@Foofie,
Foofie wrote:Well, in medieval Europe, Jews belonged to the King.
You keep on saying although the facts are quite different:
a) you don't name the kingdom (Ireland alone had had more than 30 kingdoms in medieval times),
b) since medieval times stretched over 1,000 years, you better narrow the period as well.
Here, in Saxony, Jews were taken under a similar protection as the Roman Emperor Vespasian did with Joseph ben Matityahu (better known as Titus Flavius Josephus ).
They shouldn't live according to the laws of the
Sachsenspiegel but under Imperial law (similar like in Roman times to the Codex Justinanius).
Thus, they didn't have the same rights as others.
Later, there had been divergent opinions by various legal persons, if Jewish possession was owned by the sovereign [and that could be an earl, duke, prince, bishop ....] or eventually even his body ("summa confessorum").
The were seen as "servi" (due to the
original sin etc) and thus not allowed to have possessions. This was
compensated in so far, as they got the privilege to land money.
The extraordinary protection under Imperial law was re-newed by emperor Frederic II in 1236 - opposite to the centuries before, from now onwards all Jews were under the special protection of the emperor (before, they had had to be named).
All that changed from early modern times onwards ...