The jews of Ribadavia
The loss of municipal documentation from Ribadavia means that we have no certain information about its Jewish community until 1386. We assume that the Jewish community of Ribadavia was formed in the 12th and 13th centuries, as in other medieval cities in Galicia and the Iberian Peninsula, benefiting from the settlement of Jews, since the 10th century, in the neighboring lands of Celanova, and from the existence of a powerful group of merchants in Ribadavia, following the granting of the charter by Fernando II in 1164.
Ethnologic Museum
What happened in 1386?
The Duke of Lancaster, married to the eldest daughter of the late King Peter I, aspiring to the throne of Castile, invades Galicia with little resistance, except in Ribadavia, which was besieged by an army of more than 2,000 English spearmen and archers, who managed to take the town using a spectacular tower on wheels. The English entered the town, and according to the contemporary chronicle of Froissart, “ce jour occis ungs et autres, parmy les Juifs dont il y avoit assés, plus de quinze cens. Ainsi fut la ville de Ribadave gaignée à force, et eurent ceulx qui y entrèrent, grant butin d’or de d’argent ès maisons des Juifs par espécial.” That is, Froissart’s witnesses highlight the wealth in gold and silver of the Jews of Ribadavia, who were robbed and murdered, along with the other residents, by the troops of the Duke of Lancaster.
Froissart was clearly exaggerating when he mentions “quinze cens” (fifteen hundred, 1,500) Jews of Ribadavia in 1386. Such medieval figures in chronicles about battles are generally unreliable. There were approximately 500 inhabitants in Ribadavia. The Jewish population rarely exceeded 10-15% of the inhabitants in medieval cities in our surroundings. In Ribadavia in 1386, there were likely no more than 50 Jews, about a dozen families, mostly living in the houses on the street of the Jewish quarter, later known as Merelles Caula, who, without a doubt, had a much greater economic influence in the town of Ribeiro than their number would suggest, as the English raiders realized.
