19th century
Exclusion from Parliament
1847-1858·Londres
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
Lionel de Rothschild, elected five times by the City of London, cannot take his seat, parliamentary oath requiring the formula 'on the true faith of a Christian'
Exclusion there was not a law but a formula. The oath required of every member elected to the British Parliament ended with the words "on the true faith of a Christian," which a Jew could not pronounce. Lionel de Rothschild, elected by the City of London, presented himself, refused the formula, and was unable to take his seat. The City re-elected him, and he did so again — five times in succession, for more than ten years. The Commons voted on several occasions to modify the oath; the Lords rejected it just as many times. The matter was only resolved when each chamber was permitted to determine its own formula: Rothschild took the oath on the Old Testament, his head covered, and finally took the seat that London had been giving him for a decade.
- Period :
- 19th century
- Type :
- Persecution
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- Royaume-Uni
Cecil Roth, *A History of the Jews in England* ; David S. Katz, *The Jews in the History of England* ; *Encyclopaedia Judaica*, article « Rothschild ».