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CHAPTER X RESETTLEMENT IN ENGLAND THE last great community of Western Europe to be formed by the Marrano refugees was that of London. It was long considered that this was due to the providential intervention of one man, Menasseh ben Israel, at the time of the Protectorate. Recent research has however made it plain that this is not quite correct. On the one hand, the intervention of Menasseh ben Israel, though epoch-making, was not decisive. On the other, the formal establishment of the Jewish community was merely an episode in a long Marrano connection, dating back for over a century. The Jews had been banished from England in 1290; and from that date down to the end of the Middle Ages, none had been officially allowed to live in the country. Nevertheless, there is evidence that after the Expulsion from Spain, in 1492, some of the refugees came to London, with bills of exchange on the local Spanish merchants. Apparently, a few Marranos similarly sought shelter here. This “infesting scourge,” as it was described (though the numbers in question must have been extremely small), continued till 1498. Then, at the time of the negotiations for a marriage between his son Arthur and Catherine of Aragon, Henry VII promised the Spanish envoys that he would prosecute without mercy any Jew or heretic whom they might point out in his dominions. 252
