England under Norman Rule
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Pre
1066 | View the events leading up to the Norman Conquest | | 1066 | By the end of 1066 the English nobility and Bishops had formally submitted to King William at Berkhamstead. King William I of England was crowned in Westminster Abbey. He had conquered a rich and well organised country with the minimum of bloodshed, although it must be said that he had several lucky breaks along the way.
William was not known as the Conqueror until much later. At the time he was known as William the Bastard. His father was Robert, Duke of Normandy, but his mother was the daughter of a prosperous, but socially inferior, Falaise tanner. After bearing Duke Robert two children, she was married off and produced two more sons by her new husband, one of whom was Odo, Bishop of Bayeux.
When William was born, in 1027, Church teachings were making bastardy a handicap, but Duke Robert had no legitimate sons and so in 1034 he had to recognise William as his heir. William became Duke at the age of nine in 1035 and experienced twenty years of bloodshed and intrigue before he emerged as undisputed ruler of Normandy.
The Abbot Baldwin at St Edmund's Bury was a French monk and a noted physician. He was royal physician to Edward the Confessor and was to perform the same function for William. Not only did William the Conqueror leave him in his post, together with all existing rights and privileges of the Abbey, but there was no Norman Castle built to dominate the town, and no disruption of the sort suffered elsewhere in Saxon England. Bury's population was probably about 1,500 with possibly 20 monks in residence. According to the Domesday Book, Bury was valued at £10 in 1066 with at least 312 householders worthy enough to be recorded.
The Normans brought their forms of government which we would call feudalism. The abbot became a tenant in chief of the king and a baron of the realm. Under this system he would be obliged to supply the king with 40 knights in time of war, and to meet other feudal duties to the King.
It does, however, seem likely that whatever privileges and rights were still enjoyed before 1066 by the family of Bederic in and around Bury, these would have been lost by right of the conquest. The new King took over all such rights and it appears that he would have given them to the church of St Edmund or to the abbot. In other places he would have given such rights to one of his Norman Lords who had helped with the invasion. However it is not at all clear whether Bederic's kin still had many local rights following the grants made to the church by Cnut and the pre - conquest kings.
The convent of monks retained their rights over the town of Bury, outside of the abbot's barony, and the abbot's connection with the town itself was therefore nominal. The Sacrist represented the convent and was therefore, in practice, the lord of the borough. The Cellarer was the lord of the manor of Bury, and exercised the convent's rights over the town fields and agriculture, rights to the market, and control of the digging of chalk and white clay. His job was to provide provisions for the abbey. These rights often came under dispute over the years because of their complex nature, and often obscure origins.
Most of the town now belonged in one way or another to the abbey, but the largest exception to this was the Manor of Maydewater, in the area known today as Maynewater Lane. This was made part of the Honour of Clare, and a smaller holding belonged to the Manor of Lidgate.
The continuity around Bury contrasts with the more widespread disruption of land ownership around Haverhill and Clare. After the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror granted lands in Haverhill to the Bishop of Bayeux, from Normandy, to Richard son of Gilbert (also later to become known as Richard of Clare), to the "Lands of St Edmund" and to Tihel of Helean (Helion), who was also granted Helions Bumpstead.
There was already a church in Haverhill owning five acres of land. This must be the Burton End church, dedicated to St Mary.
The population of Haverhill, however, was small and out of the 54 male inhabitants only 19 were free men. There were 25 smallholders and "always ten slaves", and 27 pigs were recorded.
Thetford was a town of first rank at this time, with a population of 4000 to 5000. It had a monastery and a mint for which it paid the king £40. It had twelve churches, but it did not prosper after the conquest, as would decline from the 943 burgesses it had in 1066 to 720 by 1086.
Norwich was by 1066 one of the largest and most important towns of Saxon England. It had 1320 burgesses, which is thought to indicate a population of about 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. It was, like Thetford, a busy inland port, but much larger, with extensive river wharves and storehouses. | | 1067 | Following the conquest in 1066 there was some rearguard opposition. There were risings on the Welsh border and in Kent. William had to return to England to subdue a more serious uprising in the West Country.
It is assumed that the king started to build a great keep or castle at Norwich. Work was said to have begun by destroying 100 houses in that thriving saxon town to make room for it. Work probably went on for about four years until this first wooden castle was completed. It seems that the stone keep was not built until the 1120s by Henry I. |
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| 1068 | Part of the first attempts to subdue the countryside took place at Cambridge, when the king destroyed 27 houses to erect a castle on the north bank of the river there. The motte or castle mound remains today next to the Shire Hall.
At Castle Camps, Aubrey de Vere built a large moated earthwork to enclose his headquarters. | | 1069 | A Danish force invaded East Anglia but were defeated near Ipswich. Despite the remaining Roman defences at Colchester, the Danes captured and burnt the town. | | 1070 | In 1070 and 1071 there were rebellions in the Midlands but the most dangerous one was in Northumberland. William marched north in the winter and devastated thousands of square miles. By the time of Domesday in 1086 the north still remained a depopulated wasteland.
The Anglo - Saxon Bishop of East Anglia had been Althelmaer since 1052, with his simple wooden cathedral and headquarters in the obscure and remote village of Elmham. It had been there for centuries. The post conquest Norman Archbishop Lanfranc, sacked him, and replaced him by Herfast, or Erfast, a Norman royal favourite. Norman religious ideas were to decry simple worship, and they demanded great stone churches in the heart of the largest towns. This meant choosing between Thetford, Norwich, Ipswich and Bedericsworth, or St Edmund's town, as it was now thought of. Erfast's job was to modernise the local church, and this meant looking for a new HQ. Thetford was the safe bet, but Erfast had his eyes on the established and wealthy abbey at Bury. | | 1071 | The revolt of Hereward the Wake in 1071 was a minor affair by contrast to the northern revolts, but has attracted more attention from some writers. William Malet died on this campaign helping King William in his blockade of the Isle of Ely, where Hereward had set up his stronghold.
Malet had built a Castle at Eye by this time, complete with a town layout and a new Eye market, ruining Hoxne market in the process by the competition. He was a trusted henchman of King William and owned one of the biggest estates in Suffolk taken over from the Saxon, Edric of Laxfield. It was called the Honour of Eye and contained over 200 manors in Suffolk as well as a number in other counties. After the death of William it passed to his son, Robert Malet.
By 1071, Erfast had been consecrated as Bishop of Elmham. The diocese was due to move its headquarters to Thetford, but Erfast wanted to move in on Bury. Baldwin went to Rome to defend his abbey against this takeover. The Pope gave the abbey the privileges it sought, as well as a porphyry altar but the dispute continued. Erfast only withdrew his demand after his eye became septic and Baldwin would only help him in return for withdrawal of his claim to Bury. The diocese would remain at Thetford until around 1098 when it moved to Norwich.
In Thetford it is believed that Erfast set up his cathedral on the site where Thetford Grammar School stands. | | 1072 | By 1072 William was in full control of all England. Of the 10,000 men who crossed the Channel with him, some 2,000 were rewarde with grants of land. Within a short time 10 of King William's relatives owned 30 per cent of English land. Prominent among them in Norfolk were the Bigod and Warenne families. The Bigods also had great estates in Suffolk. | | 1073 | Hildebrand became Pope Gregory VII and he tried to cleanse the church of corruption but also intended to spread papal authority throughout Europe. In effect, he wanted a united Europe, but the secular kings had no wish to be stripped of their power. | | 1076 | The first Norman Earl of East Anglia was Ralph Wader, or Guader, also called Ralph the Gael, a Breton. He held Norwich castle for the crown. His wife, Emma, seems to have held Norwich castle for him against King William when, not content with his position, he led East Anglia into rebellion, but was subsequently defeated and outlawed. His revolt was stopped in Norfolk by William de Warrene. It seems that Norwich castle held out for three months until Lady Emma surrendered. She was given terms which allowed her and her garrison to flee abroad. The king installed his own force of over 300 men. Earl Ralph's lands were given to Count Alan of Brittany.
