UNIVERSITY of WINCHESTER the Journey of Memory: Forgetting and Remembering England's Medieval Jews Toni Griffiths ORCID Numbe
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UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER The Journey of Memory: Forgetting and Remembering England’s Medieval Jews Toni Griffiths ORCID Number: 1510772 Doctor of Philosophy August 2018 This Thesis has been completed as a requirement for a postgraduate research degree of the University of Winchester. DECLARATION AND COPYRIGHT STATEMENT Declaration: No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work. Copyright: Copyright © Toni Griffiths 2018, The Journey of Memory: Forgetting and Remembering England’s Medieval Jews, University of Winchester, PhD Thesis, pp 1- 283, ORCID Number: 1510772. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Centre, University of Winchester. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. No profit may be made from selling, copying or licensing the author’s work without further agreement. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ‘Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one can't believe impossible things." While the White Queen's advice may sound mad at first, believing "six impossible things before breakfast" has become a common phrase to describe exercising one's imagination’ (Carroll 1996: 184). The above quote has such relevance to the making of this thesis, because at times it has certainly felt impossible. Through unexpected challenges, this study has taken me on a journey and there are many people to thank for guiding me along the way. Firstly, I owe my deepest gratitude to my Director of Studies, Doctor Christina Welch. Without her moral support, encouragement, and strong feedback this thesis would not have been possible. Thank you also to my other supervisors Doctor Katherine Weikert and Robert Houghton for their guidance and support. In addition, I extend my gratitude to Professor Patricia Skinner for her supervision early on in this study and for always being available for encouragement and feedback since. I am grateful to the University of Winchester for funding my research through the 175th Studentship and to all the staff for their support. I would like to thank the University, especially for listening to feedback and providing a postgraduate study room, for it is there that I found a great support network. In addition, I am grateful for the new friends made on this journey, with particular thanks to Dean and Esther for their support and offer of help in terms of primary sources and photographs respectively! Thank you to my interview participants/ network of contacts, who generously gave their time and provided me with information that has been central to building the multi-perspective approach of this research. I would also like to thank my examiners (Upgrade and VIVA) for taking the time to read and engage with my research. Finally, I extend my everlasting gratitude to my husband, my family, and my friends, for three years of patience, encouragement, and unwavering support (emotionally and financially). Thank you especially to my husband who ensured I always ate well and had a cup of tea in hand, and for always listening to me verbally process the content of my chapters! Thank you to my children, for being inquisitive about my work and always encouraging me. Thank you to my family and friends for always believing in me and making sure I looked after myself. In addition, thank you to Alexandra, Claire, Gemma, and my Mum for proof reading sections of my work! 2 UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT The Journey of Memory: Forgetting and Remembering England’s Medieval Jews Toni Griffiths ORCID Number: 1510772 Doctor of Philosophy August 2018 This thesis critically examines the public representation of medieval Anglo-Jewish history today through a cross-section of medieval Anglo-Jewish communities which act as case studies; Winchester, York, Norwich, Bristol, and Northampton respectively. These case studies frame the investigation of issues associated with the limited and often contested archaeological evidence relating to England’s medieval Jews, as well as the frequent tendency of contemporary public facing history to focus on the negative aspects of medieval Jewish life, notably by highlighting persecution and victimisation. It also analyses the development of the most recent public facing interpretations of medieval Anglo-Jewish history in each location, which have been deliberately chosen to provide a range of towns and cities which contain evidence of alleged medieval Jewish human remains. The assessment of key stakeholders in the public representation of medieval Anglo-Jews was central to this study, and as such this thesis carefully considered the roles of various stakeholders in the preservation and representation of medieval Anglo-Jewish history and memory. Within this thesis, each stakeholder