“Cum _Abraham Batekot_ Judeus attachiatus esset ad respondend. regi de catallis _Amiciæ_ Judeæ, quæ fuit uxor sua, quæ quidem catalla post conversionem suam ad regem pertinebant, ut dicitur. Idem Judeus finem fecit cum rege pro dimid. marc. auri quam regi solvit, ut secundum legem et consuetudinem Judaismi ad scaccarium Judæorum super hoc deducatur. Et mandatum est justic. ad custod. jud. assignatis, quod citra festum S. _And._ ad scaccarium Judæorum, quod justum fuerit de catallis prædictis fieri faciant, sicut prædict. est T. per R. de Essington.” LECTURE VI. MY last Lecture, which must have been as tedious to you as it was to myself, finished with the death of Henry the Third. A melancholy monotony pervaded the whole of that lecture. The principal feature in Henry’s disposition was, as you are well aware, uncontrollable avarice, which was the cause of the many cruel persecutions, to which the poor unfortunate Jews were exposed. I may just recapitulate, in a few minutes, the sums extracted from the Jews in the preceding reign. In the years 1230 and 1231, 15,000 marks; in 1233, 18,000 marks; in 1236, 1800 marks. The amount of taxation in 1237, not mentioned. In 1239, a third part of their goods; in 1241, 20,000 marks; in 1244, 20,000 marks; in 1245, 60,000 marks, which tax the king received with his own hand; in 1246, 10,000 marks; in 1247, 5,525 marks; in 1249, 10,000 marks; in 1250, a great part of their goods was taken away; in 1251, 5,000 marks of silver, and 40 of gold; in 1252, 3,500 marks; in 1253, 5,000 marks; in 1259, 5,000 marks; in 1269, 1,000 pounds; in 1271, 6,000 marks; besides many more, of which we have no records, and also besides the vast sums occasionally extorted from numbers of individuals.¹ ¹ “In Claus. 39, H. 3, pars 2, dors. 16, 17, there is a large catalogue of the lands, houses, rents, mortgages, real and personal estate, and debts of Abraham, a Jew, in several counties, amounting to a vast sum, taking up near two membrances, which were imbreviated and confiscated to the king’s use. And a proclamation by the king, that no Jew should be suffered to depart out of the realm of England.” ――_Prynne._ See also pp. 242, 243. Lord Coke states, that the crown received from the Jews, in the short space of seven years, viz., from the 17th of December, in the 50th year of Henry III., until Shrove Tuesday, the 2nd of Edward I., the sum of £420,000 15s. 4d. “Death,” using the words of a quaint writer, “as inexorable as himself, seized him, and gave the Jews some respite from these afflictions――the king leaving behind him but a very indifferent character either as a man, or a prince.”