Emicho von Leiningen vs. Arrogance and Hubris / Analysis of 1096 First Crusade / Thor Björgólfsson Learned Well

DOING WELL UNTIL

Iceland used to be a prosperous country. But then they let in the usury crowd. And so they got a crisis. Which didn't happen all at once.

ENEMIES TOOK OVER

The people put their money in banks. The banks fell into foreign hands. Treated as celebrities in their homeland, Icelanders credit them with wresting financial control of the island from its ruling conservative elite". (Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 )

And these foreign hands were sticky. "The first dollar billionaires to emerge from the tiny island of 300,000 inhabitants were Björgólfur Thor Björgólfsson and his father, West Ham FC owner Björgólfur Gudmundsson. Björgólfur, who has convictions for false accounting and estimated wealth of $1.bn (£635m), built up his fortune in shipping." (Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 )

AND PLUNDERED

And when the Icelanders awakened from their slumber, the billions were gone. "Only now have citizens of the volcanic island begun to suspect they have been sitting on a gigantic pyramid scheme". (Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 )

Of course, there were plenty of warning signs, but they were, as usual in these cases, ignored.

AND NOW THEY FEEL SO BAD ABOUT IT ALL

As a consequence, these people are now "Destitute and desperate". (per Marc Prel, Destitute and desperate, Icelanders opt for exile, AFP, 7 Apr 2010)

Yes, the people of Iceland have "such a bad feeling about what's happening here." (per Svanbjoern Einarsson cited in Marc Prel, Destitute and desperate, Icelanders opt for exile, AFP, 7 Apr 2010)

And sometimes, when things are getting really desperate, the common people come to resent the usurers.

NOT THE FIRST PLACE THIS HAS HAPPENED

Of course, the Jewish colony is Iceland is not the only one in the lands of the Europeans. No, there are "numerous Jewish colonies". (W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 120) Colonies where the Jews were active in the "financial services" sector: "general medieval histories, if they mention Jews at all, refer to them almost exclusively as money-lenders or involved in slavery". (Norman Roth, Medieval Jewish civilization: an encyclopedia, Routledge, 2003, p 189) Colonies in places like Mainz. "The Jews here were especially hated, on account of their usurious customs, and famous for their wealth." (W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 121)

Or, as the Telegraph puts it: "Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires". (Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 ) "The Jews here were especially hated, on account of their usurious customs, and famous for their wealth." (W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 121)

Billionaires.

WHEN RESENTMENT ERUPTS

In 2010, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in Iceland. Powerful forces had been building up below the surface, and when the molten rock shot out of the earth, it was quite a spectacle. Back in 1096, a group of Christians were on their way to a religious war. "At the head of the band was Emicho, Graf von Leiningen". (W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 120) "In their journey the Rhine downwards they approached the towns chiefly inhabited by wealthy Jews". (W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 121)

"Chiefly inhabited"? That means business was run by these "wealthy Jews". (Is there any other kind?) "We are angry with the billionaire owners who ran the banks and pretty much everything else in this country".

And sometimes this anger moves beyond words: "An attack at Speyer resulted in the slaying of twelve Jews who refused to convert to Christianity". (S. Eidelberg, The Jews and the Crusaders, Ktav Publishing House, 1996, p 4)

But that was in Speyer, where there were fewer Jews. Mainz was the center of Jewish commerce in the area, and less than 100km distant. Emicho and his army traveled there next. The Jews were running the city (per W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 121), and wasted no time in sending their "law enforcement staff" to bar the gates. "It was all arrogance and hubris". (Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 )

Emicho and the Christian forces were outside the city walls. The Jews and their bought politicians and police (per W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 121) were inside the walls. (S. Eidelberg, The Jews and the Crusaders, Ktav Publishing House, 1996, p 4)

Now you're probably thinking that there was a museum of Jewish culture, and maybe even a Guggenheim museum inside the walls. Surely the citizenry of Mainz loved their Jews, and would defend them?

Well, not quite. Since "The Jews here were especially hated, on account of their usurious customs, and famous for their wealth." (W.O. Horn, The Rhine: history and legends of its castles, abbeys, monasteries, and towns, Williams and Norgate, 1872, p 121) And so "Emicho's arrival in Mainz was greeted by anti-Jewish riots within the barred gates of the city." (S. Eidelberg, The Jews and the Crusaders, Ktav Publishing House, 1996, p 4)

Well, no problem. The Jews had a SWAT team, probably even a secret police force inside the walls.

And for a while, they tried to control the crowds. In the course of their efforts, "a Christian was killed". (S. Eidelberg, The Jews and the Crusaders, Ktav Publishing House, 1996, p 4)

This displeased the Germans in the city even more, and so "Emicho's allies within the city opened the gates". (S. Eidelberg, The Jews and the Crusaders, Ktav Publishing House, 1996, p 4) Now Emicho and the Christian army entered the city. The Jews put up a stiff resistance, but the Christians were angry (as per Bjarni Brynjólfsson cited in Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 ), and "they killed the Jews, about 700 in number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many thousands." (Albert of Aachen cited in Thomas Asbridge, The First Crusade: A New History, Oxford University Press, 2004, p 88)

LESSONS LEARNED / AND LESSONS NOT LEARNED

So have people learned anything in the succeeding 1000 years?

Absolutely!!!

The Jewish bankers "have now disappeared in times of trouble". (Bjarni Brynjólfsson cited in Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 ) The Jewish bankers in Mainz in 1096 knew full well there were "times of trouble" for their people. They could easily have disappeared. But "It was all arrogance and hubris". (Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 ) And so they stayed in the city with their pet politicians and police. And paid the price for all the years of usury, arrogrance and hubris when "In Mainz the entire Jewish community was massacred between 25 and 29 May by the army of Count Emicho of Leiningen, the most savage enemy of the Rhineland Jewry". (I.S. Robinson, Henry IV of Germany 1056-1106, Cambridge University Press, 1999, p 302)

And the people of Europe? Have they learned anything between 1096 and 2010? “We are angry with ourselves for being foolish and for not having listened to the voices that warned us about the recklessness of the banks.” (Bjarni Brynjólfsson cited in Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 ) "Among them was Alonso de Hojeda, a Dominican prior of Seville, who devoted all his energies to making the crown aware of the reality of the danger from Jews and false converts". (Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: a historical revision, Yale University Press, 1998, p 43)

Foolish, destitute, desperate, angry.

And?

We'll never know.

Because these bankers "have now disappeared in times of trouble". (Bjarni Brynjólfsson cited in Rowena Mason, Iceland falls out of love with its billionaires, Telegraph, 19 Oct 2008 )