henceforth have a freehold in any

AGAINST THE JEWS.

307

manors, lands, tenements, fees, rents, or tenures whatsoever, either by charter, gift, feoffment, confirmation, or other grant, or by any other means whatever.

"Provided nevertheless, that they may hereafter hold, as in times past they were accustomed to hold, those houses in our cities, boroughs and towns, which they themselves inhabit; and likewise that they may let those houses to lease, which they now hold for that purpose, to Jews only, but not to Christians.

"Yet nevertheless it is here provided, that it should not be lawful for our Jews of London to purchase, or by any other method to acquire, more houses than they now have in our said city of London; by which the parochial churches of the said city, or their incumbents, may incur a loss. However, it shall be lawful for the said Jews of London at their pleasure to repair their houses, and even to rebuild and restore to their former condition such of their old houses as have fallen down or been demolished.