Licoricia of Winchester

March 20, 2022 10:34 AM

Licoricia of Winchester, was murdered in 1277. A new statue honors her, a 13th-century moneylender whose life illuminates the challenges faced by Jews in Medieval England. Her history was revealed by the late Susan Bartlet who became engaged with medieval history when excavations near her home uncovered part of the Winchester medieval Jewish cemetery. Intrigued by what she found published about Anglo-Jews of the period, Bartlet returned to school, earned a Masters in medieval history and traced Licoricia through the archives and wrote Licoricia of Winchester: Marriage, Motherhood and Murder in the Medieval Anglo-Jewish Community.
posted by ShooBoo (7 comments total)

This is fascinating and I have to go put that book on hold at my library. Thank you so much for sharing. I love stories about "ordinary" people during the middle ages. You can only read so much about Plantagenets before you need something more and different!
posted by headspace at 11:01 AM on March 20, 2022 [5 favorites]

I just finished a Brother Cadfael story yesterday so my head is still in medieval England, and as headspace says, this book looks fascinating.
posted by infini at 11:18 AM on March 20, 2022

I had just heard of this through a Jewish historical costumer SnappyDragon, who has a bunch of other interesting videos (more or less about the clothes and their context).
posted by clew at 1:14 PM on March 20, 2022 [4 favorites]

In 1290 Edward Longshanks expelled all Jews from England. This was the culmination of some 200 years of contention. While antisemitism was widespread in Europe, medieval England was particularly antisemitic in spite of the Jewish communities playing a vital part in the economic life of the country as financiers and moneylenders, the main occupations they were permitted to practise and which were forbidden to Christians.
posted by adamvasco at 4:53 PM on March 20, 2022 [3 favorites]

You know, I think that idea that Jews were prominent moneylenders because usury was forbidden to Christians probably ought to be laid to rest. Christians did lots of things that were forbidden to them in theory. If there’s anything to it at all, I believe it’s more that small Jewish traders who gave credit were more vulnerable to charges of usury than well-established Christian bankers. In 1421 Dick Whittington was one of the judges in a whole series of usury trials when there were no Jews in England at all.
posted by Phanx at 12:40 AM on March 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

For a much more expansive take on this see Julie Mell, The Myth of the Medieval Jewish Moneylender: Volume I (2017) and Julie Mell, The Myth of the Medieval Jewish Moneylender: Volume II (2018).

Note that Mell does not argue that there were no medieval Jewish moneylenders but rather that they were neither unusual (there were also many Christian moneylenders) nor prominent (only about 10% of 13th Century English Jews were moneylenders). Marginalia Review hosted a (text) forum discussing her work, with three commentators and a response from Mell.
posted by jedicus at 8:21 AM on March 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

In seeking to minimize the importance of moneylending to the Jews of medieval England, Mell often downplays compelling evidence to the contrary. She argues, for instance, that there was “no special protection for Jews as moneylenders.” This argument overlooks the obvious advantage that Jews were legally permitted to lend at interest, whereas Christians who were convicted of doing the same were liable to have all of their movable wealth confiscated after their deaths. In addition, historian Paul Brand has shown that royal officials routinely assisted in the collection of Jewish debts without requiring legal proceedings to establish the debtor’s liability (as was the case for ordinary cases of debt) – yet another instance of governmental support for Jewish moneylending that was unavailable to their Christian competitors.
From jedicus link (Thanks) using England as search
posted by adamvasco at 9:56 AM on March 21, 2022 [1 favorite]