Croxden’s prosperous time had been in the years when the wool trade had flourished. It was one of the houses which supplied the Flemish and Florentine merchants in the latter part of the thirteenth and the early part of the fourteenth centuries. When Edward II led his immense army to Bannockburn, Croxden provided supplies almost as great as Burton Abbey, and it also “lent” money to Richard II. But when its patronage left the Verduns it began to experience adversity. In 1319, Alton Castle and the patronage of Croxden passed to the Furnivals. The new lord, Thomas de Furnival, levied many exactions on the Abbey. He insisted on daily distribution of alms, probably in the same spirit as the justices of Speenhamland in a later century--namely, to relieve himself of the necessity of maintaining his tenants. He required that his horses and hounds should be housed at the Abbey, and that his seven bailiffs should be entertained and fed once a week in a special room. There was naturally considerable friction, which was finally ended by a formal written agreement. The outbreak of the French Wars made the Cistercians unpopular, and eventually they had to abandon their foreign dependence. Heavy exactions were levied on them. Corrodians were quartered on them without remorse. The Black Death added to their difficulties. It is mentioned in the Annals of Croxden as follows: In 1349 “there was a great pestilence throughout the whole world,” and in 1361, after almost a complete blank in the Chronicle, we read that “a second pestilence took place, and all the children that were born since the first pestilence took place died.” In 1369 a third visitation is recorded. In 1367 the affairs of Croxden were in such confusion that the Abbot of the parent house at Aunay had to send a special commissioner to visit it. He found debts to the extent of 152 marks, 8 shillings, and 11 pence. Bad harvests increased the difficulty, and Croxden had to sell much of its property. The insolvency which is found threatening so many of the religious houses at the beginning of the sixteenth century had evidently already begun. In the breakdown of rule which accompanied the later years of the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses Croxden shared in the general disorder. There was trespassing by neighbours on its lands: there were complaints of trespassing on the lands of others by the monks and their men.