Episode Details

In 1290, King Edward I ordered the expulsion of all Jews from England, ending more than two centuries of Jewish life in the kingdom and making England the first major European nation to permanently expel its entire Jewish population. The expulsion followed decades of mounting restrictions, heavy taxation, accusations of usury and ritual murder, and growing religious hostility. In this episode, we'll explore how England's Jewish community rose and fell during the Middle Ages, why the Crown turned against a population it had once protected, and how the expulsion shaped English and Jewish history until Jews were officially permitted to return more than 350 years later under Oliver Cromwell in 1656.