Did Attitudes Towards Jews Change During the Angevin Period, and If So, Why?

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The economic activities of the Jews were a large reason for their unpopularity within the Angevin period as well as for the acts of hostility which befell upon them. One reverie of the anti-Semite was the expulsion of Jews from the land. Members of the knightly class who fell into debts to the Jews might consider such a dramatic solution to their problems. One of the key protagonists in the York Pogrom, Richard Malebisse, is described as ‘heavily indebted’ to Aaron of Lincoln, a very wealthy Jew who died in 1186. William of Newburgh makes it clear that the York Pogrom was ‘not instigated by the citizens of York, but by a group of indebted landholders who capitalised on popular anti-Semitic fervour, whipped up by the preaching of the Third Crusade, as a means of extinguishing their debts’.

Attitudes towards the Jews throughout the Angevin period were not positive, but in terms of actions which took place during the period, it can be assumed that attitudes towards the Jews did change. The main fact that the Jews simply did not fit into 12th Century society was a key cause for this, as was the fact that Jews were still involved in money-lending, something that, although was used by many during the period, was not thought highly of. The attitudes from each of the three kings towards the Jews does not change, with all of them appreciating the benefits that the Jews can offer and subsequently protecting them as a royal asset, with the notable exceptions during Richard’s reign of the Coronation Riots of 1189 and the York Pogrom of 1190. Although attitudes remained hostile towards the Jews, they were not sufficient to remove them from the country. Within thirty years of the York Pogrom, the Jewish community had returned to York under royal protection and was again one of the richest and most significant in England, proving that the continued hostility was not enough to outweigh the benefits that the Jews experienced during the Angevin period.