ney.[*] There
is an edict of Philip Augustus, near this period, limiting the Jews in
France to forty-eight per cent.[**] Such profits tempted the Jews to
remain in the kingdom, notwithstanding the grievous oppressions to
which, from the prevalent bigotry and rapine of the age, they were
continually exposed. It is easy to imagine how precarious their state
must have been under an indigent prince, somewhat restrained in his
tyranny over his native subjects, but who possessed an unlimited
authority over the Jews, the sole proprietors of money in the kingdom,
and hated on account of their riches, their religion, and their usury;
yet will our ideas scarcely come up to the extortions which in fact we
find to have been practised upon them. In the year 1241, twenty thousand
marks were exacted from them;[***] two years after money was again
extorted; and one Jew alone, Aaron of York, was obliged to pay above
four thousand marks;[****] in 1250, Henry renewed his oppressions; and
the same Aaron was condemned to pay him thirty thousand marks upon an
accusation of forgery;[*****] the high penalty imposed upon him, and
which, it seems, he was thought able to pay, is rather a presumption of
his innocence than of his guilt.

* M. Paris, p. 586.

** Brussel, Traite des Fiefs, vol. i, p. 576.

*** M. Paris, p. 372.

**** M. Paris, p. 410.

***** M. Paris, p. 525.

In 1255, the king demanded eight thousand marks from the Jews, and
threatened to hang them if they refused compliance. They now lost all
patience, and desired leave to retire with their effects out of the
kingdom. But the king replied, "How can I remedy the oppressions you
complain of? I am myself a beggar. I am spoiled, I am stripped of all
my revenues; I owe above two hundred thousand marks; and if I had said
three hundred thousand, I should not exceed the truth; I am obliged to
pay my son, Prince Edward, fifteen thousand marks a year; I have not a
farthing; and I must have money from any hand, from any quarter, or by
any means." He then delivered over the Jews to the earl of Cornwall,
that those whom the one brother had flayed, the other might embowel, to
make use of the words of the historian.[*] King John, his father, once
demanded ten thousand marks from a Jew of Bristol; and on his refusal,
ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day till he should comply.
The Jew lost seven teeth, and then paid the sum required of him.[**]
One talliag