POLITICAL HISTORY 



citizens should pay 3,000 marks at the rate of 1,000 per annum for three years 

 for the repairs of the church, and should make a golden vase of 10 lb. weight 

 to hold the Corpus Christi over the high altar. The priory was to be allowed to 

 make an entrance to their precinct wherever the monks pleased ; the bishop and 

 prior were to relax the sentence of excommunication.' In September, 1 275,^ the 

 sentence of excommunication was accordingly relaxed, and on Palm Sunday, 

 1276,'' the papal absolution was read in Norwich. The cathedral, however, 

 was not reconsecrated until 1278.* 



In 1227 Edward is said to have led an army through Suffolk and 

 Norfolk, and to have kept Easter at Norwich,^ making this military progress 

 to see his castles and forts put in good order, and well provided with all 

 necessary stores. In the next year he again visited the city, being present 

 at the reconsecration of the cathedral mentioned above. From 3 to 

 5 December he was in Burgh. Whether this ' Burgh ' was Burgh by Aylsham 

 or Burgh in Flegg is not quite certain, but the former is more probable.^ 



With the exception of continued bickering between the citizens and 

 monks of Norwich nothing of note took place during Edward's reign. 

 Blomefield ^ mentions a visit of the king and queen to Walsingham and the 

 grant of a charter to the citizens of Norwich dated from that place in the 

 nineteenth year of Edward I. But this is an error. It was Edward II who 

 visited Walsingham and in his nineteenth year granted the charter.* 



In the year 1 290 all Jews were expelled from England. We may 

 therefore here resume the account of their connexion with the county which 

 has hitherto been traced to the end of John's reign. During the reign of 

 Henry III the Jewish community at Norwich appears to have been very 

 rich and important, for we find very frequent reference to it, and more 

 particularly to one Isaac, known as the Jew of Norwich. These references 

 give one some idea of the wealth of this man, and also of the way in which 

 money was constantly extorted from these unhappy people. In 1217^ the 

 king is stated to have taken Isaac and all the other Jews of Norwich and 

 their belongings under his protection, and orders were sent to the constable 

 of Norwich Castle to receive them into it and to protect them and to see 

 that they recovered their debts. Another reference to Isaac and his fine of 

 10,000 marks made with King John'" will be found on the Patent Roll of 

 the following year. And a little later we find Pandulf, who became bishop 

 of Norwich in 121 9, writing shortly after his election to Hubert de Burgh 

 with the complaint that the extortion of the Jews was becoming intolerable, 

 and asking that the case of Isaac of Norwich should be postponed till he 

 arrived." In 1224 Isaac is named first among the Jews assessing their 

 tallage.'^ 



In 1230 occurred the Jurnepin episode, which belongs rather to 

 ecclesiastical than political history.'^ Shortly before or in the year 1237 



' Barth. de Cotton, op. cit. (Rolls Sen), 152. ' Ibid. 



' Ibid. 154. * Ibid. 157. * J. deOxenedes, CAron. (Rolls Ser.), 250. 



^ Aylsham Burgh is the more likely. It was part of the liberty of the duchy of Lancaster and in a very 

 wooded country close to the large park of Cawston. The king held the manor until Edward I granted it 

 with a charter of free warren to Sir John de Burgh, senr., and both Edward I and Edw.ird II frequently 

 hunted there. ' Op. cit. iii, 64. * Hudson, Records of None. p. xxxix. 



' Cal. Pat. 1216-25, p. 98. '" Ibid. p. 180. 



" Royal Letters, Hen. Ill (Rolls Ser.), i, 35. " Cal. Pat. 1216-25, p. 496. 



" An account will be found with copious references in Norf. Antlq. Miscell. i, 312, et scq. 



477 



