The religious life of the county was, as in other parts of England at this time, ministered to by the monks of foundations, such as Warwick Priory; Stoneleigh Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded by the monks of Radmore, Staffordshire, who relinquished their estates in that county to Henry II. in exchange for those of Stoneleigh; Temple Balsall, near Knowle, erected by the Knights Templars in the reign of Richard II.; Combe Abbey, near Coventry, the second Cistercian foundation in the county, built in the reign of Stephen; Merevale Abbey, near Atherston, founded and richly endowed by Robert, Earl Ferrers, in the middle of the twelfth century in one of the most beautiful spots in the northern part of the county; and the once magnificent Maxstoke Priory, built in 1336 by William de Clinton for an establishment of the Augustines. From these and other religious houses emanated what of learning and religion the countryfolk knew in the Middle Ages, and with the passing away of the monkish owners at the time of the Dissolution, although abuses had undoubtedly crept in which called loudly for and needed stringent action and redress, Warwickshire was the poorer. It was to the monasteries and religious orders, rightly or wrongly, that the humble folk had looked for salvation, protection, and healing in the ancient days when almost all learning as well as knowledge of physic was to be found within cloistered walls. With the accession of Henry VI. of Winchester, weak and totally unfitted to govern during the turbulent times which lay in the immediate future, trouble soon manifested itself amongst the powerful nobles; these the King proved quite unable to reduce to order. To make matters worse nearly the whole of the vast possessions held by England in France, which had been won by the triumphant arms of Henry V., were lost, adding to the bitterness and discontent which already was bringing the country at large to a state bordering upon anarchy. The serious family quarrels which had commenced whilst the King was still a minor, involving many of the noble houses, either in support of the claims of the House of York or the House of Lancaster, became acute. Shakespeare, in “Henry VI.,” well and vividly pictures the historic scene in the Temple Gardens, in front of which in those days flowed a “clear, reed–begirt Thames,” which was destined to give the coming contest its name, and describes the quarrel between the Earl of Somerset and Richard Plantagenet. The Earl of Warwick, whilst in the company of the latter, by tradition is stated to have plucked a white rose, which was afterwards adopted as the badge of the Yorkists, and whilst doing so he makes the following speech:—