tower of York, with the consent and sanction of the keeper of the tower, and of the sheriff, in consequence of their dread of the Christians ; but when the said sheriff and the constable sought to regain possession of it, the Jews refused to deliver it up. In consequence of this, the people of the city, and the strangers who had come within the jurisdiction thereof, at the exhortation of the sheriff and the constable, with one consent made an attack upon the Jews. After they had made assaults upon the tower, day and night, the Jews offered the people a large sum of money to allow them to depart with their lives ; but this the others refused to receive. Upon this, one skilled in their laws arose and said : " Men of Israel, listen to my advice. It is better that we should kill one another, than fall into the hands of the enemies of our law." Accordingly, all the Jews, both men as well as women, gave their assent to his advice, and each master of a family, beginning with the chief persons of his household, with a sharp knife first cut the throats of his wife and sons and daughters, and then of all his servants, and lastly his own. Some of them also threw their slain over the walls among the people ; while others shut μρ their slain in the king's house and burned them, as well as the king's houses. Those who had slain the others were afterwards killed by the people. In the meantime, some of the Christians set fire to the Jews' houses, and plundered them ; and thus all the Jews in the city of York were destroyed, and all acknowledgments of debts due to them were burnt. In the same year died Isabella, queen of France, and daughter of the earl of Hainault, before her husband Philip, king of Prance, had set out for Jerusalem. In the same year, the Annunciation of our Lord fell on Easter day, a thing that had not happened for a long time previously. In the mean time, the king's envoys, whom he had sent to Pome to obtain the legateship of England and Scotland for "William, his chan cellor, returned to him with letters of our lord the pope relative thereto. Accordingly, on the strength of his legateship, the said bishop of Ely, legate of the Apostolic See, chancellor of our lord the king, and justiciary of all England, oppressed the clergy and the people, confounding right and wrong ; nor was there a person in the kingdom who dared to offer resistance to his authority, even in word. After Easter, the said chancellor of the king came to York