 How The Good Christians of York Murdered 150 Jewish, Men,
Women and Children and then hid the atrocity for 800 years.
Do you think the newspaper article shown alongside (Tribute To Jews) is a fair report of the history of Clifford's Tower? Do you believe the Jews committed mass suicide? Then think
again. It's a propaganda cover-up by the
Christian Church to absolve itself of blame. Now the SAFF can divulge the whole truth below which you will be astonished to read.
They told you it was a 'mob' which started the massacre to kill all of York's Jews, but the truth is that
it was the aristocracy of York who engineered the killings because they were heavily indebted to the Jews and
could not pay. In particular the nobleman Richard Malebysse, of whom there is absolutely no mention in the sanitised newspaper
article in the right-most column.
"The village [Acaster Malbis, just outside York] is mentioned in the
Domesday Book as Acastre in the wapentake of Ainsty... Ownership passed to the
Malbysse family during the reign of Richard I. The family held the lands
for about 200 years. In 1190, Richard Malebysse was a leader involved
in the massacre of the Jews at Cliffords Tower in York.... " Source: Wikipedia
Note that other authorities claim those few 'officially' punished for the Massacre
at Clifford's Tower were in fact scapegoats and in reality only cosmetic action was
taken against the ring-leaders because they were pillars of the York Christian
community. Apparently Richard Malebysse (Malbis, Malbysse) got away with causing the deaths
of hundreds of Jews with a relative slap on the wrist as the following
extract shows:
"The Romans had a settlement here and after the Norman conquest the
D’Acaster family built a church around 1100. The Malbysse family
came to England with William the Conqueror and the two families of
D’Acaster and Malbysse were united in marriage. Richard Malbysse,
known as “Mala Bestia”, was fined £40 for his part in the
infamous massacre of the Jews in Clifford’s Tower in 1190." Source:
Note that this fine
levied by the King was equivalent to the cost or rebuilding the
destroyed stockcade on Clifford's Tower, thus was a penalty designed to
recoup the King's equity, not to punish Malbysse for killing 150 Jews!
In 1200 (ten years
after Malebysse's estate was supposedly siezed by the King as punishment for
starting the pogrom at Clifford's Tower) Richard Malbysse was licensed to fortify a castle
he was building on the very same land! [ Source: York archives MYO61]
There has been a continuous re-writing of history to absolve the
Christian Establishment in York of any blame for murdering 150 Jews in
York. The 1990 'commemoration' in the right-most column is
another classic example of how the intellectual descendants of the
Christians in power 800 years ago are still in charge of covering up the
truth of the matter today.
An extract from David Humes History of England (circa 1750) taken
from the 13c Waverley Annals ( see bottom of rightmost column) proves that the Clifford's Tower Massacre was a pogrom
against all Jews caused by hyper-agressive conflict in the Holy
Land. Antipathy to the Jews grew not only because of the absolutist
beliefs of Christianity but because the majority of aristocrats,
including the King, were indebted to the Jews and were seeking methods
of defaulting on paying them back.
First English Pogrom Against The Jews Occurred in London
The very first pogrom against the Jews in England occurred on the
coronation day of Richard I in September 1189. He had specifically
banned Jews from attending his coronation but some turned up with gifts
thinking that these would curry favour. Richard had
them stripped and flogged and then thrown out of court. This example
detonated sectarian hatred against the Jews in London. A rumour went around that the King
had ordered all Jews who would not repent and accept baptism into Christianity to be killed.
