legal distinctions between the citizenship rights of Jews and Christians under the statutes of Marseilles. Jews were officially given the same citizenship rights in Saint-Remy-de-Provence in 1345 and by 1467 in Tarascon. Comtat Venaissin and Avignon, both being papal principalities, witnessed an era of peace for Jewish communities who were established there without expulsions being a part of their lives. The Jews of Provence received official protection but this was because of Jewish usefulness for the royalty. This did not, however, preclude anti-Jewish incidences which precipitated voluntary Jewish departures. Once Provence was annexed by the Kingdom of France in 1481, the flourishing Jewish residents found themselves expelled by 1498. Enlightenment According to most scholars, the Middle Ages ended around 1500–1550, giving way to the Early Modern Era, c. 1550–1789. The Enlightenment appeared at the end of the Early Modern Era, and was characterized by a set of values and ideas that completely opposed the previous Medieval age. The Enlightened Monarch was an important product of the era; he or she strove to create a cultured, modern state populated by effective subjects, and often began the journey to this state by improving the living conditions of the poor and minorities, which included Jews in most countries. The monarchs tried to include their Jewish subjects in mainstream society, reducing restrictions and passing more general laws that applied to all, regardless of religion. A Jewish Enlightenment occurred alongside the broader European one, originally appearing at the end of the eighteenth century. Known as Haskalah, it would re-emerge in the 1820s and lasted for the better part of the century. A form of "critical rationalism" inspired by the European Enlightenment, Haskalah focused on reform in two specific areas: stimulating an internal rebirth of culture, and better preparing and training Jews to exist in a christocentric world. It did not force its adherents to sacrifice one identity for the other, allowing them to simultaneously be Jewish and emulate their Gentile contemporaries. One of the most important effects of the Enlightenment was emancipation for Jews. Beginning in Napoleonic France after the Revolution-which was directly inspired by the Enlightenment-Jews received full rights and became equal citizens. This trend spread eastward across the continent, lasting until 1917, when Russian Jews were finally emancipated during the first Russian Revolution. See also Medieval antisemitism Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula History of the Jews in England (1066–1200)