Robert of Bury | |
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 15th-century illumination depicting the martyrdom of Robert of Bury. Top left, a woman seems to be placing Robert's body in a well; top right, it is lying next to a tree with an archer standing by. The precise meaning of these scenes is unknown. At bottom, a monk prays to Robert's soul | |
| Died | 1181 |
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| History of the Jews in England |
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Robert of Bury (died 1181) was an English boy, allegedly murdered and found in the town of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk in 1181. His death, which occurred at a time of rising antisemitism, was falsely blamed on local Jews.[1] Though a hagiography of Robert was written, no copies are known, so the story of his life is now unknown beyond the few fragmentary references to it that survive. His cult continued until the English Reformation.
Robert of Bury joined a small group of 12th-century English unofficial saints of strikingly similar characteristics: all young boys, all mysteriously found dead and all hailed as martyrs to alleged anti-Christian practices among Jews. Contemporary assumptions made about the circumstances of their deaths are typical of blood libel. The first of these was William of Norwich (d.1144), whose death and cult were probably an influence on the story that grew up around the death of Robert.
- ^ Patricia Skinner The Jews in Medieval Britain: Historical, Literary, and Archaeological Perspectives, Boydell and Brewer, Rochester, NY, 2003, pp. 31, 130