France’s Forgotten Pogrom: When the Crown Stole Everything and Told Jews to Get Out

King Philip IV of France expelled all Jews from his kingdom.


1306 was the year France decided Jews were too useful to keep but too hated to protect. King Philip IV—nicknamed "the Fair" for his stunning hypocrisy—ordered every Jew expelled, their homes looted, their synagogues torched. No warnings, no exceptions. Overnight, families who’d lived in France for centuries became penniless refugees, while the Crown pocketed their stolen land and debt records (conveniently erasing what the nobility owed them).

This wasn’t even France’s first rodeo—Jews had been expelled in 1182, then "invited back" in 1198 when rulers needed their tax money. The 1306 purge set a template: Demonize, dispossess, repeat. By the time the Holocaust rolled around, Europe had perfected the playbook.

(Source: Expulsion of Jews from France in 1306)

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