Summary

Ester “needed no proof” to know it had been Mary who left a pamphlet titled A Proclamation from the London Mahamad on the rabbi’s doorstep (220). “Now had Mary fashioned herself as the Mahamad’s unofficial courier, delivering its decrees to the Jewish homes” (220). This allows “Mary to visit the door of every Jewish house, pausing where she wished to collect gossip or to make show of her charms (220).

The first page of the pamphlet outlines that the Jews of London were not to enter brothels as others do in London’s society; were not to have their skin exposed; and were to cover their hair in public (220). “So thoroughly had London remade itself…the king and his famed lovers had made an art of raucousness, and it seemed all London followed” (221). The “small ring of men” that formed the Mahamad were warning against...