One man prominent in defeating Earl Ralph's rebellion was Richard Fitzgilbert, son of Count Gilbert de Brionne. He ended up with 170 English lordships, 95 in Suffolk. He made Clare his headquarters and his lands became known as the Honour of Clare. He would have been called Richard Fitzgilbert at first and possibly de Clare later. Certainly the family was using the name de Clare by 1120. Another Norman, Roger Bigod, got 117 manors in Suffolk,and was made Earl after Ralph Wader. Robert Malet, son of William Malet ended up with 221 holdings in Suffolk based in Eye, where his father had quickly built a castle, the only one to be specifically mentioned in the Domesday Book for Suffolk. | | 1080 | It is believed that from about 1075 to 1080, King William had a castle built at Colchester over the site of the old Roman temple to Claudius.
By this time the castle at Norwich was in the custodianship of Roger Bigod. | | 1081 | The King again had to stop Bishop Erfast from trying to move in on the abbey at Bury. William the Conqueror confirmed the freedom of the abbey of St Edmund from episcopal control. This ended the attempts by Bishop Erfast to turn Bury into the cathedral of his see.
This event probably helped to kick-start work on a great new Abbey church at Bury, supported by the Conqueror. Norman sensibilities demanded stone buildings of a size and style unknown to Saxon England before 1066. The separate chapels and churches and haphazard buildings had got to be sorted out and replaced to glorify the new order.
So, from about this time, Abbot Baldwin and the Sacrist Thurston probably began to organise the first great re-building of St Edmund's abbey church. The old saxon town had probably been centred inside what today we would think of as the Abbey precincts, but at the time was probably thoght of as a normal mix of church and commerce and residential. The Normans liked tidy streets in an orderly grid pattern, so new land was laid out in a grid and Baldwin's new streets probably included families pushed out of the abbey precincts by its expansion. It was also a process of seperating the religious establishment more clearly from the townspeople.
It is not clear whether the Saxon Road directly linking Northgate Street to Southgate Street was fully deflected to the present configuration around the abbey precincts at this time, or not until Anselm's day. That part of Northgate Street from Pump Lane to Angel seems to have been called High Street in early days, which might echo the idea of it being the old main street running straight on through today's Abbey Gardens. Angel Hill itself was called The Mustowe until the seventeenth century, meaning a meeting place, and could have been Anselm's market place. The new abbey boundary was probably moated by Baldwin to give a more formal separation of abbey and town. | | 1084 | An exceptionally heavy geld was collected to help the King pay for a large army of foreign mercenaries to defend the realm against the Danes. | | 1085 | The great army raised against threat of a Danish invasion was billeted on English landholders, "each according to his land". Tax gathering and billeting proved that valuations were out of date and there were disputes over land claims and exemptions. Action was needed to sort out these problems. While holding court at Gloucester the King decided to carry out a survey of the wealth of his new Kingdom. Officers were sent to all parts of the country to compile an inquest or survey of property, later known as the Domesday Book, which is still to be seen in the Public Records Office in London. | | 1086 | The survey upon which the Domesday Book was based took place in 1086 and remains a valuable source of information about this period.
By 1086 the Abbey of St Edmund's owned estates, chiefly in Suffolk, but stretching through several counties. Under Norman rule these properties of the Abbey were referred to as the Barony of St Edmund whereas the Liberty was the area of jurisdiction covering West Suffolk. Like all property owners, William the Conqueror required the Abbot to provide a certain number of knights for the Kings Army. This baronial obligation brought the Abbot into the royal circle, to be consulted on matters of state. If an Abbot died the Barony passed into Royal custody until a successor was elected. The feudal quota due from St Edmund's Barony was forty knights. Like other Barons, the Abbot installed tenants on the estate and in return for their property rights (their fees) they were obliged to perform this knight's-service, usually of forty days duty at their own expense. This could be on active service or later by guard duty at Norwich Castle. Although the Abbot owed the King 40 knights, he had let 50 fees by the time of Samson, hoping to keep the 10 for himself as Abbot. This military service could be avoided by payment of scutage money.
Many of the best manors were not let as Knights' fees but directly run by the Abbot and were called demesne manors.
At St Edmund's the Domesday book recorded 500 dwellings, and many of the inhabitants depended on the monastery for a living. Some 75 bakers, ale brewers, tailors, washerwomen, shoe and robe makers, cooks, porter and purveyors "daily wait upon the Saint, the Abbot, and the Brethren." The Domesday Book recorded 30 priests, deacons and clergymen in Bury together with 28 nuns and poor people who "daily utter prayers for the King and all Christian people". Bury's population might have grown to 2,250 by 1086. The town was now valued at £20, or twice its value in 1066.
Baldwin was abbot from 1065 to 1097 and has been credited with building 342 houses by 1086 on land which used to be under the plough. This building was probably arranged in five new streets to the west of the Abbey, running north to south in a grid plan, still clearly visible today. These houses generated rents and the market generated tolls and fees for the Abbey. The convent held 400 acres of arable land within the Banleuca, or the town boundary which lasted up to the 1930's. Nothing could be built in the Banleuca without the permission of the Abbot and the Convent. The town was recorded at 2.5 miles long and the same length wide.
However, the town ditch enclosed a tighter, urban area with its South, North, East, West and Risby gates. The people living inside the ditch enjoyed more privileges than the suburban dwellers in the Banleuca outside. The town ditch was probably not replaced by a wall until about 1136.
The Sacrist of the Abbey controlled the borough court and appointed the town reeves or bailiffs, administering justice and running a gaol right up to 1539.
The main Borough Court at this time was the portman-moot, which administered the borough's old customs. The burgesses were exempt from going to either the Shire Court or to the Hundred Court. The portman-moot pre dated the local monastery's rise to power, and as years passed, its influence was to wane as the abbot's power grew.
The first mention of Haverhill proper occurs in 1086, when the Normans carried out their famous Domesday survey. They recorded that a market was operating and as only eleven such markets are recorded for Suffolk, it would appear that Haverhill was of considerable importance. The local Norman lord of the manor was Tihell de Helion, although to call him a Norman may not be strictly true, as, in fact, he came from Brittany and took his name from his native village. The Domesday Book recorded that he owned one third of the market, the remainder being given to the Gilberts of Clare. The Saxon Clarenbold was dispossessed in 1066. The market was valued at 13s 4d and was situated at Burton End.
At Clare, the "comes famoses" (or renowned magnate) Aelfric had been an important Saxon thegn, owning estates in Suffolk and Essex. These were handed over intact to Gilbert de Brionne in 1066. His son, Richard, would build his own castle there to demonstrate to the Saxons that all their old duties and dues would now be payable to him as the new Lord. By about 1120 the family were using the name de Clare.
It is interesting that the only castle in Suffolk actually mentioned in the Domesday Book was at Eye.
At Thetford the survey showed that it was divided between the king and Roger Bigod, and they may both have begun to build castles there.
In England as a whole, the Domesday Book showed that by 1086 20 per cent of the land was owned by the King, 25 per cent by the Church, 50 per cent by Norman Barons, and only 5 per cent by Anglo-Saxons. Suffolk itself had 2,400 land holdings, apparently one of the wealthiest and most densely settled counties of Late Saxon and Early Norman England, averaging 10 to 12 households per square mile.
