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Page 219
sary act of usury under his protection, the people of London rioted, beating and killing the Jews and looting their property. Richard had been furious. He was not such a fanatic as to lose sight of the usefulness of the Israelites whom his great-grandfather William the Bastard had brought to England and established as moneylenders. Not only did the Jews serve as bankers to the royal family but when one died his property, which was under the protection of the King, reverted completely to the Crown, unless the heirs paid an enormous fine for the right to inherit.
Richard hurriedly sent justiciars and troops to put down the rioting which was becoming general. In addition, every hand that could hold a pen, including Alinor, who would not ordinarily be used to write such matters, was employed to send orders to all of the King's domain that the Jews were still under his protection.
By the third week in September, however, that excitement was over at Court. There were still riots, but the sheriffs and justiciars were supposed to be quelling those. As news drifted back from Richard's progress, a new uneasiness was spreading about Richard's method of governing. The King was selling official positions. It was not that the Court had any quarrel with the actual appointments Richard had made at the Great Council that had been convened at Pipewell Abbey. There were, of course, individual dissatisfactions and hard feelings but, in general, the Earl of Essex and the Bishop of Durham were felt to be wise and careful choices as chief justiciars. The fact that William Marshal and four of the justices of the King's court had been appointed to advise and assist the justiciars was also reassuring.
There was far more grumbling about the choice of William Longchamp, the Bishsop of Ely, as Chancellor. Longchamp was a little, ugly, deformed man, which was offensive in itself in someone who did not

 
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