Lesson video

Hello, and welcome back to History with me, Mrs. Badhan.

Welcome to our third lesson of our four-part inquiry looking at the question, "Who held power in the Mediaeval towns?" In this third lesson, we'll be looking at the question, "Who was excluded from Mediaeval towns?" For this lesson, you'll need a pen, piece of paper, and a calm, quiet environment to learn.

If you haven't quite got those things, press pause now, get yourself ready, and hit play once you're ready to get going.

Great, let's make a start.

York's iconic ancient monument is home to 1,000 years of history.

The raised earthwork was once the site of a timber keep build by William the Conqueror.

It burnt down during the worst event in the site's history, the massacre of the Jewish people in 1190.

Clifford's Tower has looked over the city of York from 1245 until the present day.

Once part of York Castle, the tower played a role in turbulent national events, such as the dissolution of the monasteries, and the English Civil War.

Today, the site is still giving up its secrets.

After the Norman conquest of 1066, a number of Jewish people came to England from France.

The early Norman kings needed to borrow money to build castles and to secure their kingdom, but money-lending was forbidden to Christians.

It was, however, allowed by Jewish people.

These French-speaking Jewish people were protected by the crowning king, and, in time, established communities in most of the principle cities of England.

In the later 12th Century, members of the Jewish community in Lincoln settled in York.

However, there was growing hostility and anger towards the Jewish people in England.

This was partly due to the public disagreements over the belief in God.

In the mid-12th Century, vicious stories started spreading, accusing the Jewish people of murdering Christian children.

This fueled and strengthened the anger that people were feeling towards the Jewish community.

The events of 1190 are recorded in numerous accounts, though none were eye-witness reports.

The story record by William Newburgh tells the story of two Jewish citizens from York, called Benedict and Joceus.

Together, they travelled to London to attend the coronation of King Richard I in 1189.

Resentment about the presence of the Jewish people at the coronation was fueled by anger about taxes to fund the crusades, which led to riots at the ceremony itself and in Norwich, Stanford, York and Lincoln.

A false rumour was even put about the king, that he had ordered the massacre of these Jewish people.

Benedict was attacked and killed on his way back to York.

Several months later, after the sheriff to York had left for the third crusade, a fire broke out in the city.

This was during a time of increasing attacks on the Jewish people throughout England, And some citizens took advantage of the chaos to break into Benedict's house.

The property was looted and everyone inside was killed.

Joceus managed to escape a similar attack and he led the city's Jews to seek protection from the keeper of the king's tower inside the castle.

Almost certainly, what we think today of as Clifford's Tower.

Inside the tower, trust started breaking down between the Jewish people and the keeper, and when the keeper left the tower on other business, they refused to allow him to come back in.

They now challenged the king's authority and troops and mobs started joining outside Clifford's Tower.

Once they arrived, they were pelted with stones from the castle walls by the besieged Jewish people.

According to several accounts, the Jewish people realised that they could not hold out against their attackers any longer.

And rather than waiting to be killed or forcibly baptised, they decided to meet death together.

The father of each family killed his wife and children, before taking his own life.

Just before their deaths, they also set fire to the possessions they had brought with them.

The fire consumed the timber tower, and it's not very clear how many Jewish people were present, but there are estimates that range from 20-40 families, and this suggests roughly around 150 people.

Afterwards, the rioters destroyed any records that showed any debts that they owed towards the Jewish people.

The present stone tower which you see today was built 60 years after the massacre.

But it is possible that the earth mound may still contain evidence from 1190.

A new Jewish community was quickly established in York and stayed there until 1290 when Edward I expelled all Jewish people from his kingdom.

Jewish people were only permitted to return in the 17th Century.

The planting of daffodils, whose 6-pointed shape echoes the Star of David on the tower mound provides an annual memorial around the anniversary of this massacre.

I'd like you to just take a pause here and have a little think about the story I've just told you about Clifford's Tower.