In 20 years the locals had been dispossessed, and with French now the official language, the thriving Anglo-Saxon culture of pre-1066 suffered badly.
The scholarly Norman Lanfranc had been made Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church hierarchy had been Normanised thoroughly with his help.
Anglo Saxon Earls were replaced by Norman Barons, and a new hierarchy was set up below the King with land tenure based on military service. It was a society based upon the pursuit of war.
Some estimated population figures for 1086 are as follows: - London: 15,000
- York: 8500
- Winchester: 8000
- Norwich: 6500
- Lincoln: 6000
- Thetford: 5000
- Dunwich: 3000
- Ipswich: 2500
- Cambridge: 2250
- Bury St Edmunds:1500
| | 1087 | King William I died in Normandy after a year of fighting rebellions there, including his eldest son Robert Curthose. He was succeeded by Robert's brother William, known as William Rufus, or King William II, who ruled until 1100. | | 1088 | The King's brother Robert, supported by many Barons, was in rebellion. They seized land, and at Norwich the locals rose up to attack Roger Bigod in the great keep. They succeeded in expelling him.
Following such seizures the Domesday survey became needed to sort out those possessions that the King wanted back. William II therefore either encouraged completion of the great book or in the view of one historian, actually caused the survey to be written up into the Domesday Book. | | 1090 | By 1090 work had begun on the great new church for the abbey of St Edmund. Most of the stone was to come by river boat from Barnack quarries near Peterborough. According to John Lydgate writing in 1430 some stone came from Caen in Normandy by sea and landed on the strand at Rattlesden.
Baldwin built St Denis's church for use by the town on the site of the chancel of the present cathedral. This was to compensate them for losing the right to worship in the abbey church. | | 1094 | The Chancel of the great new Abbey church was completed. King William Rufus was asked permission to consecrate it to St Edmund.
The castle of Richard Fitzgilbert had been built in Clare by this time. From here he ran the great estate known as the Honour of Clare.
Also built by a similar date was Hugh de Montfort's castle at Haughley. Like Clare, de Montfort's lands were directly taken over from the Saxon lord, Guthmund, and, just as at Clare, de Montfort built his castle on the site of the Saxon lord's great hall.
Existing tenancies and rents remained in place. Only the landlord was replaced, and the new order was emphasised by the new stone built castle complex. However, usually the new lord then handed over the existing tenancies to his own supporters.
Therefore, the Norman castle was not necessarily built in the most advantageous defensive position. It was built to demonstrate a continuity of rule, but under new lordship and so it was always more advantageous to supplant or replace the existing power centres by new structures.
Norman lifestyles also demanded dovecotes, rabbit warrens, fishponds, religious houses, chases and deer parks to be established around the castle. The dove, rabbit and fallow deer were reintroduced by the Normans, having been absent since Roman times. Rabbits at this time seem to have been less well adapted to the British climate than they are today, as they needed to be cossetted in specially built warrens.
The Normans also went in for town planning and Clare and Bungay were both given the grid iron layout most famously surviving today at Bury St Edmunds.
A summary of the best known castles of Norman Suffolk known to have been started by this time included the following:
| Clare | Liberty of St Edmund | de Clare family | | Eye | Geldable Suffolk | Malet family | | Haughley | Geldable Suffolk | de Montfort family | | Bungay | Geldable Suffolk | Bigod family | | Framlingham | Liberty of St Etheldreda | Bigod family | | Walton | Liberty of St Etheldreda | Bigod family |
At this date strongholds like Framlingham were only earthworks with wooden defences. The well known curtain walls which remain today at Framlingham date from after 1189.
By the end of the Norman period it is believed that about 28 castles had been built in Suffolk, ranging from the best known to small mounds with possibly only ever wooden defences. | | 1095 | At last the Bishop of Winchester arrived in Bury with the King's chaplain and inspected the saints body, verified its condition and managed its move to the new shrine. The Bishop of Winchester then consecrated the large new abbey church of St Edmund. Herman, a monk of Bury, compared the presbytery of the new church to the Temple of Solomon. It was bigger than Durham Cathedral, which is 411 feet long, whereas Bury was 480 feet.
The remains of St Edmund were moved (the correct church term is 'translated') into the new stone church behind the high altar. Under Abbot Baldwin the ancient timber church had been levelled and foundations laid, walls built and the presbytery completed in full so the saint could be housed in more suitable surroundings. This was part of a nationwide flush of Norman stone church building, after sweeping away the old fashioned Saxon churches. Phase one of the rebuild was complete and work now seems to have stopped for seven years.
A monk called Herman of Bury wrote a book called "The Miracles of St Edmund." In it he stated that the site of the first burial of St Edmund was at a place called Sutton close to the site of his martyrdom. It is believed that he wrote an earlier draft in 1071, but presumably he was well aware that Abbo of Fleury, writing in 985, had located Edmund's death at Haegelisdun Wood. If so, this leads us to conclude that Sutton and Haegelisdun Wood must have been two places located close together.
Apart from his history, Herman seems to have been important to the abbey as the start of its great literary tradition. Following him was a stream of material in French, Latin and English, both prose and verse, and this work would continue to the end of the Middle Ages. | | 1097 | Abbot Baldwin died in 1097. He had come over from France to the court of King Edward the Confessor, and became a man of great international experience and influence. He had the ear of kings, and was a great organiser and administrator. Once made Abbot of Bury in 1065, he soon doubled the size of the town into a flourishing trading centre. It was clear to him how this growth would generate income for the monastery, and he was able to attract merchants, both French and English, to come to the town. All this was carried out under the heel of a conqueror, and his influence with the Conqueror helped to give the town the secure conditions needed for safe trade. This contrasts with the decline of towns like Thetford and Ipswich after the Conquest.
By 1065 the convent was in possession of all of the profits of the town of Bury. It is likely that by 1097 the convent had assigned the work of collecting it all to the Sacrist. He was now potentially the lord of the Borough, and could pursue the monks' interests as if they were his own.
There is one account, related by Mrs Statham, which suggests that Abbot Baldwin established the Dussegild from local secular religious men who otherwise had their role usurped to some extent by the growing power of the monastery. They were given the task of training choristers, and given the right to control the Song School, set up for this purpose. Initially this was said to be based in the church of St Denis, which existed until the establishment of the first Church of St James by Abbot Anselm. | | 1098 | Following Abbot Baldwin's death, King Henry I tried to ignore the Benedictine rule that monks elect their own abbot, and appointed his own nominee called Robert as fourth abbot. He was unqualified for this role and his successor Robert II was acting abbot until Robert left, or was deposed in 1102.
In 1098 the Bishopric at Thetford was moved to Norwich by Bishop Herbert de Losinga, apparently giving up on the idea of taking over Bury St Edmunds. However, King William had given the church some houses in Norwich, so that the bishopric could have a prestigious new site, and promised the Bishop the right to mint coins to provide another source of income. A huge cathedral thus began to rise in Norwich from 1094 to 1098. It was monastic and had room for 60 monks, and the Bishop got a fortified palace. William was genuinely pious, and favoured the church, but he may also have become fed up with the constant pressure put on him by the disputes between the Bishop and the Abbot of St Edmund's. The price of packing the Bishop off to Norwich was probably well worth it in his eyes. | | 1099 | The First Crusade to the Holy Land was begun. | | 1100 | Henry I became King and would rule for 35 years until 1135.
