Mass hangings for « coin clipping »

The clipping of coins — filing the edges of silver pieces to recover the metal — had become a scourge for the Crown. Edward I responded with a mass arrest: at Christmas, all the Jews of England were imprisoned, along with hundreds of Christians.

The trials that followed were not conducted equally. Most of the Christians accused were pardoned or bought their way out of punishment; nearly all those condemned to death were Jews, hanged in London. Their property reverted to the king.

The operation had yielded more than ordinary taxation, and it completed the impoverishment of communities that the Statute of Jewry, three years earlier, had already stripped of the right to lend at interest. Twelve years later, there would be little left to confiscate: expulsion would follow.