What was happening to the Jewish community and why? Just press play once you've had a little think and once you've thought about why this was happening to the Jewish people, and what this shows about those that lived in the Mediaeval towns at this time.

In our first lesson, we considered what mediaeval towns were like.

We found out that they were full of life, noisy, smelly, and over-crowded, but nonetheless hubs and centres of trade and people coming together.

New classes emerging, such as the merchants, was something that we also considered in this lesson.

In our second lesson, we were able to dive a little bit deeper to see how much influence the guilds had within the towns.

We were able to find out that they controlled much to do with trade, prices, selling, and ensuring that standards were kept high.

In this lesson, we will look at the groups within society who were excluded, perhaps because of their potential power and threat that they posed to others, and their high positions within the towns.

We will also consider how, by excluding and persecuting them, this gave power to other groups within Mediaeval society and the towns.

One of the groups in particular who faced persecution and exclusion were the Jewish people, which we've already heard about at the massacre of Clifford's Tower.

It is important to remember, that in stark contrast to modern attitudes, charging interest or loans was considered a serious sin in the Middle Ages, and was forbidden by the church.

This meant that although there were a small number of Christian money-lenders, Christians were not supposed to lend money for profit.

However, Judaism does not include such rules, so Jewish people were free to act as money-lenders and did so, both in York and elsewhere.

By making Jewish people the king's direct subjects, he had full access to this wealth, and as we shall see, made great use of it from the taxes he levied on the Jewish population.

Antisemitism, which is a persecution or racist behaviour towards Jewish people in particular was widespread in mediaeval Europe.

And it is important to know that while York has a special place in Jewish history, it is not alone.

The discovery of the bodies of 17 Jews in a well in Norwich, thought to have been murdered in the 13th-Century show that the massacre at Clifford's Tower was not an isolated act of Antisemitic violence in mediaeval England.

In 1218, a decree made it a legal requirement that Jewish people wear a badge to identify themselves as Jewish.

England was the first, but certainly not the last European nation to introduce such a law.

In 1290, Edward I expelled the entire Jewish population of England.

All Jewish property was seized by the crown, and all outstanding debts were made payable to the king.

In front of you now is one of the first stone houses to be built on Steep Hill and is a rare example of Normal domestic architecture.

The first recorded habitant was the one Joceus of York, who we saw earlier on in our story, the man that led the people to Clifford's Tower.

Although much restored, many of the early architectural features remain, including the Norman window and doorway.

In a city as ancient and rich in heritage as York, the remains of any building that claims to be the oldest of its kind is always so impressive.

This house was built between 1170-1180 and it's also in this period that we have the first evidence of Jewish settlers in York.

As the only surviving example of Norman domestic stonework that remains in its original location, the building is hugely significant.

It is all, now, that remains in York of the 12th-Century boom in stone construction.

The social category that would have been able to afford such homes built in this material included the wealthy members of the Jewish community, who were enjoying a period of growing prosperity under the reign of Henry II.

In this period, the wealthy were building in stone on a scale unseen before.

Although construction in stone increased throughout this period, the vast majority of urban dwellings would have been still built in timber.

So, considerably-sized stone houses such as this would've stood out as grand, impressive buildings belonging to an individual from some sort of status.

As such, stone houses belonging to Jewish people often became the focus of Antisemitic aggression.

Please look at the following statements.

Based on what you've heard, please select whether the following are true or false about the Jewish people in mediaeval towns.

Great, so the following statements were true: "Jewish people mainly worked as money lenders which meant they were disliked by many." The other true statement was that Jewish people were targeted by many in society and their houses were often destroyed.

It was false that the Jewish people were massacred at Clifton Tower, it was Clifford's Tower.

And it was false that Jewish people were expelled in 1245, as they were expelled in 1290 by Edward I.

Okay, we've now learned about how the Jews were persecuted and treated badly throughout the Mediaeval period.

We're now going to look at other groups within society that were expelled and excluded.