Henry I now returned the whole of the Honour of Eye to Robert Malet who lost some of his estates under William II. Robert Malet seems to have been a troublesome subject, as he would again be dispossessed by Henry I in 1110. | | 1101 | By this time, the Bishop of East Anglia, now Herbert de Losinga, was increasingly aware that the Abbot of St Edmunds had more income, power and prestige than he did. Like Bishop Herfast before him in 1071 to 1081, he therefore tried to set up his headquarters at Hoxne on the northern boundary of the Liberty of St Edmund, justifying this by claiming it to be the site of St Edmund's martyrdom. The Abbot of St Edmunds objected to this and Bishop Herbert de Losinga was forced to set up his Priory at Norwich instead, but in its foundation charter it was still stated that St Edmund died at Hoxne. The church at Hoxne previously dedicated to St Ethelbert was re-dedicated to St Edmund and Herbert de Losinga retained his Hoxne manor house.
Abbot Baldwin successfully fought him off, and in the course of the dispute, he obtained exemption from episcopal jurisdiction, not just for the abbey, but also for the town of Bury itself. This resulted in the abbey sacrist being responsible for appointing the parochial chaplains and taking any tithes due to the churches of St James and St Mary. In practice the sacrist was the parson of both parishes, carrying out duties normally undertaken by an archdeacon of the diocese. | | 1102 | Robert II was acting abbot and built the Cloister, Chapter House, Refectory, Dormitory and his Camera. It is believed that the Sacrist in charge of the building work by this time was called Godfrey.
Abbot Robert was elected and ruled the Abbey until 1107. He was concerned that during the period after an abbot's death, all the income from his barony would go to the crown. This could leave the convent of monks penniless unless they had their own income clearly defined. So a division was made between manors assigned to the Abbot and those belonging to the convent ie the body of monks. They were separately administered and Convent property was not to form part of the Barony. Lobel wrote that she assumed this convent property was administered in practice by the sacrist. This was also important because there were many disputes over who was responsible for meeting various financial obligations like paying for the feeding of guests, and from which income this was to be found.
Under Henry I, Bury St Edmunds became a borough by prescription when the king issued its first charter, according to W B Faraday in his book, "The English and Welsh Boroughs", published in c. 1952. | | 1103 | At Thetford Roger Bigod founded a Cluniac Priory, which would grow to great magnificence. At around this time he may also have taken over the king's castle there with its great motte, or mound. | | 1105 | The mint at Bury, first granted by Edward the Confessor, had ceased to produce coin some time after the conquest. By 1105 it was back in production with all profits going to the Abbot. | | 1107 | Robert II was finally consecrated as the fifth Abbot at St Edmund's, but he died two months later.
At Haughley, Robert de Montfort was banished by Henry I. | | 1110 | Robert Malet lost the great estates of the Honour of Eye when it was forfeited to the crown for plotting against the King. | | 1113 | In 1113 or 1114 Henry I granted the Honour of Eye to his nephew, Count Stephen de Blois. It is possible that he was even allowed to mint coins for a short period because in the year 2000 a new variation of a Henry I type penny was found, possibly reading 'ANDERAM (O)N EI'.
Eye or EIE in Suffolk was not previously thought to have issued coins as early as this, and it is only since 1980 that it has been suggested that King Stephen might later have a mint at Eye. Stephen held the Honour of Eye until he became King in 1135. | | 1114 | By 1114 King Henry I formally confirmed the division of assets between Abbot and Convent at Bury, and such arrangements became the norm in all monasteries.
The sixth abbot to be appointed at Bury was called Albold. | | 1115 | Around 1115 a Priory cell of Benedictine monks was established at Sudbury. Its founder was Wulfric, Master of the Mint to Henry I and the Church seems to have been given to Westminster, where Wulfric was a monk. It was dedicated to St Bartholomew and was probably only a small grange by the church which itself was disused by 1830. The cell was dissolved in 1538. The Friary at Sudbury was probably later than this date. See 1248. | | 1119 | Abbot Albold died at St Edmunds Abbey in Bury. | | 1120 | Anselm became the seventh Abbot of St Edmunds and was in post until 1148. He was an Italian monk, from St Saba, outside Rome, and was to be one of the great Abbots, responsible for some buildings that still stand today. Anselm's Italian sensibilities would have included a love of great plazas, and although Abbot Baldwin has been credited as the town planner of Bury, it is equally likely that Anselm had a hand in the Angel Hill and Cornhill areas we see today.
Anselm was a nephew of St Anselm of Canterbury and was a friend of the King. He was often at Henry I's court. | | 1121 | It is possible that Godfrey was succeeded by another Sacrist at this time called Ralph. Godfrey had by now overseen the building of the infirmary, the crypt (dedicated 1114), the transepts, the central tower to roof level and two bays of the nave.
Anselm and Ralph now had to plan for the completion of the great church. They wanted a magnificent approach to the planned West Front and decided upon a Great Gateway (The Norman Tower) opening upon a courtyard in front of it.
They also wanted a square in front of the gateway and it is likely that some demolition and re-development of properties was necessary at the Southern end of Angel Hill and around today's Chequers Square. The boundaries of the Abbey were probably extended again towards the town to accommodate the new building, and the roadway shifted accordingly. This probably all took the next 30 years to carry out.
In the town of Bury, the administration necessary had grown over the years and by this time it was normal for there to be two joint Reeves controlling the borough. They collected the rents and market tolls and enforced the law on behalf of the sacrist. The job became called Bailiff by the next century. | | 1124 | The outer bailey of Clare castle had held a priory up to this time. In 1124 it was removed to Stoke by Clare. | | 1125 | St James Church was dedicated. The old parish churches of St Denis and St Mary had been demolished to make way for the great abbey church. The new St James's was begun by Anselm as one of the replacements. The new St Mary's would be started about ten years later. | | 1132 | Henry I visited the Abbey. In the previous decade he had replaced the old Norwich castle with a fine stone keep. | | 1135 | King Henry granted the Abbot the right to hold Bury Fair and it may have always been held on the Mustowe, now called Angel Hill.
King Stephen came to the throne. Count Stephen de Blois was the nephew of Henry I and had held the Honour of Eye since 1113 or 1114. Henry I had only one legitimate child, his daughter Matilda who was married in 1128 to Geoffrey Plantagenet, heir to the Countdom of Anjou. As Henry I lay dying, his nominated successor, Matilda was in Anjou, while Stephen was in Boulogne. Stephen hurried to London and grasped the throne by a mixture of political skill and trickery. King Stephen would have about two years of peace before Matilda moved against him. | | 1136 | The threat of civil war in the reign of King Stephen lasted until 1153 and caused a spate of new castles and fortifications to be built or older ones strengthened. At Norwich, Hugh Bigod strengthened the castle, and refused to hand it over to the crown as he had heard a rumour that King Stephen had died. Stephen had to go himself to Norwich to take possession of it. |
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Around this time, according to the Gesta Sacristarum, Harvey the Sacrist also built the town walls of Bury to replace the ditch from the West Gate to the North Gate. In 1993, masonry was excavated on the Northgate Street roundabout which seemed to be part of this North Gate. Excavations just south-west of the roundabout by Tayfen Road failed to find the town wall where it would have been expected to have run. We might conclude therefore that Anselm enlarged Baldwin's grid of streets and surrounded the urban area by a wall, except where there were marshes, to the north of Tayfen. The wall was more commercial than military as it had five gates where tolls were collected. Four of the gatekeepers were town appointees rather than the abbot's but the Abbey received all the income. The Abbey kept control of the Eastgate as it also regulated river traffic under the Abbot's Bridge.
The money for the walls came from the town rents paid to the sacrist, and also from a levy on the free tenants of the Liberty of the Eight and a Half Hundreds of West Suffolk.
