It was medieval England's worst antisemitic massacre. Here's what happened next

Kavita Puri explores York's long and complex Jewish history

A medieval manuscript scene depicting three robed figures with pale, gaunt faces standing side by side. To their right, a hooded figure in a long robe lifts a club or staff in a striking pose. The background is plain parchment with several lines of Latin script written above the figures.

Published: March 30, 2026 at 3:30 PM

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On a cold, grey January day in York, I climbed the steps to Clifford’s Tower, continuing all the way to the top to enjoy panoramic views across the city. This structure was for many years a notorious prison, and housed a royalist garrison before being taken by the parliamentarians during the Civil War. Long before then, though, it was the site of one of the worst antisemitic massacres of the Middle Ages.

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Towards the end of the 12th century, peaking around the time of the Third Crusade, anti-Jewish hostility swelled in England. Antisemitic rioting broke out in London and across the east of the country. In spring 1190, as Jewish properties in York were looted or burned, concerned royal officers sheltered some 150 Jewish people inside a timber structure in York Castle that almost certainly stood on the current site of Clifford’s Tower, built perhaps 60 years later.

A mob surrounded the tower and prepared to attack. On the night of 16 March, many of the Jews inside – seeing no safe way out of the situation – took their own lives, having set their possessions on fire, which ignited the tower itself. One of the aggressors reputedly offered an amnesty to any Jew willing to convert to Christianity – but all who left the tower to do so were murdered.

A round stone tower stands on top of a large hill, against a dramatic clouded sky

Clifford's Tower at York Castle, the site of a horrific antisemitic attack in the 12th century (Image by Dreamstime)

However, that terrible incident did not mark the end of Jewish life in York. Within a few years, a new community was established, which endured in the city throughout the 13th century. Research from the University of York published in 2023 shows that a synagogue stood on Coney Street from 1205 to 1290 – the year when all Jews were expelled from England by order of Edward I. A commemorative plaque was unveiled at the site in 2024.

Today, Coney Street is a busy commercial thoroughfare – as it was in the Middle Ages, when it was home to a clothier, a leatherworker, a vintner, a goldsmith, a baker and an apothecary, along with important members of the medieval Jewish community. The 2023 research found that a branch of Boots stands on the site occupied by one Leo Episcopus; his son-in-law, Aaron, lived nearby at the spot where Next is today. Both inhabited homes built by Christian landlords and leased to Jews, who lived alongside prominent Christian citizens.

Leo and Aaron served as chief representatives of the entire Jewish community in England. In the 1230s and 1240s, Aaron was considered to be the richest man in the country. Charters from the Durham Cathedral archive show how Aaron co-operated with senior clergy of York Minster in purchasing the large stone building that became the city’s Guildhall. It also seems likely that Aaron worked with Minster authorities on the ‘Five Sisters’ window – previously known as the Jewish window – in return for land on which to extend the Jewish cemetery.

For so long, the Jewish history of York has been overshadowed by the horrors of what took place at Clifford’s Tower in 1190. Remembrance of this tragedy continues to evolve today: there are plans to redevelop the area around the tower, and proposals include a more formal memorial to the massacre. Each spring, daffodils bloom on the mound – flowers of a six-pointed narcissus variety whose shape echoes the Star of David, creating an annual reminder of the massacre.

It’s right that we mark such a horrifying event – but also that we remember the Jewish community which, in the decades that followed, lived largely harmoniously alongside Christian neighbours in one of the most high-status streets in York.

York’s Jewish history is complex – but the university’s research suggests strongly that, during the 13th century, Jews and Christians worked together for the common good, developing civic and religious sites that remain important in the city today. Serendipitously, the university’s findings were revealed just as York appointed its first resident rabbi since the expulsion of 1290 – the latest positive milestone in the city’s long Jewish history.

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This article was first published in the March 2026 issue of HistoryExtra Magazine

Authors

Kavita Puri

Kavita Puri is a journalist, author and broadcaster. A new edition of her book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories, marking the 75th anniversary of partition, is out now, published by Bloomsbury

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