Edward Longshanks

Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307

“Edward disliked the Jews both on religious and economical grounds. The crusading spirit, that had almost lost hope of fighting against the Moslem, saw some satisfaction in wreaking its vengeance on the Israelites (sic).

Edward held strongly the medieval belief in the sinfulness and harmfulness of usury. He was angry that the Jews fleeced his subjects, and saw with disgust that the lands of an impoverished and spendthrift nobility could hardly render him their due service, because they were mortgaged up to the hilt to Jewish usurers. His own embarrassed finances and constant burden of debt did not make him the more friendly to the money-lender. Early in his reign Edward drew up severe laws, forbidding Jews to hold real property, enjoining on them the wearing of the distinctive and degrading Jewish dress, which was bidding fair to become obsolete, and prohibiting usury altogether. [In the book, Edward the First, the Edict of 1275, the Statutem de Judeismo or Statute regarding Jewry, was never mentioned but this Royal Edict was meant to eliminate usury.

Only about 10,000 Jews were expelled from English territories at that time.] The Jews knew no other way of living and turned in their distress to even less legitimate methods of earning a livelihood. They sweated and clipped the king’s coin so unsparingly that the prices of commodities became disorganized, and foreign merchants shunned a realm whose money standard fluctuated so widely and constantly. [Note: The term ‘clip joint’ is derived from this meaning of the word ‘clip.’ Also, if you look at the ridges on the edge of an American dime or quarter, you will see ridges. The ridges are there today only for decoration but this ridging was introduced to coinage in Europe hundreds of years ago in order to frustrate the coin-clippers.]

In 1278, the royal vengeance came down upon the unlucky sweaters. Nearly three hundred Jews were imprisoned in the Tower on the charge of depreciating the coinage. More than two hundred of them were hanged and their goods confiscated to the Crown. But very few of the Christian goldsmiths and moneyers, who had been the partners of their guilt, were likewise partners in the punishment. Edward caused them to be arrested, but, with very few exceptions, they were released through the partiality of the Christian juries that tried them.

Taken verbatim from the book 'Edward the First'

Read more here:

http://www.heretical.com/british/nsv14-4.html

and here:

http://www.heretical.com/british/nsv12-3.html