Following the normal practice in Benedictine monasteries, the obedientiaries of Westminster Abbey kept two quite different kinds of record, and for distinct purposes. Their charters, together with the cartularies and registers where these documents were so often copied, made it possible for them to defend the Abbey's properties and privileges when these were challenged by lay or ecclesiastical opponents. Their financial records - the subject-matter of this book - assisted good housekeeping within their several departments and enabled them to survive the audit which each faced once a year at the hands of fellow-monks; only the abbot and prior were tacitly exempted from this testing experience. The core of the collection of financial records consists of the so-called final accounts prepared each year by obedientiaries, other than the abbot and prior, for scrutiny at the audit. Nearly 2,000 of these survive, not counting second copies. In the course of the year, however, obedientiaries made use of many other forms of financial record. Without these subsidiary records, it would have been difficult or impossible to compile the final accounts, and we can be confident that many were on the table at the audit and owe their survival to this circumstance.

The British Archaeological Association’s 2013 conference was devoted to the study of Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. It also embraced Westminster School, which was founded at the Reformation in the Abbey precinct. Collectively, these institutions occupy a remarkable assemblage of medieval and later buildings, most of which are well documented. Although the Association had held a conference at Westminster in 1902, this was the first time that the internationally important complex of historic buildings was examined holistically, and the papers published here cover a wide range of subject matter. Westminster came into existence in the later Anglo-Saxon period, and by the mid-11th century, when Edward the Confessor’s great new abbey was built, it was a major royal centre two miles south-west of the City of London. Within a century or so, it had become the principal seat of government in England, and this series of twenty-eight papers covers new research on the topography, buildings, art-history, architecture and archaeology of Westminster’s two great establishments — Abbey and Palace. Part I begins with studies of the topography of the area, an account of its Roman-period finds and an historiographical overview of the archaeology of the Abbey. Edward the Confessor’s enigmatic church plan is discussed and the evidence for later Romanesque structures is assembled for the first time. Five papers examine aspects of Henry III’s vast new Abbey church and its decoration. A further four cover aspects of the later medieval period, coronation, and Sir George Gilbert Scott’s impact as the Abbey’s greatest Surveyor of the Fabric. A pair of papers examines the development of the northern precinct of the Abbey, around St Margaret’s Church, and the remarkable buildings of Westminster School, created within the remains of the monastery in the 17th and 18th centuries. Part II part deals with the Palace of Westminster and its wider topography between the late 11th century and the devastating fire of 1834 that largely destroyed the medieval palace. William Rufus’s enormous hall and its famous roofs are completely reassessed, and comparisons discussed between this structure and the great hall at Caen. Other essays reconsider Henry III’s palace, St Stephen’s chapel, the king’s great chamber (the ‘Painted Chamber’) and the enigmatic Jewel Tower. The final papers examine the meeting places of Parliament and the living accommodation of the MPs who attended it, the topography of the Palace between the Reformation and the fire of 1834, and the building of the New Palace which is better known today as the Houses of Parliament.

Set in medieval, Tudor and Stuart England, we discover how the family became involved with the secretive Knights Templar and then spread around the country. There were great landowners associated with Kings and Queens. Some were persecuted, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and suffered horrific executions. One followed the Mayflower to New England only to fall victim to native Indians. We find wonderful cases of jury fixing, insurrection, Lollardry, murder and false imprisonment. There were clandestine meetings, hidden treasures, forfeiture of lands, and piracy against the Spanish. There was a murderous monk who became personal servant to the King; a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen, who was also the King's mistress; a designer of Warships and co-founder of the Royal Society. We have Lords of the Manor, Elizabethan Actors who knew Shakespeare and even a martyred Saint. These extraordinary tales of our ancestors' lives make this book compelling reading.

An account of the history, architecture and monuments of the chapel, the final, exquisite flowering of the gothic style.

The men and women that followed the 6th-century customs of Benedict of Nursia (c.480-c.547) formed the most enduring, influential, numerous and widespread religious order of the Latin Middle Ages. This text follows the Benedictine Order over 11 centuries, from their early diaspora to the challenge of continental reformation.

This is the remarkable story of Westminster, a royal capital that became the birthplace of parliamentary government and the centre of a world power. It is about the place, its people and their close relationship. They have made and shaped one another. The ancient heart of Westminster is only the size of a village, yet it boasts world famous buildings: the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Number 10 Downing Street. As befits a village, Westminster is rich in folklore and gossip, yet its story is central to Britain's history and anywhere that has parliamentary government. This biography of Westminster traces the extraordinary transformation of a secluded island on the banks of the Thames into a spiritual centre, a royal ceremonial stage and a political capital. It brings to life the monarchs and prime ministers for whom Westminster has been home, the architects and writers whom it inspired, and the protestors and rebels whom it provoked. It is a tale of inspiration, intrigue, power, protest and terror.

The essays in this volume form a new cultural history focused round, but not confined to, the presence and interactions of francophone speakers, writers, readers, texts and documents in England from the 11th to the later 15th century.