Out of France

June 24 1182 – 14 Tammuz 4942

The Jews of France were expelled from the royal estates of France – the final straw in a series of laws enacted by Philip II, seventeenth king of France, restricting the activities of his Jewish subjects. Having been forbidden to lend money with interest, their outstanding loans were wiped out, and now, having been made destitute and so no longer useful, they were thrown out. Philip soon regretted this move, suggested on religious grounds by his priest and advisor, Bernard of Venice. Although in the short term it enabled his subjects to avoid paying money they owed to the Jews, in the long term, it deprived him of a lucrative source of income. In 1198 he invited the Jews to return to his lands, allowing them to provide loans as long as they were authorized by the king, and heavily taxed to fill his coffers.