After the Lincoln affair, eighteen Jews hanged in London for refusing to acknowledge the jury

The affair of the little saint Hugues de Lincoln, a child found dead in a well whose death was attributed to the Jews of the city, led eighteen Jews to the gallows in London. They had refused to acknowledge the competence of a jury composed of Christians alone, contrary to the privilege that accorded them a mixed jury.

The refusal cost them their lives: under English law, refusing the jury was equivalent to a confession. Henri III had shortly before sold his rights over the Jews to his brother Richard de Cornouailles, and the affair served to confiscate property that no longer belonged to anyone. The ballad of little Hugues, sung for centuries, carried the accusation long after the expulsion from England.