"On a spring day in 1277, the prominent Jewish businesswoman Licoricia of Winchester was found by her daughter, murdered, stabbed to death in her own house. Alongside Licoricia's body was that of her Christian maid, Alice. Why was Licoricia killed? And why was her death reported as far away as Germany?" "In this ground-breaking new book, Suzanne Bartlet draws on extensive research in the fiscal archives of medieval England, most notably those of the Jewish Exchequer, to examine the family story behind the famous murder. In piecing together Licoricia's route to wealth through advantageous marriages and business acumen, the business contacts she made, the close relationship she appears to have had with King Henry III, and the altogether more mixed fortunes of her sons, Bartlet proposes a radical new solution to the identity of Benedict, whose meteoric rise to become a guildsman in Winchester (an honour usually reserved only for Christians) provoked its own fair share of reaction among medieval writers. Was jealousy of the family's power the reason that Licoricia was so brutally killed? Was Benedict's involvement in local politics and shady deals to blame for the resentment that built up around him? Or was Licoricia's death merely a symptom of the increasing tensions between Christians and Jews in medieval England in the run-up to the Expulsion of the latter from the kingdom in 1290?" "The micro-history of Licoricia and her family sheds new light on the Jewish community in medieval Winchester, itself strangely neglected by scholars. It reveals to the reader something of the social life of the Jewish enclave in this period, and demonstrates the extensive communication networks between Jewish communities, as well as the tribulations they suffered of regular, punitive taxation and arbitrary imprisonments. By using Licoricia's family as an example of the impact such measures had, Bartlet demonstrates the gradual deterioration in the conditions of even the wealthiest Jews in England, as well as drawing together the fragments of a medieval life which has long fascinated historians, but has never been fully investigated." "Suzanne Bartlet was inspired to write this book by the discovery of part of Winchester's Jewish cemetery just outside her back garden. She liked to think that perhaps Licoricia, after her tumultuous life and tragic death, finally came to rest there." --Book Jacket.
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