of Gilbert
Beket, a burgher of Rouen, whose son Thomas was afterwards the martyr
of Canterbury. No doubt these wealthy immigrants assisted in the
growth of the English towns, both in commerce and in freedom. The
army, the navy, the universities, trade, and education, as we know
them, had no real existence in England before the Conquest. The
Normans brought in not only the most permanent, but the most important
invasion of alien immigrants, who affected and directed the
development of English habits and character, and of the English
constitution. There is little wonder that William had no lack of
followers in his attempt, for the England of the eleventh century must
have appealed to the Normans, the Picards, and Burgundians, of his
mingled company, much as South Africa still calls our younger sons
to-day, as a land of the promise of indefinite success.

But a still further, and an even less recognised source of wealth that
was a direct result of Duke William's invasion, may be found in the
settlement of Jewish traders who followed him from Normandy, and
especially from Rouen. These were the capitalists, who helped the King
of England to collect his revenue in money rather than in kind. Though
liable to special fiscal exactions, they were protected by the King
from many of the taxes imposed upon their neighbours. They were
established, as they had been elsewhere in Europe, in separate
"Jewries," or places kept apart for them in every city. Never having
been allowed to possess either land or the rights of citizenship,
their wealth was nearly always in gold. The Jews, indeed, were already
the capitalists of Europe. Many a castle and cathedral alike owed its
existence to their loans. Everyone at once abhorred yet could not do
without them. In Rouen their history is soon marked by massacre and
crime. As soon as Duke Robert had gone to the Crusades in 1096, the
townsmen rose against the inhabitants of the Rue aux Juifs, and
murdered numbers of men with their wives and children. The great fire
that took place in the Parish of St. Lo, between 1116 and 1126, may
very likely have been caused by another attack of the same kind. In
any case, it was the unhappy Jews who paid the penalty; and still more
trouble must have been caused by the fire already mentioned in 1131
which raged round the Porte Massacre, close to their quarter. When
Philip Augustus drove them all out of France in 1182, the town of
Rouen seized the opportunity to