Stacey, Robert C. "Thirteenth-Century Anglo-Jewry and the Problem of the Expulsion". Speculum, No. 67 (1992): 263-283.

Stacey, Robert C. "Thirteenth-Century Anglo-Jewry and the Problem of the Expulsion". Speculum, No. 67 (1992): 263-283.

• Christian tolerance of Jewish communities in Late Antiquity and Medieval Europe was based on the belief of eventual Jewish conversion and the value of Jews as witnesses to the prophecies of the Old Testament (263).
• These beliefs did not encourage Jewish conversion and little attempt was made to convert Jews. The belief that the conversion of the Jews marked the Apocalypse also discouraged attempts at conversion (263).  
• Serious theological discussion of the conversion of Jews only began in the 1100s and even then was aimed at Christian audiences. It was not until the 1200s that the focus shifted towards attempts to convert the Jews, a cause headed by religious orders (263-264). 
• There were Jewish conversions to Christianity prior to the 1200s, but there were relatively rare and did not seem to be a priority for the Church nor for English kings (266). 
• After 1280, Jews were compelled to attend weekly sermons by Dominicans to convert them, which the Jews were prohibited from interrupting. Both the sermons and attendance was ordered by the King (267-268). 
• Medieval Europe was filled with public displays of Christian faith. There were religious processions, ceremonies, and boundary markers. The creation of Jewish ghettos later on was partially to minimize the tensions from public Christian displays (264).
• In England, public religious processions strained religious tensions between Christians and Jews. Restrictions were created to restrain violence, such as prohibitions on Jews appearing in public during Holy Week (265).
• On Ascension Day in Oxford in 1268, a Jew attacked a Christian procession passing through the center of the Jewish area, trampling upon and spitting on the cross. The perpetrator was unable to be identified, so the Jewish community of Oxford bore the punishment collectively and were forced to build two new crosses: one to replace the processional cross and a stone cross facing the Jewish community with an inscription condemning the attack (265).
• Jews and Christians lived in mixed communities in Medieval England, although there were areas of towns with higher proportions of Jews, called "the Jewry" (264-265). 
• London had the largest Jewish community, probably around 500 to 700 persons. Most other towns likely had Jewish communities of between 50 and 300 Jews (279). 
• The tensions between Jewish and Christian communities was sometimes dispersed or expressed through mockery, parody, and jokes, such as comic plays (265).
• English Jews responded to the increased attempts at conversion in the 1200s by becoming a more closed-off community, with rabbis encouraging Jews to minimize contact with Christians (265-266). This increased exclusivity was exceedingly difficult as it occurred at a time the Jews were becoming poorer as a result of intensive royal taxation (266).
• English policy towards Jews changed in 1232 when King Henry III established the House for Jewish Converts (Domus Conversorum) in London. Prior to this date, Jews were disincentivized from converting because their property and chattel would be forfeit to the Crown. The policy of forfeit continued, but converts now were allowed to live in the Domus and received a stipend to support them (266-267).
• Henry III pledged 70 marks per year to Domus, but delivered only a third of this on average. This was sufficient for 70 converts, but it is likely that the Domus supported many more converts than that (267). 
• The lack of funding meant that converts lived in rough conditions and sometimes had to beg, as during 1272 and 1282 (274-275).
• During the height of its funding in the 1250s, the Domus likely housed between 80 and 100 Jews. This means that the majority of Jewish converts lived outside of the Domus (273).
• The Domus was organized as a monastery, with residents referred to as "brothers", eating communally, and celebrating daily mass presided over by priests, who were supposed to be converts themselves. The Domus was meant to instruct Jews in Christian theology and also teach them employable skills (273-274). 
• The Domus was initially intended as a halfway house, in which Jewish converts would learn Christian teachings and then leave. But most did not leave and, in fact, their children and grandchildren continued residing in the Domus. The lack of movement out of the Domus is a reason why Edward I pushed for a greater focus on teaching employable skills in 1280, which does not appear to have made a difference (274). 
• Jewish converts stayed in the Domus because it allowed them to form a community whereas most were cut off from family. They also faced considerable difficult integrating into mainstream Christian society (275-276). 
•  Religious orders took the lead in converting Jews. The ecclesiastical establishment has not a major player in conversions, with only one English bishop, John Pecham, Archbishop of Canterbury between 1279 and 1292, taking an interest in Jewish converts (267-268).
• The push for Jewish conversion was personally championed by Henry III. Jews were baptized in front of him, he established the Domus, he supported converted Jews financially outside of the Domus, donated clothes every year, and ordered Jews to attend Dominican sermons (268-269). 
• When Henry III's personal finances deteriorated in the 1250s, he sent out converted Jews to various monasteries with letters demanding that the monks support the Jewish converts. The monasteries were unhappy about this arrangement, but did eventually comply (269).
