The circumstances were part of a general anti-Semitism at the time, not causal. Jews began to be imprisoned wholesale in 1210 & England was officially "Judenrein" October, 1290, when the last 16,000 left. Although, a remnant did remain in small pockets. It was that otherwise jolly fellow Cromwell that allowed Jews back in 1655.

In 1255, Hugh was in the middle of this period. To the best of my knowledge there are no Jewish contemporary accounts. All seems to come from a few lines in The Annals of Waverley for 1255. In addition to the one guy that "confessed," 18 other Jews were executed for not conspiring to kill Hugh.

Not to forget that Hugh was raised to sainthood. (He is Little Saint Hugh because there was a Saint Bishop Hugh of Lincoln about 50 years earlier. Notably, Saint Bishop Hugh was strongly condemnatory of anti-Semitism and persecution of Jews.) Little was sanctified for miracles performed after his death. He is still in the Catholic order so they've never found any such fraud in the story.

History behind this is shorter than you'd think: On Mar 21, 1144, William of Norwich was murdered leading, on 3/22 to the 1st European Blood Libel. (This became a link and excuse in the widespread pogroms decimating European Jewish communities "incidental" to the 3rd Crusade.)

Lest you believe the Blood Libel is an extinct mideval oddity, note that on July 4, 1946 Kielce, Poland held a Blood Libel & pogrom; 41 Jews were murdered. This disheartening event was, of course, after the Nazis were long gone. Like most other such events, it just had to do with money not religion or politics. These Jews were Survivors returning home and just wanted their lives and homes back. But their homes had been confiscated and were held by "real" Poles. So they died.

The Blood Libel still exists along with other such monumental lies & frauds as _The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion_. It is still printed today and distributed both among extremist Arab groups and (we shouldn't seel so superior) among extremist American survivalist/Nazi/etc. groups. I have heard people say that Well, maybe it was _once_ true that Jews did this.

Thing is, folks, that is is still a horror story told to justify slaughter of Jews. Still. Now. And usually by those whose real motive is theft not religious ferver.

You may enjoy the song and not feel it does any real harm...but then, you may also feel that dumb Polack jokes and nigger jokes are just funny and don't really mean any harm.