The York massacre on ‘Shabbat ha-Godol’, whilst by far the most disastrous attack on a Jewish community, did not occur in isolation. The widespread riots in London, following Richard I's coronation on 3 September 1189, led to a series of onslaughts on Jewish communities in the eastern counties of England, the heartland of the late twelfth-century English provincial Jewry.

Ralph de Diceto, dean of St Paul's from 1180 to c. 1200, has little to say about the events in London, probably because, the see being vacant, he took the place of the bishop of London at the coronation and subsequent festivities. For a detailed account of events in London we have to turn to William of Newburgh's Historia, which explains that the riot erupted when the press carried some Jews, who along with women had been forbidden entry, into Westminster Palace. The sources reveal that the London mob was predominant, with a sprinkling of retainers of nobles attending the ceremony, and a number of fire-raisers. Ultimately, as Newburgh points out, in the general desire for plunder ‘neither friends nor companions’ were spared.

Attacks on Jewries spread to the provinces. According to Diceto, the first took place at Norwich on 6 February, followed by assaults at Stamford (Lincolnshire), York and Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) on 7, 16 and 18 March respectively. What follows is an attempt to trace their path and character, against the background of the emerging provincial Jewish communities concerned.