CHARLES IV°

CHARLES IV°, king of France (1322–28). When he succeeded to the throne, Charles seemed at first to be following the favorable policy toward the Jews of his brother philip v , and on February 20, 1322, issued an ordinance protecting the Jews of languedoc . On June 24 of the same year, however, he issued an order expelling the Jews from his kingdom. This expulsion was not due, as later historians stated, to the accusation of well poisoning leveled against both the Jews and lepers. The main reason for the expulsion of the Jews seems to have been financial. Long after the departure of the Jews, officials of the royal treasury continued to claim debts owed to Jews on the plea that they had not paid an enormous fine which had been levied on them, at first fixed at 150,000 livres and then at 100,000 livres. In 1325 following an alleged child-murder by the Jews, Charles granted the children of the choir of Le Puy the right to order the punishment of any Jew who returned to the town. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Graetz, Hist, 4 (1894), 106–11, 127f.; Loeb, in: Jubelschrift… Graetz (1887), 39–56; Schwab, in: REJ, 33 (1896), 277–81; J. Viard (ed.), Journaux du Trésor (1917), passim; N. Berman, Histoire des Juifs de France (1937), 137–40. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)