"Many Jewish homes were burned down, and several Jews were forcibly
baptised. Some sought sanctuary in the Tower of London, and others
managed to escape. Among those killed was Jacob of Orléans, a respected
Jewish scholar. Realising that the assaults could destabilise his
realm on the eve of his departure on crusade, Richard ordered the
execution of those responsible for the most egregious murders and
persecutions, including rioters who had accidentally burned down
Christian homes. He distributed a royal writ demanding that the Jews be
left alone. The edict was loosely enforced, however, and the following
March there was further violence including a massacre at York." Source
[Ed: In fact
some commentators point out that the 'punishment' was a pretence and
hardly anyone was held to account for the London pogrom]
Benedict of York
One of the prominent Jews who had tried to attend Richard's coronation was
Benedict of York. He was mortally wounded in the pogrom which followed. He died shortly afterwards from his wounds. Remember that name, for he is the link with the
Clifford's Tower massacre. Benedict was the York agent of Aaron of
Lincoln to whom landowner Richard Malbis (Malebysse), the ringleader who
started the York massacre, owed large debts he could not pay.
"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 (Clifford's Tower), barricading
themselves into the wooden keep. The rioters, meanwhile, were egged on
by members of the local gentry [ the ring-leaders were ] 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. They 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." Source:
The Web of Intrigue:
Note this web of intrigue well: Malebysse and Percy held adjoining estates just outside York
(Acaster Malbis / Bolton Percy). Richard Maleybisse's grandfather Hugo
had actually married into the Percy family {Emma Percy} giving a new
insight into the close interests of the conspirators.
Marmeduke Darell
was the lord of the Manor in Sessay (a Parish north-west of York) and that
area was controlled by the De Percy family having a mesne lordship
there anciently from St Cuthbert's Church in Durham.
All these 'nobles' had a vested interest in whipping up hatred against
the Jews to default on payment of their debts and all had lands and
wealth in common.
Another high personage
directly involved in the conspiracy was Philip de Fauconberg (later Falconberg), a
powerful family of nobles even today, with multifarious links to the church. Fauconberg
actually had legal control of all the lands in 'Ainsty' a 'riding' in
which ALL of the other conspirators land resided.
St William of Norwhich: First Satanic Ritual Abuse Victim?
The towns of Norwich and Lincoln ( which suffered similar Jewish pogroms)
were already hypersensitive to the anti-Jewish Blood Libel myth because in
1144 the William of Norwich scandal had occurred where the Jewish
community
were blamed and attacked for ritually killing a nondescript boy,
William, who had
been found inexplicably dead. There was no hard evidence that any
Jew was involved but what did that matter to anti-semites?
Richard de Malebysse was in considerable debt to Aaron of Lincoln through
Aaron's
agent, Benedict of York. See how the web of intrigue spins
itself?
William of Norwich was hurriedly canonised by the Church to cement
the Jewish Blood Libel Myth in the minds of the English.
Whitewash by the Christian Church and it's influential members
Thus, although the good fathers of York have repetitively
passed off the massacre of 150 Jews there as 'suicide' and blamed the
cause of it on an unrepresentative ignorant mob, this SAFF historical
exclusive proves that Malbysse and the other aristocrats,
churchmen and gentry of York siezed the opportunity following the
'example' shown by Richard I in London, to massage local anti-semitism
and belief in the Blood-Libel (Jews sacrificing Christian children) in
the lead-up to
Passover.
By urging the mob to attack and fire Benedict of York's house,
killing all his heirs in the process, Malbysse, Percy, Darrell and
Fauconberg used their henchmen to rid themselves of their debts to the
Jews.
When the mob, mad with
sectarian hatred, moved on to other Jews the rest of the
authorities in York, most of whom also owed debts to the Jews or perceived them as being racially inferior,
tacitly joined in the pogrom. Once all the Jews of York had been corralled in Clifford's Tower
the authorities largely offered no resistance. Neither did the Sherrif of York use
his constables to try to control the mob when they set fire to the
wooden stockade and burned the jews alive.
The whitewashed rewrite of history, the ones you will find in the history books, says that, faced with inevitable death
by burning alive, many of the Jews killed their wives and children for
a merciful end and the people of York were later absolved of the full
guilt
for their actions by the false explanation of a 'mass suicide'. Now you know different.
Xist Propaganda Overturned after 800 years.
