Introduction
Few countries can claim to have a clean record when it comes to the treatment of Jews, and England is no exception. Confined by law and custom to trade and money-lending, Jews were both indispensable to the economy and the target of suspicion and resentment, leading King Edward I to give an infamous order.
FROM at least Roman times, Jews played a vital role in British life, especially in commerce and in money-lending. Commerce was regarded by the gentry as beneath them, and usury was forbidden by the Church.
Inevitably perhaps, tensions came and went, occasionally breaking out into hysterical and bloody attacks, especially after the Norman Conquest. In 1190, a hundred and fifty Jewish men, women and children were massacred in York; in 1231, during the reign of Henry III, the newly-arrived French nobleman Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, expelled all Jews from his city; and in 1290, after executing some three hundred and failing to convert the rest, King Edward I banished all Jews from England, seizing their property for the crown.
There is no record of Edward’s wishes being flouted until the 17th century, when frenzied religious speculation among the hardline Protestant Christians dominating Oliver Cromwell’s republic, established in 1649 following the execution of Charles I, put the readmission of Jews back on the agenda.
Précis
In 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England, ending over a thousand years of fractious cohabitation: Jews had provided essential but socially unacceptable services such as trade and money-lending, and resentment had often brimmed over into violence. Jewish people remained barred from the Kingdom thereafter, until the Interregnum in 1649. (52 / 60 words)
In 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England, ending over a thousand years of fractious cohabitation: Jews had provided essential but socially unacceptable services such as trade and money-lending, and resentment had often brimmed over into violence. Jewish people remained barred from the Kingdom thereafter, until the Interregnum in 1649.
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Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: despite, just, must, not, otherwise, ought, since, whereas.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why were there no Jewish people in England in the reign of King Charles I?
Suggestion
Edward I expelled them all in 1290. (6 words)
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Jews in York were killed in 1190. There were 150 men, women and children. The King at the time was Richard I.