Aaron of Lincoln

In the pipe rolls (the records of royal finances in Medieval England) for 1166 is a mention of £616 12s 8d owed to Aaron of Lincoln by King Henry II, who borrowed from him for projects in nine counties.

Aaron as born about 1123 in Lincoln, although it is thought that he spent part of his early life in France. Later he owned a plot of land near Lincoln Castle which is probably where his house was. A building called the Norman House in Lincoln (seen here), probably the oldest stone dwelling in England, was once (but no more) believed to have been Aaron's house.

He became a financier, working through different agents and a partner, Isaac son of Josce. He built up a financial base for himself that is believed to have surpassed the wealth of the king.

Much of his wealth came from the repayment of loans he made for the building or renovation of abbeys and monasteries. Nine Cistercian abbeys were built on money borrowed from Aaron, as well as Peterborough Abbey, Lincoln Minster, and the Abbey of St. Albans.

When he died in 1186, Henry II claimed that his estate reverted to the Crown by escheat (a legal move that transfers to the Crown the estate of a person who dies without heirs). The Crown therefore inherited all Aaron's debts, and was able to collect on them. The cash that Aaron was holding at the time of his death was immediately sent to France to be used in Henry's wars against Philip Augustus. (Unfortunately, the ship carrying the money sank in the English Channel.) His debts were so numerous and so large that a separate division was created in the Exchequer solely to deal with Aaron's finances.

It was called Aaron's Exchequer and existed for 15 years while the Crown collected on his debts and assumed the money into the royal coffers. Even then, an amount of about £7,500 was still outstanding. There was one change made in the debt process after Aaron's death: interest stopped accruing, since Christians did not indulge in usury.

At one point, Aaron had made a deal with the abbot of Meaux to drop a debt from 1800 marks to 1260 marks. After Aaron's death, the Crown discovered the original paperwork on the 1800 marks and demanded the difference of 540 marks from the abbey! Still, there was plenty of money involved: 430 separate debts to smaller barons and knights amounted to £15,000, now to be collected by the king.

The Massacre of Jews at York was brought about by a man who was heavily indebted to Aaron and wanted to destroy the records of his debt. By this time Henry's son Richard was king. Richard created the separate Exchequer of the Jews afterward.

But now for something completely different: tomorrow let's talk about Lincoln, and the castle therein.