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With the events that followed William's death in 1144, England achieved the dubious distinction of the earliest known false accusation that the Jews were guilty of the ritual killing of a Christian boy and of attempting to punish them for the trumped-up charge. This type of accusation falls into the general category of " blood libel."

The accusations against the Jews were a manifestation of the widespread urban anti-Semitism present in England after the Norman Conquest. The event occurred during The Anarchy (a civil war between the Empress MaudEmpress Maud ( February 7, 1102 September 10, 1169) is the title by which Matilda daughter and dispossessed heir of King Henry I of England and his wife Maud of Scotland (herself daughter of Malcolm III Canmore and St. Margaret of Scotland), is known, in and King StephenStephen ( 1096 October 25, 1154), the last Norman King of England, reigned from 1135 to 1154, when he was succeeded by his cousin (or, as the gossip of the time had it, his natural son) Henry II, the first of the Angevin or Plantagenet Kings. Stephen was). The few Jewish residents of England were a minority on multiple levels. They spoke FrenchFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to, the language of the rulers. They were urban and mercantileMerchants function as professional traders, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves. Merchants can be categorised into two types: # A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant. Some wholesale merchant in a country where at least three-quarters of the inhabitants were ruralRural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. Such areas are distinct from more intensively settled urban and suburban areas, and also from unsettled lands such as outback or wilderness. People live in villages and agrarian. They lacked family connections in the countryside while almost all the other urban dwellers had rural connections. Above all, they were of a different religionReligion sometimes used interchangeably with faith, is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the practices and institutions associated with such belief. Borobudur, a Buddhist stupa built between 750 and 850 Adriaen and did not share local history. They may have seemed to obstruct the 12th century11th century 12th century 13th century other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. Events Song dynasty loses power over Northern China The Kamakura Shogunate deprives the trend towards greater freedom from serfdom and greater independence for members of the lowest levels of English society.

Perhaps in response to the pervasive unrest and the perception of Jews as foreigners on the wrong side of various conflicts, anti-Jewish sentiment came to a boil in 1144, with William's death in Norwich. Although analysis suggests that the child had in fact died of some sort of fit, the local people, with leadership of the clergyClergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. The term comes from Greek κληρος (fortune, or metaphorically, heritage). Depending on the religion, clergy usually tak, accused the Jews of torturing and murdering him. Only the intervention of the local sheriff, representing the king, saved the Jews from the mob. A long aftermath of accusations continued, reinforcing anti-Jewish stereotypes.

The motive of the clergy who were behind the accusation was startlingly self-interested: “Before anything had been ‘proved’ as to how the boy met his death, the Prior tried to get the body for Lewes Priory , for he realized that it might become an object ‘of conspicuous veneration and worship.’” In other words, he thought that he could attract the valuable pilgrim trade by putting a martyr on display in his church. (James Parkes, The Jew in the Medieval Community: A study of his political and economic situation. Second Edition. New York: Hermon Press, 1976. p. 125)

This article is based upon text (used with permission) from Aaron of Lincoln 1125-1186: the life and times of a Medieval Jew by Mae E. Sander.