Pulcelina of Blois (died 1171) was a Jewish woman, mistress and/or moneylender to the count

Theobald V of Blois Theobald V of Blois (1130 – 20 January 1191), also known as Theobald the Good (french: Thibaut le Bon), was Count of Blois from 1151 to 1191. Biography Theobald was son of Theobald II of Champagne and Matilda of Carinthia. Although he was the ...

. According to the chronicle, Pulcelina was a Jewish woman with great influence over Theobald V, which created envy among the local elite as well as the countess, Alix of France. The chronicle claims that she was the mistress of Theobald V, but she may have been only his moneylender, having had influence over him on that account, rather than as his lover. In 1171, a Jew of the local

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

community was accused of

blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...

by the servant of a local nobleman, who used the accusation to go against Pulcelina. Theobald V had the Blois Jews imprisoned, and when Pulcelina attempted to use her influence to free them, she and her two daughters, as well as 31 other Jews of Blois, were burned alive.

References

* Emily Taitz, Sondra Henry & Cheryl Tallan,
The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 600 B.C.E.to 1900 C.E.
', 2003 12th-century French Jews 12th-century French women 12th-century French people People executed by France by burning 12th-century executions 1171 deaths Medieval Jewish women 12th-century businesspeople Medieval businesswomen