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Ezechial in the Bury Bible
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Harvey the Sacrist at this time was also responsible for commissioning the Bury Bible, a masterpiece of Romanesque illumination. The history of the Bury Sacrists, Gesta Sacristarum, states:
"This Hervey, brother of Prior Talbot, met all the expenses for his brother the Prior to have a great Bible written, and he had it incomparably illuminated by Master Hugo. Because he could not find calf skins that suited him in our region, he procured parchment in Scotia." This probably refers to Scotland, although some scholars have suggested that it refers to Ireland. The work probably took about ten years. Hugo or Hugh was probably a professional artist-craftsman, who moved to wherever the work took him.
Anselm possibly also moved the Great Market from St Mary's Square to a large space inside the town wall at the top of Abbeygate Street. It is also possible that it had previously been held on Angel Hill before being moved to today's position. Burgesses paid no gate toll, so could sell at cheaper prices in the market than could outsiders. | | 1138 | While Anselm was away on yet another of his foreign trips, Ording was elected Abbot but expelled upon the return of Anselm. Ording had been a monk, cellarer and prior at Bury. | | 1139 | The Empress Matilda finally resolved to land in England at Arundel, and Stephen unwisely allowed her to join her ally Robert of Gloucester at Bristol. In practice there were now two royal courts in England, a sure recipe for civil war.
Walton Castle near Felixstowe was captured by King Stephen from Hugh Bigod. It was dismantled in 1175, but its site now lies under the sea. | | 1140 | By 1140 the powerful Bigod family had definitely built their castle at Bungay, but it is likely that it was founded by Roger Bigod before 1100. It is recorded that in 1140 it was captured from Hugh Bigod by King Stephen. As Earl of Norfolk, Bigod later recovered this castle. The Bigod castle at Framlingham would also be built by 1157, although its origins were at least 50 years earlier.
Also around this time there were castles at Milden and Offton and their owners were thought to be antagonistic to the Abbey of St Edmund. The owner of Offton was one William de Ambli. The Abbot therefore granted Groton and Semer to Adam de Cokefeld, or Cockfield, because he had a castle at Lindsey and would defend these vills belonging to the abbey. This story was reported by William of Diss in about 1200.
The Honour of Clare had an earthen castle at Denham. The Steward of the Abbey (Maurice de Windsor) had a ditched mound fortification at Lidgate. | | 1141 | King Stephen and the armies of Empress Matilda fought a battle at Lincoln and Stephen was imprisoned in Bristol. Although the Empress Matilda took London and expected to be crowned, Stephen's wife, confusingly called Matilda of Boulogne took an army to London and drove the Empress out. Stephen was later freed from prison in a prisoner exchange. | | 1143 | Geoffrey de Mandeville rose in revolt against King Stephen and in 1143-1144 he led an armed incursion into Suffolk. The castles at Bungay and Framlingham were occupied by supporters of Empress Matilda. The stronghold of the Honour of Eye became vital to holding King Stephen's territory and it is possible that in the late 1140's some of his coinage was struck there. One or two coins have been found marked 'GILEBERT ON EI'. The civil war dragged on, based around the powerbases of individual castles. | | 1147 | Robert of Gloucester died. He was one of Empress Matilda's greatest supporters. | | 1148 | Disheartened by events, the Empress Matilda left England, never to return.
Abbot Anselm died. By this time, under his leadership, Ralph the Sacrist, followed by Hervey the Sacrist had virtually completed the nave and west transept. The west front, with its three great arches still lacked its three towers, The great gateway of St James's or the Cemetery Gate which we now call the Norman Tower was built between 1120 and 1148. It was also to serve as a belfry for the church of St James.
Anselm had also founded St James Church after he was forbidden to travel to St James at Campostella in Spain on pilgrimage.
Chequer Square was at this time called Paddock Pool and its swampy nature was a problem for the medieval builders.
St Mary's Church was built on its present site because the old St Mary's had to be demolished to make way for the north wing of the new transept of the great Abbey Church. The Abbey precincts were all surrounded by walls with just four gates; St James's Gate (the Norman Tower), the Court Gate (now called The Abbey Gate), Mustow Street Gate and St Margarets Gate opposite where the Manor House Museum stands today.
The west and north side of the abbey precincts also had a moat like ditch, outside the walls, with wooden bridges at the gates. This has been seen during various modern excavations for road or sewer works, and seems to run from St Mary's Church, along Crown Street and the Angel Hill, and probably fed into the river at Eastgate Bridge. It was about 15 feet wide, and is sometomes still visible in early prints or pictures of the Angel Hill. This ditch was probably necessary for drainage rather more than for defence. |
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Anselm had also recruited Master Hugo to work on the Church. He was a craftsman of genius, probably like Anselm, from Italy, and has been credited with creating a great painted bible of vellum, the Bronze doors of the west front, hung in about 1140, and later the Bury St Edmunds Cross referred to below. Professor Thomson has voiced the opinion that the walrus ivory cross may not be by Master Hugo, as it is not in a medium associated with him. Hugo was perhaps more likely to have cast a cross in bronze, as we know he was skilled in this art. The type of figure which may have adorned such a cast cross is illustrated here. This object was found at Rattlesden in the late 1990s. Scholars are, however, agreed that Hugo's bible is today known as The Bury St Edmunds Bible, and is held at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge.
Abbot Anselm had also founded St Peter's Hospital in Out Risbygate as a leper colony.
Abbot Ording was duly elected as Eighth Abbot and would rule the abbey of St Edmund until 1156. Ording seems to have been the tutor of Stephen de Blois as a boy, and now as king, Stephen was generous to the abbey.
Some 280 years after St Edmund's death, details of his parentage and early life were still being written down, apparently for the first time. Geoffrey of Wells added many details to St Edmund's story at this time in the period of 1148 to 1156. | | 1150 | A serious fire broke out in the Abbey of St Edmund damaging the abbot's hall, refectory, dormitory, chapter house and the old House of the Infirm. Abbot Ording spent the rest of his life repairing and re-roofing these buildings. His sacrist at this time was called Helyas, and would have supervised the continuing work of the great craftsman Hugo. |
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About this time the monks also recorded that a cross for their monks choir was 'made incomparably by the hand of Master Hugo.' The monks choir referred to is the location in the abbey church where there was an enclosure for the monks to sing. The cross referred to is now thought to be on show labelled as the Bury St Edmunds Cross in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after it reappeared dramatically in 1963 from a Swiss bank vault. It is made of Walrus ivory, and several books have been written about its origin and history.
In the first half of the 12th century rabbit warrens were first recorded in manorial documents. Rabbits were bred for fur as well as food and are thought to have been brought to England by the Normans. | | 1152 | The King of France, Louis VII divorced his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Within 8 weeks she married Henry Plantagenet, a political masterstroke for Henry. He sailed to England to fight Stephen. | | 1153 | Eustace de Blois died while visiting the Abbey of St Edmund. He was the chief rival to Henry Plantagenet for succession to the throne, and with him out of the way, Henry had no more rivals of such power. Prince Eustace was the son of King Stephen and his wife Matilda of Boulogne and was said to have been ravaging the possessions of the Abbey.
King Stephen seems to have held a now lost castle at Ipswich. This was captured by Hugh Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk. Hugh Bigod was a supporter of Henry Plantagenet as this was a good way to advance his own ambitions, giving him opportunities for plunder and reward.
In December 1153, in the Treaty of Westminster, it was agreed by war-weary rivals that Stephen could be King until his death, provided he adopted Henry Plantagenet as his successor. Stephen only survived for another 10 months before he would die in 1154. | | 1154 | Henry Plantagenet became King Henry II when he came to the English throne following the death of Stephen in October. He and his sons were known as the Angevin kings as his father was count of Anjou, but he was also the first of the Plantagenet dynasty. His empire stretched from the Scottish borders to the Pyrenees, made even bigger when he married Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, in 1152. He had great energy and travelled his whole Empire. Henry II was the great grandson of William the Conqueror, and when he took the throne, he was determined to get a grip on the lawless land which had resulted from the civil war under King Stephen.
