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Feudal rights and obligations
One consequence of the presence of merchants from all over Europe using a variety of currencies was that large numbers of moneylenders and money changers set up shop in the towns where most of the foreigners traded, such as Bruges and, above all, Antwerp. This famous painting by Metsys, once owned by Rubens, is set in one of these cities.
Ancient Money Lenders
The feudal system was the framework governing all landholding in medieval England. In the feudal hierarchy, all land was ultimately held from the king, in a complex web stretching down from the king’s tenants-in-chief, through a series of under-tenants, to the rural peasantry at the bottom. Everyone in this hierarchy had rights and obligations which were regulated by long-established custom.
Medieval Jewish Money Lenders
The king was entitled to many customary payments from his tenants-in-chief. He could demand money on the marriage of his eldest daughter or when his tenants’ heirs inherited their estates; he had the lucrative right of wardship over tenants’ heirs who were minors, and he could control the marriage of his tenants’ widows and heirs. The barons also owed the king a payment called ‘scutage’ in place of military service.
- Back then, though, they were called “money lenders,” which is a much more pejorative term. “Banker,” at least at one time, represented a term of honor. Jewish money lending worked as follows. The Count or nobleman of the town would loan money to the Jew, and the Jew in turn would loan money to the non-Jewish peasants.
- Edward Longshankes (Edward I) got himself in debt to various moneylenders in order to fund his wars. During his reign, he fought with his father in the Baron’s War against Simon de Montfort, against Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the Prince of Wales, against the French, and against the Scots. All of these wars cost money.
King John (r. 1199–1216) repeatedly breached the bounds of traditional practice by exploiting his feudal rights to excess. Over a third of the 63 clauses in the 1215 Magna Carta dealt directly with these rights, defining and limiting the extent of the king’s authority.