Expulsion: England's Jewish Solution

The first Jewish communities in the British Isles were established following William of Normandy’s conquest of Britain in 1066. They settled in London and were at first courted by their Christian hosts. However, not long after attitudes began to change, reflecting the hardening of wider European attitudes. After just over 200 years the Jewish communities of England were forcibly removed on the orders of Edward I, and they remained excluded for over 350 years. England was not unique in its approach to "the Jewish problem," but it was different in the permanence of the solution it found.