Aaron of York
1185 CE–1253 CE · Rishonim · York
Aaron of York (born before 1190 – died after 1253) was the wealthiest English Jew of his day and the Presbyter Judaeorum — the official head of the Jews of England — from 1237. Probably the son of Josce of York, he amassed an enormous fortune as a financier to the Crown, only to be ruined by the relentless tallages of King Henry III, who extracted from him, by one account, some 30,000 marks of silver and 200 of gold. His fall mirrored the deepening royal exploitation that would culminate in the expulsion of England's Jews in 1290.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the orchard map →
YorkיורקYorkshire, England — medieval Jewish center
What they did here
Born in York into a leading family — probably the son of Josce of York — he became the realm's foremost Jewish financier and, in 1237, Presbyter Judaeorum, the senior representative of English Jewry. Repeated royal tallages and confiscations stripped away his vast fortune before his death.
About York
York, a city in Yorkshire in northern England, had a Jewish community in the twelfth century that met a tragic end in March 1190, when, amid anti-Jewish riots, much of the community took refuge in the royal castle keep (Clifford's Tower) and, besieged by a mob, many chose to die rather than be killed or forcibly baptized -- among the worst massacres of medieval Anglo-Jewry.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Aaron of York’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Christian world
Islamic world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.