Some time between 1145 and 1154, Pope Eugenius III issued a bull which confirmed the Sacrist Elias in his possession of the Borough. Its rents were for the service of the abbey church and the assistance of the office of Sacrist. This is the first surviving written reference to the Sacrist being in practice lord of the borough, but Lobel believed that this had been the case for at least 50 years already. As effective Lord of the Town, the Sacrist collected the various feudal dues payable to a Lord. In earlier times the tenants had to provide labour services to their Lord, such as a certain number of days work at harvest time. By this time, many of these dues were commuted to cash payments. The harvest dues were now paid by Rep silver, or reaping silver, in lieu of reaping the corn physically. Landmol was paid at the rate of two pence per acre for agricultural land within the 900 acre Banleuca. Hadgovel was a ground rent paid for the right to occupy land for a home, or burgage tenement. The Sacrist also directly owned his own 250 or so houses, which he rented out. Market tolls were also payable by stallholders, but might be exempted if they already paid Hadgovel. Much local law enforcement was also under the Sacrist, who took all the fines and court fees as income. | | 1155 | Like all new kings, Henry II had to start by confirming or denying existing charters, rights and landholdings of his new subjects. Hugh Bigod was hoping for his reward for supporting Henry against earlier rivals, and the king did, indeed, confirm him as Earl of East Anglia. He failed to give Bigod what he really wanted, the wardship of the royal castle at Norwich.
The king was well aware that Bigod already held Framlingham, Bungay, Walton and Thetford castles. Eye was held by ?, Haughley by ?, and Clare by the de Clares. Suffolk was in danger of becoming a powerbase against the king. | | 1156 | Henry II began his programme of dismantling some of the castles which some Nobles had illegally built in England in the past twenty years. In 1156 the king confiscated Walton Castle from the Bigods and held it until it was dismantled in 1175. In 1157 he confiscated Thetford castle, also from Hugh Bigod, the Earl of Norfolk, and installed a royal garrison in his place. Eye and Wolton were also to be taken by the crown. | | 1157 | Abbot Hugh was elected as Ninth Abbot to rule the Abbey of St Edmund following Ording's death in 1156. He was previously Prior of Westminster and it seems likely that he came into office and found the Abbey in debt. They may well have borrowed money to pay for rebuilding the fire damage of 1150.
Jocelin was later to record a debt to Benedict the Jew of Norwich which had been outstanding for fourteen years.
Abbot Hugh I ruled the abbey until 1180. There is an interesting charter granted by him during this period to the Gild of Bakers. This is the earliest known reference to a trade guild in Bury. It was to receive the privilege of an hereditary aldermanship, the first one being William, son of Ingered, and his successors. There were fines of ten shillings for anyone who baked braed and was not a member. If members broke guild rules they paid a fine to the guild of ten shillings and they also had to pay the same sum as a fine to the Sacrist. | | 1158 | Brihtmarus de Haverhill moved to London and his son became Sheriff and an Alderman of the City. | | 1160 | In about 1160 Samson obtained the post of Master of the Scholars or Schoolmaster at Bury. Almost at once Samson was sent to Italy to see Pope Alexander III in order to obtain a document stating the abbey's rights over a church at Woolpit near Bury. He succeeded after being robbed and imprisoned and had to beg his way home.
At this time the emperor was installing his own Popes and here was a schism between Pope Alexander and the emperor's rival Pope Victor IV. | | 1162 | Thomas à Becket was made Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry II. He had already promoted him previously to be Chancellor of England. They now fell out over the respective roles and powers of King and church. | | 1164 | Henry II promulgated the Constitutions of Clarendon, bringing his conflict with Thomas à Becket to a head. Henry's constitution included three key clauses:-
- the king should have jurisdiction over church lands and patronage;
- the clergy should no longer be immune from the laws of the land; and
- no clergyman should be able to appeal over the king's head to the Pope.
Becket publicly condemned these laws and was summoned to trial at Northampton. His reply was to flee the country. |
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| 1165 | Henry II now felt it expedient to return Framlingham and Bungay to the Bigods, in return for payment of a heavy fine. His nobles had become very angry at his policy of confiscation, so the king kept control of Walton and Eye, just in case of trouble. |
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Sure enough Hugh Bigod quickly began to build a massive stone keep at Bungay, with walls 18 feet thick, and up to 90 feet high.
Henry II started to build his great royal stronghold at Orford to counterbalance the Bigod's powerbase at Framlingham. It was completed by 1173 at the massive cost at the time of £1,413.
A man called Samson became a monk at Bury at the comparatively late age of 31. Like all monks, he took the name of his home village, and was called Samson de Tottington. He came from Norfolk, and spoke the local dialect. | | 1169 | Henry II met Becket in France to settle their disputes as the king had been under pressure from the Pope for some years now. It failed and Becket excommunicated the English clergy.
Back in 1155 the Anglo-Norman Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Brakspear) had given Henry II the right to conquer Ireland because it had become out of Rome's control. Henry II did not organise the invasion of Ireland until 1169. | | 1170 | Becket finally returned to England but continued to pressurise the king. In December Henry had an outburst of temper. "Why will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"
Four Anglo-Norman knights then murdered Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, outraging the whole of Christendom.
The kings' son Henry, born in 1155, was needing to be given a future, and in 1170 Henry II had him crowned King of England but gave him little authority to rule. England now had an old king, Henry II, (aged 37) and a young King (aged 15).
In West Suffolk, a priory seems to have been founded in 1170 by Augustinian canons at Ixworth sponsored by a member of the Blunt family. It was dedicated to St Mary and was dissolved in 1537. Today the site is occupied by a 19th century house and some remains are incorporated into it. | | 1172 | In return for certain penances, Henry II and England were received back into the Church. The King had to return Canterbury lands to the Church and remove the offending clauses from his Constitutions of Clarendon.
By 1172 Dublin and the part of Ireland known as the Pale was ruled by the English crown and the Irish church brought into line with the English. From this arose the phrase "beyond the Pale", meaning somebody felt to be outside civilised society. | | 1173 | By 1173 Henry II and his wife Eleanor had begun to lead separate lives. She held court in Aquitaine while he now preferred the fair Rosamund de Clifford.
Henry II's son, the young King Henry, was just as ambitious as his father, and eager for more power, wealth and influence, he rose in rebellion, backed by his mother and King Louis of France. There were still many Barons, earls and nobles who hated Henry II for his confiscations of their lands and castles. These men could be bought by young Henry, with promises of restitution. He gained the support of Hugh Bigod by promising him the hereditary custody of Norwich Castle, and the substantial Honour of Eye. He also turned The Earl of Leicester to his cause.
With the continent at war, Henry II was spending the summer defending his possessions over there. The quarrel was turning into open rebellion. The Earl of Leicester was becoming too troublesome and found his castle at Leicester under attack by the old king's loyal supporters, Hugh Bohun and Richard de Lacey.
By late July, King William of Scotland, seeing the confusion in England, took his chance, and invaded Northumberland. The king's forces besieging Leicester had to negotiate a truce in order to march north to defend the border. With the old King abroad and his Justiciar in the north, fighting the King of Scotland, the way was suddenly clear for a takeover bid.
Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, now raised a force of French and Flemish mercenaries. On September 29, they landed at Walton near Felixstowe and marched inland. Dunwich was attacked, but its defences held. Walton castle had been a stronghold of Earl Hugh Bigod, along with Bungay and Framlingham, but the king had confiscated it in 1156. Earl Hugh quickly joined the revolt of the Earl of Leicester when he saw the chance of regaining Walton Castle. Walton was besieged, however, the Castle seems to have held out during the four day siege. They abandoned the seige and set up a base at Bigod's strong and well provisioned castle at Framlingham. More Flemings arrived, and made frequent sorties into the Suffolk countryside for loot and plunder.
The king had also taken Thetford castle from Hugh Bigod, and at the start of this rebellion he seems to have destroyed it.
The serious campaign now began with Leicester, Bigod and the Flemish army marching to Ipswich where more Flemings joined them. They then marched to Haughley Castle which was held for the crown by Ralph de Broc.
Haughley castle was besieged and captured after a bloody battle. Things became worse after the castle was set alight and its surrender, when most of the soldiers inside had their throats cut. Only the nobility were kept alive for ransome. Following its capture by Robert, Earl of Leicester and Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, the castle at Haughley was destroyed, and never used again. Eye Castle was attacked and was damaged, but continued in use.
The army now returned to Framlingham, where the Bigod's were beginning to get cold feet about the amount of destruction in their home county, and the plunder falling into foreign hands. The Earl of Leicester was persuaded to head for Leicester to capture his home town. So they first headed west, through Suffolk and towards Bury St Edmunds. Beaumont knew that Bury supported the old King, and so he aimed to skirt north of the town.
Meanwhile Hugh Bohun and Richard de Lacey, the army commanders of Henry II in the north had agreed a truce with King William of Scotland, regrouped and were marching south to meet the threat. Local Suffolk people joined them as they neared Bury, in particular those whose homes and families had been ravaged by the Fleming militias. The banner of St Edmund was their rallying point, and doubtless the abbey supplied servants and workmen to help in the fight.
The usual role of untrained peasants around a battlefield at this time, was to attack stragglers and butcher the wounded, or hunt down enemy soldiers who got cut off, or had tried to run away.
So in the in autumn of 1173 the opposing armies met at Fornham St Genevieve on the River Lark, some four miles north west of the centre of Bury. The Flemish army was caught as it tried to cross the marshes down to the River Lark looking for a suitable fording spot. Fighting seems to have taken place from the Babwell hamlet, by today's Tollgate Inn, along the valley to Fornham. The rebels' strongest position was somewhere near Fornham St Martin Church. The Royal Army was led by Richard de Lucy, and the Flemish mercenaries were cut to pieces. It was said that 10,000 of the enemy were slain. The Earl of Leicester and his wife, the Countess Petronilla, were captured, but Earl Hugh Bigod escaped to Bungay. The Countess was said to have thrown her ring and other jewels, into the River as a gesture of defiance. The Earl and his Countess were later taken to Normandy as prisoners.
Bones and a few lost weapons have been found in the area of the battle, including the Fornham Sword, which is now in Moyses Hall Museum, on loan from John Macrae, the landowner. This was found when a muddy ditch was being cleaned out near the water mill at Fornham St Martin around 1876. It was loaned to the museum in 1966.
Hugh Bigod was not safe for long, as a another vast army was raised at Bury and at Ipswich to crush him. When his castle at Bungay was besieged, Bigod had to make peace and pay a heavy fine. Bigod was forced to take the 14,000 remaining Flemings, and sail to France.
Jocelin of Brackland opened his chronicle by the following: "I begin in the year in which the Flemings were taken prisoner outside the town." He also recorded that Earl Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, later claimed that he carried St Edmund's banner into this battle on the winning side.
With Leicester's defeat the rebellion failed, and old King Henry II regained control. In the autumn truce the young King Henry was to receive half the revenues of England and Normandy, which he would inherit. His brother Richard was to inherit Aquitaine and brother Geoffrey would have Anjou. Henry II's youngest son John was promised no land and was popularly to become called John Lackland. Henry II ordered the Bigod's castles of Walton, Bungay and Framlingham to be destroyed. Bigod himself was to stay in resentful exile in France.
The town of St Edmund's Bury had a Jewish community which had become bankers to the Abbey. During the troubles of 1173 their wives and children were given shelter within the convent, and relations with the Abbey were generally good. Moyse's Hall, now a museum, was a stone house possibly associated with Jewish wealth, believed to date from this time. Some historians doubt this Jewish connection because Hatter Street was the Jewish quarter and they doubt that a Jewish family would chose to live by the pig market. They attribute its name to a butcher called Mose who lived there much later.
This was also the year in which Jocelin of Brackland became a monk at Bury, although he had probably attended the monastic school there, as a boy. At this time, Samson was the Novice Master.
By this date the Abbey's demesnes were commonly leased out for fixed cash payments to simplify administration. These leases were called fee farms. Unfortunately by the later 12th century rapid inflation eroded the value of this income. Abbot Hugh had no idea how to deal with this and could only think to borrow heavily to fill the gap between these fixed incomes and his rising costs. Jocelin recorded Hugh's growing borrowings from 1173 to his death in 1180. Hugh even borrowed money to pay the interest owing every Easter and Michaelmas. So the abbey was deep in debt at this time. |
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| 1175 | Hugh Bigod of Bungay spent the winter in the court of Philip of Flanders, plotting further attacks on Henry II. In the Spring he returned to England with yet another army of Flemings, and marched on the royal stronghold at Norwich . Hugh Bigod and his Flemings now attacked Norwich and sacked the town. They also took the great keep of Norwich Castle.
Henry II was still campaigning on the continent, but he now had to act against Sir Hugh. He sailed back from France, and raised troops at Bury, Ipswich and Colchester. His army marched on Framlingham and Walton, and both soon gave up without a fight. Bigod was still in the field, so the King ordered both Walton and Framlingham Castles to be destroyed. The stones of Walton castle were used to make up the footpaths of Walton, Felixstowe and Trimley.
The King now pursued Bigod to his great castle at Bungay. The Earl decided that he could not beat the king's army, and surrendered. Henry ordered the castle destroyed, but Bigod instead paid out 1,000 marks to avoid its destruction. He also had to pledge his loyalty, and the following year went off on Crusade, as a penance.
At St Edmund's Abbey, Pope Alexander III exempted Bury from any visitation by the papal legate Richard of Canterbury. Abbot Hugh had paid heavily to receive this exemption. Possibly he feared that an inspection by such a powerful person as the Archbishop of Canterbury would expose the Abbey's debts. This exemption only applied to Hugh, and Samson had to renew it in 1188. | | 1178 | Hugh Bigod, the treacherous Earl of East Anglia died. He had been involved in two attempts to overthrow Henry II, and had been party to a massive loss of life and destruction of property in Suffolk and Norfolk. By the time he died he was hated and despised. | | 1180 | Jocelin was made Chaplain to the Prior. When Abbot Hugh died in this year the Prior became temporary head of the Convent, and Jocelin saw something of high office. Unfortunately, until a new Abbot could be properly elected the Abbots' estate, and the associated income, were taken into the royal custody of Henry II.
Samson was sub-sacrist at this time and began to gather a large store of stone and sand for building a tower over the west transept. He refused to borrow money for this purpose and collected donations from visitors. When he was forced to divert these funds to pay some Jewish debts it is likely that relations between himself and the money lenders became frosty.
Jocelin contrasted the care and maintenance work undertaken by Samson as sub-sacrist, with the 'foolish squandering of offerings and gifts' by the sacrist, William.
By 1180 Bury had a Bakers Guild, as Abbot Hugh had granted the guild exclusive baking rights in the town over the years since 1166. This arrangement also benefitted the abbey, as the Sacrist took half the fines imposed on people baking for sale outside the guild, and half of any fines imposed on guild members for for breaking the rules on the quality of their bread, or the price at which it was sold. The Guild received the other half of such fines.