had a valid voice in the assessment of how the history and memory of England’s medieval Jews had been treated and represented. Decolonialist research methodologies were herein utilised in order to fully address the complexities of the various voices of stakeholders; from the perspectives of individuals, communities, and organisations, through a sensitive approach towards respectful interviewing and data collection. This thesis, therefore, provides a uniquely rounded interpretation of stakeholder involvement and investment in how medieval Anglo-Jewish communities are remembered today. The history and memory of medieval Anglo-Jews has been subject to periods of omission and marginalisation, with the study of medieval Jewish history often hindered by a lack of sources on everyday life. This thesis contributes to the increasingly multi- and inter-disciplinary study of England’s 3 medieval Jews through the application of Death Studies, offers new hypotheses based on traditional Jewish approaches to death ritual and burial practice, and provides fresh insights into aspects of medieval Jewish life with a focus on the dead. 4 LIST OF CONTENTS Page Number Declaration and Copyright Statement 1 Acknowledgements 2 Abstract 3 List of Contents 5 List of Figures 6 Abbreviations 7 Chapter One: Introduction and Methodology 8 Chapter Two: Literature Review 16 Chapter Three: Medieval Jewish Death 53 Chapter Four: Winchester 79 Chapter Five: York 112 Chapter Six: Norwich 140 Chapter Seven: Bristol and Northampton 176 Conclusions 212 Bibliography 218 Glossary 276 5 LIST OF FIGURES Page Number 1: Three Types of Death 30 2: Disarticulated skeleton at Jewbury Cemetery 65 3: The Jews’ Tower at Winchester Castle 82 4. Medieval Jewish token, Winchester 88 5. Image of a Jew in the Holy Sepulchre Chapel, Winchester Cathedral 90 6. Image of a Jew in the Winchester Bible, Winchester Cathedral 92 7. The medieval Jewish cemetery (Point 16) and Winchester Castle (Point 15) 106 8. The medieval Jewish Cemetery in York known as Jewbury 132 9. Rood screen depicting the murder of William of Norwich 143 10. Interpretation of the murder of William of Norwich 145 11. Anti-Jewish Caricature 152 12. Map of medieval Norwich 154 13. Commemorative plaque inscription, Norwich 159 14. Norwich plaque commemorating bodies found down a well 160 15. Medieval ritual lamp, M Shed, Bristol 178 16. Map of medieval Bristol 179 17. Hebrew inscription at the Scheduled Monument Mayan, Bristol 182 18. The Scheduled Monument Mayan, Bristol 190 19. Medieval Jewish tombstone, Northampton 195 20. The Marcus Pierce Map 199 21. Northampton bus station art installation 208 6 ABBREVIATIONS BL British Library BT Babylonian Talmud CLR [and vol.] Calendar of the Liberate Rolls, III: Henry III, 1245-51 (1937) CPREJ [and vol.] Calendar of the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, I: 1218-1272. Edited by J. M. Rigg (1905), London: Jewish Historical Society of England; III: Edward I, 1275-1277. Edited by H. Jenkinson (1929), London: Jewish Historical Society of England; IV: Henry III, 1272 and Edward I, 1275-1277. Edited by H. G. Richardson (1972), London: Jewish Historical Society of England. PpR [and regnal year and King] Pipe Rolls: The Great Role of the Pipe for the 13th Year of the Reign of King John. Edited by D. M. Stenton (1953), London. TNA The National Archives 7 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY INTRODUCTION The history of England's medieval Jews spans a relatively short time period, from 1066-1290, however, its significance is undisputed both in its own right, and as part of a broader, local, and national history. The medieval Anglo-Jewish community was extensively documented by the state, with England the only country to have set up a separate governmental department specifically designed to control Jewish affairs. Called the Exchequer of the Jews, their intensive record keeping from the late 1190s until the expulsion of England’s Jews in 1290 resulted in substantial documentation of the community and its financial and legal dealings. This resource, and especially the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, has provided scholars of medieval Jewish history with significant resources to conduct their studies (Hillaby and Hillaby 2013:130-135). However, researching such sources has not been without its challenges, and these will be explored in Chapter Two. In contrast to the large quantity of state-collected legal and financial documentary evidence of England’s medieval Jews, there is a relative lack of built heritage and everyday artefactual evidence of communities, and this has challenged how medieval Jewish history has been dealt with in the context of public memory. As a result, the typical experience of remembering medieval Anglo-Jewish history has historically been defined by marginalisation and overshadowing by other local narratives that have more physical and/or physically-engaging evidence.