Royalty was entertained in the Abbey on many occasions as both guest and prisoner. When the Abbey was consecrated in 1115 by the Archbishop of Rouen, Henry I. and his queen, Matilda, with their courtiers, were entertained from December 27 until January 6; Richard II. stayed here for eight days after Wat Tyler’s rebellion had subsided; and here the conspiracy against him was planned, when the Duke of Gloucester and the Prior of Westminster were dining with the abbot, John de la Moote. In 1399 John of Gaunt’s body rested here; and Richard II., and Henry, Duke of Lancaster (Henry IV.) were here in the same year. During the Wars of the Roses the Abbey of St. Albans was frequently used as a prison. In the first battle of St. Albans (May 23, 1455), when the White Roses were victorious, Henry was confined in the monastery; but in the second battle (February 17, 1461), the king, having been captured, was set at liberty by his brave wife, Margaret of Anjou, who marched from Wakefield with 18,000 men. The royal party went to the Abbey, where the monks chanted thanksgiving and in every way received them with delight. The undisciplined horde of soldiers unfortunately ran wild in the town and plundered the Abbey. Their behaviour was such that Abbot John Stokes changed his politics, and became an ardent Yorkist. Among the celebrated monks of St. Albans Matthew Paris takes the lead, the great historian whose book begins with the creation and continues to 1259. St. Albans for a long period received “Peter’s Pence.” This was first levied by the King of the West Saxons in 727, and was a tax of one penny on each family owning lands. The receipt amounted to thirty pence a year and went to the support of a Saxon College at Rome; and because it was collected on August 1 (the day of St. Peter ad Vincula) it was called “Peter’s Pence.” Offa induced the Pope to give it to the Abbey of St. Albans. The monastic buildings have all perished, and the only remnant of the Abbey is the =Great Gate=, built in the days of Thomas de la Mare, about 1365. Over the archway there is a large room in which sessions used to be held, and below the road the curious may inspect the dungeons. This Gateway was a law-court and prison; and, as the Abbot of St. Albans had civil jurisdiction over all the town, as well as his monastery, many offenders were tried and condemned here. In the days of Wat Tyler’s rebellion John Ball and his seventeen companions were tried here and spent their last days in the dungeons. Another scene that we can picture is that of the monks bringing out ale and wine to quell the fury of the mob that stormed the Gatehouse before the news of Wat Tyler’s death arrived.