There are two salient points which lead us to overturn the
'official' history of the Clifford's Tower Massacre. The first is that
whilst the plebs in the mob were driven by pure hate, the people in
power knew that when they took flight each Jew would have taken
their personal gold with them, thus not only was fate giving indebted
nobles an opportunity to rid themselves of usury but a fortune awaited
those in authority who could move in and take the pickings after the
mobs hatred had been expiated.
The second is the question of who started the fire. There was great difficulty in starting any fire in the
1190s. The method used then was to strike a piece of
flint against a 'steel' (actually a bar of iron ) in order to cause
sparks to fly off into specially prepared tinder called 'char cloth'
which was treated to become highly inflamable.
In
those far off days there were no matches and people rarely lit a fire to
order. They occasionally, usually communally, made fire and once
it had been lit kept that fire alive for days and
weeks, even months, taking embers from that to other fires/stoves/lights in the
house. This was the old idea of the 'Need Fire' where eight times a
year 'old-fires' would be extinguished in the village, a new sacred
fire started from scratch and 'new fire' used to re-start/refresh every hearth.
The idea that the Jews 'set fire' to
the wooden stockade which was Clifford's Tower, is plausible, but
so is firing the gates of a wooden citadel, because it was the standard method used by
those wanting to get into a stockade during a siege. Particularly
as the mob on the outside could have obtained an ember of fire from any
York house within easy reach.
After six days of the Jews being holed up in the
stockade someone on the outside lost patience and set fire to it with
the Jews inside. This
may not have been exactly what the nobles and churchmen of York wanted
(unpicking slugs of melted gold from the bones of old Jews is far harder
work than simply taking it from their purses after you've butchered
them) but fate is fate and cynical people make the best of it.
Note that most lynch-mobs occur during a short period of collective
rage, it is highly unusual for this rage to last more than a day or so.
By day six of the Clifford's Tower siege most of the mob would have expiated their rage and gone home
to go about their normal business. Only a hard core of jew-baiters
would have been left for the authorities to deal with, yet the city
fathers still did not apparently take charge of the situation.
"Richard de Malbis (Richard Malebysse), was in considerable debt
to the Jew Aaron of Lincoln. When a fire accidentally broke out in the
city on 16 March 1190, de Malbis used the opportunity to incite a mob to
attack the home of Benedict of York, the recently deceased agent of
Aaron of Lincoln, killing his widow and children and burning the house."
As the pogrom was taking place,
"The gentry of the neighbourhood, who were all indebted to the
Jews, ran to the cathedral, where their bonds were kept, and made a
solemn bonfire of the papers before the altar."
So the pious gentry of York, hypocrites to a
man, not only broke into the Cathedral in front of their god but
actually used some of the altar candles to set fire to the documents
which were the only proof of their indebtedness to the Jews.
TIMELINE
There are conflicting estimates of the start, duration and
end of the Clifford's Tower Massacre in the historical reports. We
have used historical dates and using computer reverse-dating technology
on both the Julian and the Hebrew calander have produced this timeline
for the massacre.
March16th 'accidental' Fire in York
March 17th Sabbath before Passover/Pesach
March 23rd: Clifford's Tower's Wooden Keep fired.
March 24th Passover/Pesach begins (Nisan 15, 4950)
April 25th: Easter Day in 1190
BLOOD LIBEL AND THE PASSOVER
Firstly, remember that the key to the timing of the massacre was likely to have been
the approaching Jewish Feast of Passover. Every year at this time
the old Blood-Libel myth would come to the fore and still
did even into
modern times. My grandfather lived in Poland and told me how all
Jewish Children were kept off school during passover and sometimes
Easter (in some years Pesach and Easter are very close in the calendar)
He said they were kept off school and told to hide in the cellars of their homes for
safety for a day or so until the festivals had passed.
