part of the plunder? Surely he would do all the business himself.¹ ¹ See also Witherby’s Dialogues, part i., Dialogue II. Unjust, however, as was the condemnation of the Jews for that imputed crime, the poor Jews seemed convinced that any thing would be believed of them, be the story ever so incredible. Sums to a large amount were therefore extorted from them by the common people through threats of accusing them of the above crime. To such length was this system of extortion carried on, that the king found it necessary to issue a proclamation, declaring that from thenceforth no Jew should be held answerable for any offence heretofore committed.¹ This act of evident justice was, however, accompanied by a condition which throws a degree of doubt upon the real motive by which it was suggested. In order to bring himself within the security of the proclamation, the person accused was bound to pay a fine to the king. ¹ See Appendix F. In the fourteenth year of this reign, the king was taken dangerously ill. On his bed of sickness he made a vow, if his health should recover, to undertake another crusade. Accordingly, when he recovered, he took the cross, but appointed no time for his departure. In fact, he could not conveniently leave his dominions; he, therefore, compromised his vow, by directing his zealous fury against the Jews of Guienne, whom he first plundered, and then banished. Alas! for his boasted laws and the splendour of his victories. It is a truth, an incontrovertible truth, that “there is no reign, from the Conqueror inclusive, blotted with greater violence than his. They were cruelties glossed over by ambition and thirst of empire, which were pursued at the expense of justice, humanity, and every other virtue.”¹ ¹ Witherby. The next act relating to the Jews occurred in the sixteenth year of this reign, when the king was yet on the Continent. In that year it is stated that the Jews were, on the same night, apprehended throughout England, and thrown into prison, and were only released upon payment to the king of the sum of twenty thousand pounds of silver as a ransom. The celebrated John Selden adduces the following curious evidence of that event:―― יום יא מי היו תפוסים כל יהודים בארצי הזי שנת מ׳ז לפ׳ לאלף שישי אני אשר חקקתי.¹ ¹ The inscription, as given by Selden, and copied by Tovey, is very unlike Hebrew. Dr. Jost’s improvement is ingenious; but according to his reading, the imprisonment took place in November, whilst Stow and Prynne state that May was the month. I propose therefore the above reading as the most likely to be correct: one could easily mistake י for ו, especially when scratched on a wall.