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THE RISE OF tHE ROtHScHILDS 21
could possibly be more disastrous for our family, for our continued well-being,
for our good name and for our honour than such a decision, God forbid. I hardly
even dare mention it. To renounce our religion, the religion of our [father] Rabbi
Mayer [Amschel] Rothschild of blessed memory, the religion which, thank God,
made us so great. 75
By converting, James felt Hannah Mayer had ‘robbed our whole family of its pride
and caused us such harm that it can unfortunately not be redressed any more’:
I believe that [religion] means everything. Our good fortune and our blessings
depend upon it. We shall therefore wipe her from our memory and never again
during my lifetime will I, or any other member of our family, see or receive her
. . . as if she had never existed. 76
Even her own mother echoed these sentiments. 77 Only her brother Nat supported
her decision.
On closer inspection, James’s response had more to do with the structure of
authority within the family, and the obedience the younger generation owed to
their elders, than with religion per se:
I and the rest of our family have not only always had the wish, but indeed have
always brought our children up from their early childhood with the sense that
their love is to be confined to members of the family, that their attachment for
one another would prevent them from getting any ideas of marrying anyone
other than one of the family so that the fortune would stay inside the family.
Who will give me any assurance that my own children will do what I tell them
if they see that there is no punishment forthcoming? Should my own daughter,
after she has married, say, ‘I am miserable because I didn’t marry a Duke
although I had enough money to do so, and I see that, despite the fact that this
woman renounced her religion, and despite the fact that [she] married against
the wishes of her family, she is nevertheless accepted [by the family]. It would
have been the same with me.’ Do you really think that all the nicely conceived
projects [will come to fruition] – i.e., that Mayer will marry Anselm’s daughter,
that Lionel’s daughter will marry the child of another member of the family so
that the great fortune and the Rothschild name will continue to be honoured and
transmitted [to future generations] – if one doesn’t put a stop to this? 78
75
RAL, X1/109J/J/38, James, Paris, to Lionel and Nat, London, 11 Nov. 1838.
76
RAL, X1/109J/J/39, James, Heinrichsbad, to Nat, Paris, 29 June 1839.
77
RAL, RFamC/1/83, Hannah to Nat, 19 May 1839.
78
RAL, X1/109J/J/39, James, Heinrichsbad, to Nat, Paris, 16 July 1839. See also
Davis, English Rothschilds, p. 60.