Crusades, Martyrdoms, and the Jews of Norman England, 1096-1190
Crusades, Martyrdoms, and the Jews of Norman England, 1096-1190 BY ROBERT C. STACEY A connection between crusading and anti-Jewish violence was forged in 1096, first in northern France, and then, most memorably, in the cataclysmic events of the Rhineland. Thereafter, attacks on Jews and Jewish communities became a regulär feature of the cru sading movement, despite the efforts of ecclesiastical and secular authorities to prevent them. The Second Crusade saw renewed assaults in the Rhineland and northern France. In the Third Crusade, assaults in the Rhineland recurred, but the worst violence this time oc curred in England, where something on the order of 10% of the entire Jewish Community in England perished in the massacres of 11891190. After the 1190s, however, direct mob violence by crusaders against Jews lessened. Although Crusades would continue to pro voke antiJewish hostility, no further armed assaults on Jewish communities, on the scale of those that took place between 1096 and 1190, would accompany the thirteenth Century 1 Crusades ^. The connection we are attempting to explain, between crusading and armed at tacks on Jewish communities, is thus distinctly a phenomenon of the twelfth Century provided, of course, that we may begin our twelfth Century in 1096. Attempts to analyze this connection between crusading and antiJewish assaults have generally focused on the First Crusade. This is understandable, and by no means misguid ed. Thanks to the work of Jonathan RileySmith, Robert Chazan, Jeremy Cohen, Yisrael Yuval, Ivan Marcus, Kenneth Stow and others, we now understand far more about the background, nature, and causes of the events of 1096 than we did a generation ago.
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