Founded in 1132, Fountains Abbey became the wealthiest English Cistercian monastery - yet relatively little analysis has been made of its surviving records to investigate how its wealth was controlled and sustained. This book deals with this secular aspect of the religious community at Fountains, investigating in particular the way in which prosaic business records were compiled and redacted. It traces the transmission of data from original charters through successive versions of cartularies, and in the process establishes the existence of a previously unknown manuscript. It also reveals how abbots in the fifteenth century interacted with and adapted the records in their care. In this process, two quite different aspects of monastic life are uncovered. First, it sheds new light on the history of Fountains Abbey through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, amongst other things how it responded to the turmoil of the Black Death, and discloses for the first time the allegiance of one abbot to the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses. Second, it reveals the worldly skills shown by the community of Fountains that were successfully applied to exploit the monastery's large landholdings across Yorkshire, mainly through wool and agricultural production, but also through fisheries, tanning, mining, and metalworking. The economic success of these activities enabled the abbey to become a prosperous institution which rivalled the wealth of the aristocracy. This book addresses recordkeeping and archival memory at one, Cistercian, monastery - albeit a well-endowed and prosperous one - in the north of England. However, its treatment of archival sources could be extended to other houses in different geographical locations and different orders, to enable comparisons between monasteries dealing with economic change and social and political upheaval in the later Middle Ages.

The Cistercian abbeys of northern England provide some of the finest monastic remains in all of Europe, and much has been written on their twelfth- and thirteenth-century architecture. The present study is the first in-depth analysis of the art and architecture of these northern houses and nunneries in the late Middle Ages, and questions many long-held opinions about the Order's perceived decline during the period c.1300-1540. Extensive building works were conducted between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries at well-known abbeys such as Byland, Fountains, Kirkstall, and Rievaulx, and also at lesser-known houses including Calder and Holm Cultram, and at many convents of Cistercian nuns. This study examines the motives of Cistercian patrons and the extent to which the Order continued to enjoy the benefaction of lay society. Featuring over a hundred illustrations and eight colour plates, this book demonstrates that the Cistercians remained at the forefront of late medieval artistic developments, and also shows how the Order expressed its identity in its visual and material cultures until the end of the Middle Ages.

In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the history of the numerous houses of monks, canons and nuns which existed in the medieval British Isles, considering them in their wider socio-cultural-economic context; historians are now questioning some of the older assumptions about monastic life in the later Middle Ages, and setting new approaches and new agenda. The present volume reflects these new trends. Its fifteen chapters assess diverse aspects of monastic history, focusing on the wide range of contacts which existed between religious communities and the laity in the later medieval British Isles, covering a range of different religious orders and houses. This period has often been considered to represent a general decline of the regular life; but on the contrary, the essays here demonstrate that there remained a rich monastic culture which, although different from that of earlier centuries, remained vibrant. CONTRIBUTORS: KAREN STOBER, JULIE KERR, EMILIA JAMROZIAK, MARTIN HEALE, COLMAN O CLABAIGH, ANDREW ABRAM, MICHAEL HICKS, JANET BURTON, KIMM PERKINS-CURRAN, JAMES CLARK, GLYN COPPACK, JENS ROHRKASTEN, SHEILA SWEETINBURGH, NICHOLAS ORME, CLAIRE CROSS

"A series which is a model of its kind" Edmund King Considers the clerical friends of Ermengarde of Brittany, showing how these men enabled Ermengarde to fulfil both her duty and her desire to live an intensely pious life. Explores the ways in which grief was represented in the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal. Two thirteenth-century Evesham forgeries demonstrate that early thirteenth-century people, even so-called experts at the papal chancery, seem to have been ignorant of the physical form taken by early papal bulls. Explores the world of the scribes who composed Exon Domesday, demonstrating their working methods as well as giving us further insights into the composition of Great Domesday, completed by 1088. Looks at the involvement of Bernard, abbot of Le Mont Saint-Michel, 1131-49, in the development of the abbey in peril of the sea. Examines how the introduction of musical notation into Normandy around the millennium made it possible for people to understand melodies without aid from a master. Offers insights into the career of Ranulf Flambard, the most "infamous tax collector" of the late eleventh century in England. Investigates the annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the years 1062 to 1066, showing that they were written largely in retrospect after the events of 1066 had played out. Looks at the case for the evidence relating to the foundation of Kirkstead Abbey, Lincolnshire. Finally, presents evidence for spying and espionage in the Anglo-Norman World.

Founded in 1131 by the castellan of Cambrai, Vaucelles Abbey thrived in a borderland region, where German emperors, French kings, Flemish counts, bishops of Cambrai, and the Cistercian Order all had active interests. To understand how Vaucelles flourished, we must look at the relationships that the house created and fostered with various international, regional, and local individuals and institutions. Vaucelles used these connections to protect the vast patrimony that the monks created in the two centuries after its foundation. This study asserts that three principal factors influenced the foundation and development of Vaucelles. First, the abbey was fortunate in its local support, beginning with the castellan family and expanding to include numerous regional families and the bishops of Cambrai. Second, the abbey was established in a political borderland, a geo-political situation that Vaucelles survived and actually turned into a positive feature of its development. And finally, Vaucelles was a Cistercian monastery, a direct daughter house of Clairvaux. Vaucelles' Cistercian observance fostered relationships that were particularly significant to the abbey's development from the late twelfth century onward. These factors offer exceptional tools for demonstrating many features of Vaucelles' political, social, and economic life during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The Cistercians (White Monks) were the most successful monastic experiment to emerge from the tumultuous intellectual and religious fervour of the 11th and 12th centuries. This book seeks to explore the phenomenon that was the Cistercian Order.

This book provides an account of the archaeology of medieval monastic houses throughout Great Britain and Ireland. The application of a wide range of archaeological techniques, allied to historical investigation, has awakened interest in monasteries. Important new sources of information have transformed knowledge of monastic life. As well as discussing many of the advances made by research over the last two decades, innovative methods of archaeological investigation are described, and examples of good practice in the preservation of sites and their interpretation to visitors are provided. Suggestions for further research, examples of outstanding monastic sites to visit, a glossary of terms, a comprehensive bibliography and an index are also included.