• The total Jewish population in English in the 1240s was between 3,000 and 5,000 persons. The population of converts peaked in the 1240s and 1250s at around 300 (269).
• One of the major reasons for Jewish conversions between 1240 and 1260 was the impact of heavy royal taxation on the Jewish community. The massive taxes demanded by Henry III were collected from the Jews by Jewish officers, which eroded in-group solidarity and created resentment within the Jewish community, as well as creating financial incentives to convert (270).
• The heavy taxation also seems to have disrupted the mechanisms and charities by which the Jewish community cared for its own, forcing individuals to convert in order to receive financial support. This is shown through the small number of complete family units among converts as well as the fact that Jews did not attempt to kidnap the children of any converts during this period, despite this having previously been a common response to conversion (270).
• Poverty and the collapse of the Jewish community's ability to support orphans and widows were not the only factors driving conversion; some people also clearly converted out of genuine religious belief, to escape criminal accusations, or for personal advancement (271-272).
• Persecution and forced conversion do not appear to have been effective at creating sustained conversion to Christianity. The Jewries of London, Canterbury, Winchester, and Northampton were sacked by Simon de Montfort during the Barons Wars of the 1260s and Jews forced to convert, but they appear to have "re-converted", creating an issue of apostasy. Similarly, the hundreds of Jews executed for coin clipping during the reign of Edward I produced only two conversions (272-273).
• It is unclear exactly why Edward I's persecution of the Jews did not produce conversions. It may be that the persecution was less of sudden change of policy than Henry III's taxation, that persecution of Jews did not stand out amid the bloody policies of Edward I, or that the intensity of persecution made Jews less willing to join the side of their persecutors (273).
• There were limits to the degree that Jews could be integrated into Christian society, as illustrated by Henry of Winchester. Henry became a knight and was a favorite of King Edward I, but was excluded as a prosecutor in trials against Christians involved in coin clipping, because other objected to 'a Jew' wielding capital power against Christians, demonstrating that he was still thought of as somehow Jewish (276- 278).
• Converts mostly married other converts, but sometimes they did marry non-converts. This was more common for women than for men, but even then appears to have been inhibited by the women's lack of dowries (278).
• Many converts continued to have economic relationships with the Jewish community. Most Jews living outside the Domus appear to have remained in their old neighborhoods and nearly all remained in their old houses after Edward I allowed converts to retain half of their property in 1280 (278-279).
• Violence against converts was rare, although the kidnapping of children was not. Violence became much more common after 1280, when Edward I ordered that converts be made responsible for collecting the hated taxes from the Jewish community (279-280).
• Apostasy was not a major concern to English Christians until around 1280, when Christians began to be concerned about the sincerity of the belief of converts. This appears to have been in response to conversions related to arrests of Jews for coin clipping in 1279, although very few Jews converted due to this persecution (281).
• Another possible root of the concern for apostasy is the actions of Pope Clement IV, who was concerned about apostasy in Europe more generally and placed converts under the authority of the Inquisition in 1267. Demands from Rome for investigation into Jewish converts continued from this time through the 1290s (281-282). 
• In England, official concern for apostasy was championed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Pecham, who stood out for his interest in Jewish apostasy (282). 
• Jews were less concerned with apostasy, due in part to a teaching that Jews were allowed to convert under threat of death so long as they remained 'secret Jews' in their hearts. Converts even remained Jews under Jewish law, which created some difficulties for the Jewish spouses of converts (280-281). 
• The eventual expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 was a culmination of the failure of sixty years efforts at conversion. This failure was reflected in lingering concerns about apostasy and the small number of Jewish converts (282-283). 

 

This article is the history of the English crown's relationship with the Jews leading up to their expulsion in 1290. While the expulsion was demanded by Parliament, this piece provides the royal perspective on the Jews and why King Edward I was so willing to expel them. The expulsion of the Jews is the terminus of the failure of King Henry III to convert England's Jews. Beginning in the 1230s, King Henry III made serious efforts to encourage the conversion of English Jews and financially supported these converts. These conversion efforts were not very successful and, additionally, converts often remained financially dependent upon the king. By the 1280s, there were also serious concerns about the sincerity of Christian belief among converts. The 1280s also saw Jews prominently involved in illegal usury and coin-clipping. When Parliament demanded the expulsion of the Jews in 1290, the English crown regarded them as a troublesome population involved in coin-clipping, hostile to their Christian neighbors, and unable to be assimilated. King Edward I was, accordingly, willing to abandon his father's failure project of conversion and just expel the Jews.

-- Eunice Noh, December 2025