Mediæval London, Volume 2: EcclesiasticalBesant, Walter
History
Mediæval London, Volume 2: Ecclesiastical
Besant, Walter
London (England) -- History -- To 1500; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- To 1500
In 1324 Edward the Second issued letters patent for the arrest of the
prior, John de Causancia, and certain monks for harbouring rebels.
These were probably the adherents of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, who,
after his defeat at Boroughbridge, took sanctuary in the Abbey. In
1337 the Bishop of Ely excommunicated certain persons for stealing
a hawk belonging to him from the cloisters of the Abbey. Many other
associations gather round this House. Marmion, Lord of Fontenay, was a
benefactor to Bermondsey; the monks sold their lands in Southwark in
the reign of Richard the Second to Robert of Paris, from whom the place
was called Paris Gardens; Cardinal Beaufort visited the Abbey, and was
received in procession by the monks. The Prior Henry, afterwards Abbot
of Glastonbury, took an active part in the release of King Richard.
In 1323 the greater church of St. Saviour of Bermondsey and the great
altar were dedicated in honour of St. Saviour and the Blessed Virgin
and All Saints. On the same day were dedicated three other altars in
the church—one of the Cross, one in honour of the Virgin and St. Thomas
the Martyr, and one in honour of St. Andrew and St. James and all the
Apostles.
Among those buried here were Leofstan, Portreeve of London in 1115;
William of Mortain, or Mortaigne, Earl of Cornwall; Mary, daughter of
Malcolm the Third of Scotland, and sister to Queen Maud, who died April
18, 1115. The following is the inscription on her tomb:—
“Nobilis hic tumulata jacet Comitissa Maria:
Actebus hæc nituit: larga benigna fuit.
Regum sanguis erat: morum probitate vigebat,
Compatiens in opi: vivit in arce Poli.”
Also Matilda, daughter of Guy, Earl of Warwick, who died in 1368;
Margaret de la Pole; Anne, widow of Lord Audley, and the murdered Duke
of Gloucester, before the removal of his body to Westminster.
But the most illustrious residents of the House were the two Queens who
died within its walls.
The first of them was Katherine of Valois, widow of Henry the Fifth,
who married secretly Owen Tudor, and was the grandmother of Henry the
Seventh. The marriage was not found out for some years. The Queen
must have been most faithfully and loyally served, because children
cannot be born without observation. Owen Tudor must have conducted
matters with a discretion beyond all praise. No doubt the ordinary
members of the household knew nothing, and suspected nothing, because
several years passed before any suspicion was awakened. Three sons and
one daughter, in all, were born. The eldest, Edmund of Hadham, was so
called because he was born there; the second, Jasper, was of Hatfield;
the third, Owen, of Westminster; the youngest, Margaret, died in
infancy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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