As we have pointed out, the first
recorded claim of Jewish ritual murder in England (the forerunner to claims of Satanic Ritual Child Abuse) was in the spring of
1144 when William of Norwich an English boy whose death was based on hearsay evidence from Christians that the
Jewish community of Norwich had ritually killed a Christian boy at Passover.
The Influence of Holy War
Note
that the first Christian vs Moslem crusade had taken place in 1095 making the threat of
Islam and other 'counterfeit' beliefs uppermost in the common mind at that time.
The
first formalised muster of Christian warriors by the church intended to
extirpate not only Islam but also all other dissenters, began in
Europe in 1145 and caused frequent attacks on Jewish communities on the continent, as this
extract shows:
" As in the First Crusade, the preaching inadvertently led to attacks on
Jews; a fanatical French monk named Rudolf was apparently inspiring
massacres of Jews in the Rhineland, Cologne, Mainz, Worms and Speyer,
with Rudolf claiming Jews were not contributing financially to the
rescue of the Holy Land. St. Bernard traveled from Flanders to Germany
to deal with the problem and quieten the mobs. Bernard then found Rudolf
in Mainz and was able to silence him, returning him to his monastery."
This evidence of fundamentalist priests whipping up hatred is a common
aspect of anti-Jewish witch-hunts and indeed a bible-thumping priest was
recorded as being present exacerbating hatred against the Jews at Clifford Tower (see later).
Not so co-incidentally, the European-wide hysteria surrounding the
Satanic Ritual Abuse myth of the 1990s was also started and knowingly
exacerbated by a clutch of Christian fundamentalist lay-preachers,
ministers and evangelical troublemakers as we record elsewhere in the SAFF website.
So there was already a hypersensitive attitude to the Jews in England,
created by the Church campaign against Islam, and over-sensitivity to
all unorthodox religions and sects, particularly Jews. King Henry II had
nominally protected the rights of Jews but when his successor Richard I
(also known as 'the Lionheart') came to the throne things became different. Richard was
a crusader king, obsessed with religious wars and was very antagonistic towards Jews.
How The Massacre Played Out
"On Saturday 16 March 1190 (Nisan 7, 4950) there was a special Jewish Sabbath
celebration prior to the festival of Passover/Pesach which that year
occurred on Saturday 24th March. "
"Malebisse temporarily scaped to Scotland but returned later to take up his lands and position."
Whether the fire in York on March16th was indeed 'accidental' or whether
Malebysse and the other conspirators set it themselves to suit their own
purposes, the rioting in York began in earnest.
The following
evening was the 17th, the the Jewish feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol ( the
Sabbath before Passover/Pesach) and, seeing the dangers the Jew Josce (Joseph) of
York,
the leader of the Jewish community there, pleaded for permission from
the Constable of York Castle to bring his wife and children, Rabbi Yom
Tov
and the rest of the Jews into Clifford's Tower.
 The group, numbering about 150, [Ed: some reports say nearer 500 but that could be a confusion with the burials in the Jewish Cemetary - see later ]
took refuge in the Keep which then stood on Clifford's Tower
mound or Motte. At that time it was a wooden tower, not the stone edifice
which can be seen in photographs today.
"The warden allowed the Jews to enter and then left
them alone (because the Jews were under the direct protection of the
king). They feared that the warden would be bribed to betray them
so when he returned they refused to admit him. The warden
complained to the sheriff John Marshall that the Jews had cheated
him. The Sheriff roused the militia and the rest of the
townspeople. This large gathering beseiged the trapped
Jews for
some days while preparations were made to storm the castle and force
them out to the mercy of the baying mob A fire was started in
their refuge, whether by the Jews or their persecutors is uncertain.
When it became clear that their situation was hopeless many of
the Jews took their own lives. " Source:
Note that in those
days there was no police force. Law and order was kept by a volunteer
force of vigilantes 'the militia' made up of ordinary citizens who
would be 'roused' whenever a hue and cry took place.
Each morning during the seige a
hermit monk joined the baying mob and celebrated mass at the gates,
offering redemption to the Jews if they renounced their religion and
turned to Christianity.
