he realm against their
father's government, and have given their fathers a great deal of
trouble by so doing; but then, in all such cases, the moment that the
father dies the son immediately places himself at the head of the
regularly-constituted authorities of the realm, and abandons all his
old companions and friends, treating them sometimes with great
severity. His eyes are opened to the wickedness of making opposition
to the sovereign power now that the sovereign power is vested in
himself, and he disgraces and punishes his own former friends for the
crime of having aided him in his undutiful behavior.

CHAPTER V.

THE CORONATION.

1189

The massacre of the Jews.--Their social position.--The history
of the commercial character of the Jews.--The persecution
of the Jews in France.--Conciliating the king.--A description
of the ceremony of coronation.--The ampulla.--The
coronation.--Presents.--Hostility and jealousy of the people.--An
altercation.--Hunting out the Jews.--The terrors of the
massacre.--Indifference of the king.--The mob unchecked.--The
impunity of the rioters.--King Richard's edict.

It was now time that the coronation should take place, and
arrangements were accordingly made for performing this ceremony with
great magnificence in Westminster Abbey. The day of the ceremony
acquired a dreadful celebrity in history in consequence of a great
massacre of the Jews, which resulted from an insurrection and riot
that broke out in Westminster and London immediately after the
crowning of the king. The Jews had been hated and abhorred by all the
Christian nations of Europe for many ages. Since they were not
believers in Christianity, they were considered as little better than
infidels and heathen, and the government that oppressed and persecuted
them the most was considered as doing the greatest service to the
cause of religion.

One very curious result followed from the legal disabilities that the
Jews were under. They could not own land, and they were restricted
also very much in respect to nearly all the avocations open to other
men. They consequently learned gradually to become dealers in money
and in jewels, this being almost the only reputable calling that was
left open to them. There was another great advantage, too, for them,
in dealing in property of this kind, and that was, that comprising, as
such property does, great value in small bulk, it could easily be
concealed, and removed from pl