Expulsion
Expulsion from France (Philip IV)
← View on the mapWhy it happened
Facing a depleted treasury after debasing the coinage, Philip IV sought Jewish wealth: he ordered the expulsion partly to control the silver of the Jewish mints, seizing their property and appropriating the debts owed them to fill the royal gap.11
The migration
On 22 July 1306, the day after the fast of Tisha B'Av, royal agents simultaneously arrested every Jew in the realm.2 The captives were expelled with only the clothes on their backs and twelve sous tournois each, ordered to quit the kingdom within one month.2 Their houses, lands, and movable goods were auctioned, and buried treasure was reserved for the king,3 who took over their loans through royal guardians1 and collected at least 140,000 livres.1 Perhaps 100,000 Jews were driven out.4 Barred from royal territory, the exiles could find refuge only in adjacent lands beyond Philip's jurisdiction—Lorraine, the county of Burgundy, Savoy, Dauphiné, Roussillon, and part of Provence.2 In 1315 Philip's son Louis X readmitted Jews for twelve years,2 requiring them to wear the circular badge2 and to yield two-thirds of recovered old debts to the treasury.2
Sources
- Bde la Torre, Ignacio. 2010. The Monetary Fluctuations in Philip IV's Kingdom of France and Their Relevance to the Arrest of the Templars. The Debate on the Trial of the Templars (1307–1314), eds. J. Burgtorf, P. F. Crawford & H. J. Nicholson (Farnham: Ashgate) 57–68.
- BJordan, William Chester. 1989. The French Monarchy and the Jews: From Philip Augustus to the Last Capetians. University of Pennsylvania Press
- BLuce, Siméon. 1881. Catalogue des documents du Trésor des Chartes relatifs aux Juifs sous le règne de Philippe le Bel. Revue des études juives 2 15–72. link
- CAmerican-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 2024. France Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library link