According to written accounts The Jews
answered
by throwing things at him from the keep. One stone, it is said, hit
home and killed the monk; this inflamed the crowd even further for
blood. To us this seems like a piece of later impropaganda, added
to explain the vicious actions of the people of York. Jews locked
in a
tower which they cannot escape, terrified for their lives due to a
mob outside baying for their blood, are hardly likely to enflame the
situation further by throwing stones at their tormentors. Neither
is there any other instance of a man being killed by being hit by a
single stone and we believe the account owes a lot to the biblical story
of David and Goliath.
For 5/6 days (until 23rd/24th March ) the Jews held out.
"As it dawned the Jews who had survived
the terrible night of fire and suicide begged for mercy and offered to
convert to Christianity if they were spared They were tricked into
leaving but were butchered instead of being allowed baptism.
The ring-leader Richard Maleybisse and his accomplices
went to the cathedral where they burned documents stored for
safekeeping. These specified details of money they owed to the Jews.
This, it would seem was the driving force behind the tragedy."
The official story from the Jewish side is that, with no hope of escape,
Rabbi Yom Tov advised the other Jews to kill themselves rather than
convert. Josce, the leader of the York Jewish community began by slaying his wife Anna and his two children. He was
then killed by Rabbi Yom Tov. The father of each family killed his wife and
children and then Rabbi Yom Tov stabbed the men before killing himself. So the story goes. The
Jews then set alight the tower so their bodies could not be mutilated by the
mob. [Ed; We refute
this part of the story as a later gloss martyrising the
Jews who died. Because no Jew survived the massacre (those who
did survive the
fire were butchered), it can only be conjecture and as we have pointed
out elsewhere, some Jews are likely to have been forced to kill their
loved ones
after the fire was started to spare them being burned alive. Note that,
as in Christianity, suicide is proscribed in Judaism. ]
As the above quote and other ancient records show, some Jews did in fact escape the fire (throwing doubt
on the idea of a suicide pact ) but were then slaughtered by the
Christians waiting outside.
"A handful of Jews who did not kill themselves surrendered at daybreak, leaving the castle on a promise that
they would not be harmed. But they were all killed by the mob." Source [Ed: Note: Wikipedia credits the firing of the tower as happening on March 17th but this is in error]
"This resulted in the city receiving a heavy fine from the King,
but by that time the instigators had escaped and no individuals were
ever punished for the crimes committed on that fateful night. Probably
some of them joined the King himself on crusade, as he was by then en
route to the Holy Land through France."
Now read the cutting in the rightmost column again and see how York has denied its guilt for eight centuries.
When the Archbishop of York fully accepts the despicable actions of his
Church and the noblemen who protected it, he will be able to stand with
Jews in commemoration of the Massacre at Clifford's Tower, until then
his wailing can be seen solely as a cynical PR exercise designed to fool people
into ignoring the Establishment's role in a dastardly sectarian atrocity by passing it off as an
abberation caused by the ignorant mob, rather than what it really is,
incontrovertible
evidence of Christianity's historical use of the Blood Libel
(allegations of the Sacrifice of Christian children) to persecute of the
Jews.
John Freedom and Tony Rhodes
|
150 JEWS MASSACRED AT YORK IN 1190
|
800 Years Later This is the Weasel Way The Church Tries to Lift the Curse Staining Their Town.
From the Yorkshire Evening Post 2nd February 1990
Full text follows:
TRIBUTE TO JEWS WHO DIED IN 119
By Colin Wright
"A SERIES of religious services, lectures and commemorative
exhibitions will be held in York next month to mark the 800th
anniversary of the mass suicide of 150 Jews at Clifford's Tower.
The city’s entire Jewish community was wiped out in March 1190 after its
members were driven to the battlements by a mob demanding that they
must be baptised or die.
Their leader, Rabbi Yomtob, chose that they should kill themselves
rather than submit to the demands of the crowd.
