After the battle of Lewes, 1264, the King, with the advice of his barons—­he was now a prisoner in their camp—­issued a proclamation to the Lord Mayor and sheriffs of London, in favor of the Jews.  Some had found refuge, during the tumult and massacre, in the Tower of London; they were permitted to return with their families to their homes.  All ill-usage or further molestation was prohibited under pain of death.  Orders of the same kind were issued to Lincoln; twenty-five citizens were named by the King and the barons their special protectors; so also to Northampton.  The King—­Prince Edward was now at war with the barons, who had the King in their power—­revoked the grant of the Jews to his son; with that the grant to the Caorsini, which had not expired, was cancelled.  The justiciaries appointed by the Prince to levy the tallage upon them were declared to have lost their authority; the Jews passed back to the property of the King.  The King showed his power by annulling many debts and the interest due upon them to some of his faithful followers, avowedly in order to secure their attachment.

It was now clearly for the King’s interest that such profitable subjects should find, we may not say justice, but something like restitution, which might enable them again to become profitable.  The King in the parliament, which commenced its sittings immediately after the battle of Lewes, and continued till after the battle of Evesham, August 4, 1265, restored the Jews to the same state in which they were before the battle of Lewes.  As to the Jews in London, the constable of the Tower was to see not only that those who had taken refuge in the Tower, but those who had fled to other places, were to return to their houses, which were to be restored, except such as had been granted away by the King; and even all their property which could be recovered from the King’s enemies.  Excepting that some of the barons’ troops, flying from the battle of Evesham, under the younger Simon de Montfort, broke open and plundered the synagogue at Lincoln, where they found much wealth, and some excesses committed at Cambridge, the Jews had time to breathe.  The King, enriched by the forfeited estates of the barons, spared the Jews.  We only find a tallage of one thousand pounds, with promise of exemption for three years, unless the King or his son should undertake a crusade.

Their wrongs had, no doubt, sunk deep into the hearts of the Jews.  It has been observed that oppression, which drives even wise men mad, may instigate fanatics to the wildest acts of frenzy; an incident at Oxford will illustrate this.  Throughout these times the Jews still flourished, if they may be said to have flourished, at Oxford.  In 1244 certain clerks of the university broke into the houses of the Jews and carried away enormous wealth.  The magistrates seized and imprisoned some of the offenders.  Grostete, as bishop of the diocese—­Oxford was then in the diocese of Lincoln—­commanded