"Saladin Tithe": Jews of England taxed at a quarter of their movable goods, those of France at extraordinary sums, to finance the Third Crusade

To finance the Third Crusade, the sovereigns of England and France levied the "Saladin tithe," a levy of one tenth on the movable goods and incomes of Christians. The Jews were treated separately: they were asked for a far greater proportion, one quarter of their movable goods in England.

The contrast was visible to all and was felt as such. It fuelled, the following year, the violence of Richard's coronation in London and then the series of massacres during the winter and spring, of which York was the end point.

This exceptional taxation is the hallmark of the Jewish condition in twelfth-century Western Europe: real royal protection, which must be paid for, and whose price rises every time the sovereign needs money — that is, every time he goes to war.