Those Jews who did not take their own lives were left without protection
from the Sheriff of York an his constables and were hunted down and
killed.
The deaths, still remembered as a massacre in the Jewish liturgy,
scarred relationships between Jews and gentiles in the city for
centuries.
The event will be marked on three days next month by the Council of Christians and Jews of Britain in conjunction with the B’nai Brith Music Festival through lectures, exhibitions and music, culminating in a Service of Heritage and Hope in York Minster.
The organisers believe that the events are a fitting way to mark their
respect and highlight the problems of intolerance and extremism still
being experienced worldwide eight centuries later. '
The Rev Geoffrey Hunter, Canon of York Minster and chairman of the
organising committee, said: “In the 20th century we have seen worse
intolerance and hatred than in any other.
“We are still looking at the problems of inter-racial and inter-cultural communities. It is particularly appropriate in ’ regard to the events we are witnessing in Eastern Europe and South Africa which hang in balance and could lead so easily to communal bloodshed"
But the commemoration already provoked some criticism from members of
the orthodox Jewish community in Yorkshire who have objected to it
taking place during a period which covers the Jewish Sabbath.
Rabbi Walter Rothschild said that a commemoration of such a sensitive period of history was bound to attract dissenters.
“It is important now to learn lessons from history and from events of this century. We must look to the future as well and make sure that massacres of this kind, and indeed any form of intolerance, are not repeated.”
On the steps of Clifford’s Tower,in preparation
for commemoration, are Canon Geoffrey Hunter (foreground) with (from
front) Dr Edward Royle, Mrs Geraldine Auerbach, Canon Ralph Mayland and
Rabbi Walter Rothschild . Picture; KEVIN Harvey"
But Past History Reveals The Cover Up
In 1978, the Jewish Historical Society installed a memorial plaque at
Clifford's Tower to commemorate the 1190 murders which said:
Below is how the plaque looked in 1990, when the Church made it's fine
offer to 'commemorate' the 800th anniversary of the massacre.
No gilding left and erosion has made it largely unreadable. Convenient that. The people of York would probably like
to ignore the fact that their ancestors killed 150 (some reports say 500) innocent Jews in a
scandalous anti-semitic pogrom urged on by local nobles and their church lackies;
and so the plaque is not cared for.
The 1978 plaque is situated to the left of the steps on the mound, even if
visitors see it as they climb them they can't possibly read it. Note the weasel wording of the plaque 'Chose to die at each others' hands', a lie neatly deferring blame for their deaths from the Christians who caused it!
In contrast English Heritage who administer Clifford's Tower
and charge tourists a fiver a time to look around are ready to spend a
fortune
on placards and signage telling tourists how grand the place is!
It won't be long before acid rain has washed away the entire slate
plaque, then the good burghers of York can forget about it altogether
and concentrate on spending millions updating the tourist honey-spot
with plans to build a new visitor centre right over where the 1978
plaque is located. You can read about English Heritage's ambitious plans here but you will find NO mention of the massacre nor plans for a monument to commemorate it in the fabulous new buildings!
The Missing Skeletons of the York Jewish Cemetry
The bodies of the victims of the Clifford's Tower massacre were probably
buried in the Jewish cemetry nearby. In 1984 the area was
earmarked for development and during excavations for a Sainsbury's
Supermarket, the bones of over 500 Jews were discovered. They were
exhumed in secret and stored in a local museum!
Quite by chance Rabbi Levine was on his way to Manchester a few months
later and having a few hours to spare before he made his connection he
enquired at the Tourist Office if there about the nearest Jewish
cemetry.
He was told about the recent excavations and eventually started a
campaign to re-bury and sanctify the skeletons in their original
position, a modern crypt was constructed under the area where the
bones were re-intered with full religious ceremony and a plaque
placed on the surface to mark the spot. If Rabbi Levine had
not arrived at just the right time and fought for the right thing, the
Jewish remains would have most likely been dumped by the people who run
York. The full story about this saga, and the supposed 'Jewish
Curse' on York (actually a religious Cherem or prohibition by Jewish leaders that Jews should never again take up residence in York) is outlined in this excellent little booklet which you can download free.