I'd like you to pause the video now, read through the comprehension information and answer the comprehension questions.

Once you're finished, and you've completed the comprehension task, press resume and we'll go through our questions and answers together.

So you had the following comprehension questions to answer.

Question 1: What restrictions did women face? Question 2: Why were lepers excluded from mediaeval towns? Question 3: What other groups of people were excluded from mediaeval towns? Question 4: Why were the Flemish people excluded from mediaeval towns? And the challenge was to look at, what were the main reasons for why the mediaeval towns excluded people? Question 1: What restrictions did women face? An acceptable answer: they were told what jobs they could do and who they had to marry.

Good answer: Women faced many restrictions in mediaeval towns.

They were unable to advance in trade and were dictated to in terms of what jobs they could do.

They were also unable to marry without their parents' consent, obtain a divorce or even own their own business as well as join the guilds.

Question 2: Why were lepers excluded from mediaeval towns? Acceptable answer: because they had the disease leprosy.

Good answer: Lepers were excluded from society as they were seen to be infectious.

They were treated differently and were kept separately from society.

Question 3: What other groups of people were excluded from mediaeval towns? An acceptable answer: Mainly people who were sick.

A good answer: Other people who were labelled as deviants or outcasts such as the mentally ill, epileptics and unmarried pregnant women who were also excluded from society.

Furthermore, most foreigners were also excluded.

Question number 4: Why were the Flemish people excluded from mediaeval towns? Acceptable answer: Because they were considered to be taking the jobs of English people.

Good answer: Many Flemish people were excluded and murdered due to the fact that they were prospering from their weaving business which made the English people feel resentment towards them.

And for the challenge: what were the main reasons for why the mediaeval towns excluded people? You may have put: foreigners seen as taking all the jobs was a reason, being a female who was working was a reason for why women were excluded, or they were considered to be too ill, and that could be another reason for why people were excluded.

You may have put other things on your list as well, and that's absolutely fine.

Now, for your final challenge of the lesson, I would like you to make a list using the information from this lesson and the previous two lessons on how mediaeval towns were inclusive and exclusive.

So, inclusive, meaning they included people within the towns, and they allowed people to participate.

Exclusive, meaning that they isolated people and made them feel not so welcome within the towns.

You can press pause now, make your list, and press resume once you're ready.

Great, so you may have put the following for mediaeval towns being inclusive.

The guilds looked after those who were part of the guild.

Peasants could also move to the towns and become freemen and were accepted as being part of the town once they had been there for a year and a day.

In terms of how the were exclusive, you may have put that the guilds could decide who could be a member and who could not.

So, for example, women may not have been able to join.

They also rejected many groups of people such as lepers, the Flemish people, and the Jewish community.

Now, in front of you, you an see the York city wall.

Village people came to the towns to trade.

Therefor, those who were in charge of the town had to do what was needed to ensure that their town was safe.

Many towns had large fences built around them, and the gates of the fences were locked at night to keep out undesirable people.

Cities such as York had city walls that served these purposes, but not all towns would have had enough wealth to build such expensive protection.

From this lesson, we have seen who the mediaeval towns wanted to keep out.

Those considered as outsiders were the Flemish community, the Jewish community, and those who were physically or mentally ill in any way.

This demonstrates that the mediaeval towns were not always so inclusive.

And we've learned today that the Jewish people had rather a lot of power within the towns as money lenders, however, due to their persecution, their power within each town was actually rather limited.

When the Black Death raged through Europe, the charge was given that Jews had poisoned the wells.

In 1275, Edward I of England issued a decree forbidding Jews from lending money with interest, while allowing the Jewish people to engage in craft, commerce and farming.

They were then, later driven out of England altogether in 1290.

Thank you for joining us in lesson 3.

In our next lesson, we will start considering who the other important people in the towns were.

As ever, I would love to see your work from this lesson.

So, if you would like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

See you in lesson 4!.