William III Knights Solomon de Medina
The financier Solomon de Medina was knighted on 23 June 1700, at Hampton Court Palace.
On June 23rd, 1700, at Hampton Court Palace, William III knighted the financier Solomon de Medina – the first member of the Jewish community to be thus honoured: it would be 137 years before another Jew was knighted. Another precedent had been set on November 18th, 1699, when, as recorded in Narcissus Luttrell’s A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, ‘his Majestie dined with Mr Medina, a rich Jew at Richmond’ – the first known visit to a Jew by an English king.
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