It would appear that Shakespeare met Jews in London. One Jew, Henry Nunes was famous for being the first person to tell the Royal Court of the Spanish Armada's approach in 1588 and Dr Rodrigo Lopez was famously the only doctor ever to be executed and was Elizabeth I's doctor for over a decade till his execution in 1594. Both of these men were crypto Jews fleeing persecution in Spain/Portugal and there is a lot written as to whether people feared them as Jews or whether they were feared as those coming from the Iberian peninsula. Despite the expulsion in 1290, there are documented Jews in London from 1315 onwards, albeit individuals rather than communities. James I seems to have got rid of them again and the Whitehall Conference established that the 1290 expulsion was a Royal Edict, rather than an Act of Parliament and therefore ceased to be legal after the death of the monarch at that time. Lawyers argued that there was no need for a vote as the expulsion was not legal.
Comments
Second Reading
About Monday 23 March 1667/68
Judith • Link
It would appear that Shakespeare met Jews in London. One Jew, Henry Nunes was famous for being the first person to tell the Royal Court of the Spanish Armada's approach in 1588 and Dr Rodrigo Lopez was famously the only doctor ever to be executed and was Elizabeth I's doctor for over a decade till his execution in 1594. Both of these men were crypto Jews fleeing persecution in Spain/Portugal and there is a lot written as to whether people feared them as Jews or whether they were feared as those coming from the Iberian peninsula. Despite the expulsion in 1290, there are documented Jews in London from 1315 onwards, albeit individuals rather than communities. James I seems to have got rid of them again and the Whitehall Conference established that the 1290 expulsion was a Royal Edict, rather than an Act of Parliament and therefore ceased to be legal after the death of the monarch at that time. Lawyers argued that there was no need for a vote as the expulsion was not legal.