Now Read a More Honest Account of The Clifford's Tower Massacre written shortly after the actual event.
Massacre Of The Jews At The Coronation Of Richard I (1189) From 'The History of England' by David Hume circa 1750, taken from The Annals of Waverley (12c),
"The king, impelled more by the love of military glory than by
superstition, acted, from the beginning of his reign, as if the sole
purpose of his government had been the relief of the Holy Land, and the
recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens.
This zeal against infidels,
being communicated to his subjects, broke out in London on the day of
his coronation, and made them find a Crusade less dangerous, and
attended with more immediate profit.
The prejudices of the age had made
the lending of money on interest pass by the insidious name of usury:
yet the necessity of the practice had still continued it, and the
greater part of that kind of dealing fell everywhere into the hands of
the Jews; who, being already infamous on account of their religion, had
no honour to lose, and were apt to exercise a profession, odious in
itself, by every kind of rigour, and even sometimes by rapine and
extortion.
The industry and frugality of this people had put them in
possession of all the ready money, which the idleness and profusion
common to the English with other European nations, enabled them to lend
at exorbitant and unequal interest.
The monkish writers represent it as a
great stain on the wise and equitable government of Henry, that he had
carefully protected this infidel race from all injuries and insults; but
the zeal of Richard afforded the populace a pretence for venting their
animosity against them.
The king had issued an edict prohibiting Jews
appearing at his coronation; but some of them bringing him large
presents from their nation, presumed, in confidence of that merit, to
approach the hall in which he dined.
Being discovered, they were exposed
to the insults of the bystanders; [Ed: Some accounts say they were flogged and then thrown out of the court ] they took to flight; the people
pursued them; the rumour was spread, that the king had issued orders to
massacre all the Jews; a command so agreeable was executed in an instant
on such as fell into the hands of the populace; those who had kept at
home were exposed to equal danger; the people, moved by rapacity and
zeal, broke into their houses, which they plundered, after having
murdered the owners; where the Jews barricaded their doors, and defended
themselves with vigour, the rabble set fire to the houses, and made way
through the flames to exercise their pillage and violence; the usual
licentiousness of London, which the sovereign power with difficulty
restrained, broke out with fury, and continued these outrages; the
houses of the rich citizens, though Christians, were next attacked and
plundered; and weariness and satiety at last put an end to the disorder.
Yet, when the king empowered Glanville, the justiciary, to inquire into
the authors of these crimes, the guilt was found to involve so many of
the most considerable citizens, that it was deemed more prudent to drop
the prosecution; and very few suffered the punishment due to this
enormity.
[Ed: Tacit condonation of these crimes {e.g. institutionalised racism}
by the London authorities gave the green light to the massacre in York,
and indeed, the conspirators who caused 150 deaths of men women and
children were given 'cosmetic' punishment; the ring-leader Richard
Malbis (a local laird) was fined £40.00! A profitable deal when
you consider that by killing the Jews he had released himself from
hundreds of pounds worth of debt! ]
"But the disorder stopped not at London. The inhabitants of the
other cities of England, hearing of this slaughter of the Jews imitated
the example.
"In York five hundred of that nation who had retired into
the castle for safety, and found themselves unable to defend the place,
murdered their own wives and children, threw the dead bodies over the
walls upon the populace, and then setting fire to the houses, perished
in the flames.
"The gentry of the neighbourhood, who were all indebted to
the Jews, ran to the cathedral, where their bonds were kept, and made a
solemn bonfire of the papers before the altar.
"The compiler of the
Annals of Waverley, [ Ed: A pious monk of Waverly Abbey] in relating these events, blesses the Almighty for
delivering over this impious race to destruction."
|
|
