Sometimes my ignorance is excruciatingly embarrassing

I really must stop reading those 'bloody-bloody' history books which embarrass me so often.  At the moment I am reading an excellent history entitled "Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate" by Paul Wray.  An excellent book helped along by the occasional dry wit of the author.  Oliver Cromwell is not a man I have ever studied before and as this history received some excellent reviews I thought it was time to get down to it! 

I was expecting yet another chapter of head-chopping which seemed to be the sport of the day in 17th century Britain!  Indeed, there is plenty of that but what made me sit back in astonishment was information about the Jews!  I had not realised that the Jews had been totally expelled from Britain in 1290 by Edward I.  In the 1650s, Cromwell had two imperatives.  First he needed, so to speak, to 'spread the word of the Lord' and thereby convert those 'sinners' who failed to accept it.  The other imperative was, like British governments throughout the ages, the need for money, in this case, to help pay for his intended war against those Spanish Catholic heretics who owned all those gold and silver mines in South America.  An influx of wealth-creating Jews would be invaluable to pay for more ships and soldiers - and also provide a target for, er, 're-educating' them in the words of the Lord!

So far, I am not too impressed with Oliver Cromwell's government but if he was responsible for enriching - in all senses of that word - the fabric of British society then let us immediately erect a statue of him in Trafalgar Square!

 

 

Comments

[Beans]

If you read a timeline of English history dealing with Jews, one king invites them in for banking purposes, another kicks them out because he owes too much money to them, repeat until after Edward I, when they remain expelled for a long time.

The English expel the Jews in order to default on their loans. The French just killed off a whole military order in order to not pay theirs (that whole silly Templar thingy, all about owing money to the Bank (of Templars) and killing the bankers (the Templars) in order not to pay the bill.

[Loz]

Bull's eye, Beans!

Here we go Gaffer, so one step at a time then ...

Debt in Blighty is just shy of 2 trillion quid today.

We have three shades of spendthrifts as the only boxes in which to mark our X: blue, yellow and red.

Given history's propensity to repeat itself, as Beans points out.

So what happens next in Blighty then?

Clue: If any part of your pensions or investments is invested in British government debt right now, you might want to take a look at that.

Oh, wait a minute, given the title of this post the Gaffer might be in need of some help on this one?! Someone? Anyone?

SoD

[Bob]

My idea your investment and ownership classes would have an overwhelming interest in stopping Brexit was backwards. The hedge fund managers backing Boris were evidence there were opportunities in letting it go ahead. There will likely be many more gravy trains like HS2 in your future. At least for a while.