The king’s opposition to the barons proved a twofold scourge to the oppressed Jews. He took away their money, in order to be able to continue his opposition to the barons; whilst the barons took away their lives, with the remainder of their wealth, for yielding to the intolerable pressure of that covetous monarch. It was, therefore, a cause of joy to the Hebrew congregations, that a truce was established between the sovereign and his barons, and that the former was prevailed upon to sign an amicable arrangement with the latter, by which he bound himself to confirm the provisions of Oxford. Henry, however, was not a man to abide any length of time by any agreement, and as a matter of course refused to adhere to the rules of the compact, under the pretence that his consent and signature were extorted from him. He withdrew to the tower of London. The offended barons unexpectedly entered the city, eager for plunder and athirst for blood, raised first a dreadful uproar there against the luckless Jews, which was the prelude to a personal attack upon the queen, the most unpopular of all the queens of England. The following are the particular details of this tumult, as related by Agnes Strickland, copied from T. Wikes, a contemporary chronicler:――“At the sound of St. Paul’s great bell, a numerous mob sallied forth, led on by Stephen Buckrell, the marshal of London, and John Fitz-John, a powerful baron. They killed and plundered many of the wretched people, without mercy. The ferocious leader, John Fitz-John, ran through with his sword, in cold blood, Kokben Abraham, the wealthiest Hebrew resident in London. Besides plundering and killing five hundred¹ of this devoted race, the mob turned the rest out of their beds, undressed as they were, keeping them so the whole night.” During which catastrophe, a newly-erected synagogue was reduced to ashes. ¹ Others have seven hundred.