In 1260, Peter Durant was detained by the king and held in prison at Canterbury for the beating of Trina, a Jewish woman of Canterbury. Nothing is known of Trina beyond the single record of her assault, which appears in the Close Rolls because her assailant was seeking bail. Peter had beaten the pregnant Trina in the stomach so badly that she lost the infant she was carrying, so that Peter was accused of the infant’s murder. Trina’s case may be connected with another case of miscarriage after assault in the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, that of Bessa of Warwick (though Bessa was attacked by other Jews).

Further reading

• MacLellan, Rory, Jewish History of the Medieval Tower of London, https://www.hrp.org.uk/about-us/research/the-jewish-history-of-the-medieval-tower-of-london/#outputs, [see Dataset no. 40].