At this time much of Haverhill and the Bumpsteads was owned by Robert de Helion who died in 1180. His lands were taken over by his son William. | | 1181 | Anti-Jewish feeling reached such a pitch that the Jewish community in Bury was accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy called Robert. The Abbey accepted the accusation and venerated the boy as Little Saint Robert. | | 1182 | Following a two year gap Samson was elected Tenth Abbot at a gathering before King Henry II in his castle at Bishop's Waltham, and ruled until his death in 1211. The election was conducted in front of the King by the prior and twelve representatives of the convent. The King insisted on the three nominations from the Abbey being supplemented by three more from Bury and three from outside. In the end he accepted the monks' choice of Samson. He was 47 when elected. Abbot Samson was a good businessman in marked contrast to his predecessor, Abbot Hugh who had left him a legacy of enormous debts; altogether some £3,052. To mark a clean break with the past he acquired a new seal of office. Samson took the demesne manors back into direct management under his own bailiffs who accounted to him for all income and expenditure. He also travelled from manor to manor, living off the produce of the estates and the peasants to cut costs. There were often disputes as to the exact status of each manor. Some were held as knights' fees, some as fee farms, and some were claimed as hereditary rights by families who had held the land for two or three generations.
Some 65 Parish Churches were possessed by the Abbot and the Convent, giving them the right of patronage or advowson, as well as the 10 per cent tithes due. The Abbot had 36 churches and the convent held 29.
By this time the monks did very little agricultural labour themselves. The old ideal of a self-supporting community was totally obsolete. The Abbey was a vast corporation running the business of a landed estate throughout West Suffolk, but also being in control of the administration of justice.
The Cellarer ran the Abbey's manors, together with all the mills and sheep walks, taking tolls and having first pick at market to provide food and drink for the convent. When the Abbot was away, the Cellarer had to feed his guests.
The Sacrist was responsible for the fabric of the Abbey, but in Bury he also was lord of the borough of St Edmund, enforcing justice in his court.
The almoner dealt with charitable works. The chamberlain looked after all the clothing.
The novice master ran the church training programme and the second and third priors enforced discipline over the monks.
When Samson was elected Abbot, Jocelin of Brackland was appointed as his Chaplain for the next six years. This was a promising start to his career, but some believe that he never progressed higher than guest master. More recent research suggests that Jocelin became Cellarer, an important post in the Abbey. Samson was to become a distinguished Abbot and played a full part in his role as one of the great men of Europe, bringing the outside world to Bury.
Jocelin was later to record Samson's faults as well as his strengths, and these faults were to lie behind his decision to start his Chronicles. Samson had an angry and dark side to his nature, which sometimes led him into confrontation with his own monks, as well as with outsiders.
But now that he was abbot, Samson was to press ahead with the great tower in the centre of the west transept of the Abbey Church.
| | 1183 | The young King Henry died, and his father Henry II had to re-distribute the inheritances laid down in the truce of 1173. Richard was now to inherit England, Normandy and Anjou, Geoffrey would keep Brittany and John Lackland, by now Henry's favourite son, was to inherit Aquitaine. Richard had lived most of his life in Aquitaine with his mother Eleanor and swore never to part with it. | | 1184 | In about 1184 Samson founded a new hospital called St Saviour's at Babwell. The site is on the Fornham Road, outside the old North Gate. Today it is adjacent to the railway bridge, next to Tesco's store. | | 1185 | When Geoffrey Ridel was Bishop of Ely (1174 to 1189) he tried to acquire oak timber from Elmsett wood near Long Melford probably for Ely Cathedral. However, when he asked Samson for permission the messenger mistakenly asked for wood from Elmswell, which Samson gladly granted. Before Ridel could correct this mistake, Samson felled all the Elmsett oak trees "without delay for use at the top of the great tower." Samson had dreamed of completing the west front and was happy to win in this competition with Ely Cathedral. Samson had always had it in mind to finish the Abbey church and to make the West Front even more imposing than Anselm's plan, in order to dwarf the Norman Tower. He wanted to rebuild the West Front to be 246 feet wide with a vast central tower, flanked by two smaller octagonal towers, crowned with spires. The result would be the greatest in England. It would take most of his 29 years as Abbot and most of the available cash. | | 1186 | By 1186 Samson had written down all the income and rents due to the Abbey from all its possessions in the liberty. Very little documentation was available to him before this, and he called this new book his Kalendar.
At this time there was a dispute between St Edmunds and the monks of Canterbury over jurisdiction in Monks Eleigh. The manor of Monks Eleigh belonged to the monks of Canterbury, but it was within Samson's hundredal jurisdiction in the liberty. A murder had taken place and Samson intended to try the case in St Edmund's court. The Canterbury manor refused to give up its prisoners. Samson arranged for Robert of Cockfield to take 80 armed men to Monks Eleigh to seize the three murderers and bring them to Bury St Edmunds "into the deepest dungeon." The Archbishop of Canterbury and Abbot Samson had to argue their cases before King Henry II in February 1187 at Canterbury. According to Jocelin, the King lost his patience, said "May the Best Man win" and the case was never settled as he walked out on them.
Around this time the windmill was introduced. Up to this time all mills were either animal powered or were water mills. | | 1187 | In the Holy Land, Jerusalem fell to Saladin producing the collapse of the Christian empire in the Holy Land, or Outremer, as it was known. The Crusaders had ruled in Jerusalem, where they guarded the Christian sites, from the time of the First Crusade in 1099 until 1187. It was to provide Richard with his mission in life, and within two years he launched the Third Crusade. | | 1188 | King Henry II visited Bury to pray for success for his forthcoming venture on crusade. Samson asked for permission to join him but was refused as the Bishop of Norwich was going. It was felt unwise to leave both Norfolk and Suffolk without religious leadership.
Samson succeeded in 1188 in obtaining an exemption from the Pope from the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Around this time there was a dispute between the Abbot and Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford and Lord of Clare. De Clare claimed he used to be paid 5s a year from the Risbridge hundred. Samson said that the whole hundred had been given to St Edmund by King Edward with no outgoings. De Clare then claimed it was for carrying St Edmund's banner in battle, but Earl Roger Bigod and Thomas de Mendham both claimed that they already had that job, so de Clare adjourned his claim. |
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| 1189 | King Henry II died, to be succeeded by King Richard I. Framlingham was restored to the Bigods, to be rebuilt in the next few years. It was at this time that the famous curtain walls, which still remain at Framlingham, were built. At the end Henry II died in France after being defeated by his own sons siding against him with King Philip of France. Geoffrey had died in 1186 but had also allied himself with France. Even his favourite son, John, had turned against him.
Richard was born at Oxford in 1157, but he was brought up in Aquitaine and had little interest in England and never learnt to speak English. He was a cultured man and a formidable soldier, brought up in the Aquitaine court where the cult of chivalry and romantic love was fostered by Queen Eleanor. This cult of chivalry was expressed in writing by Chretien de Troyes in his book Percival or Parsifal. He was the first writer to refer to the Holy Grail. Hitherto the word meant a dish in French. He invented the whole story of the Grail being brought to Glastonbury by Joseph of Aramathea in 70 AD and then lost. Using this idea he embroidered the story of King Arthur and his court. So one of the major legends of English life was, in fact, started by a Frenchman. Mallory's 'Morte de'Arthur' was based on this story several centuries later. This sort of fervour led to Richard becoming known as Richard, Coeur de Lion, or in English, Richard the Lionheart.
Richard was anxious to begin a joint crusade to the Holy Land, with King Philip of France, but first he had to go to England to be crowned, which took place on 3rd September.
A party of Jews coming to pay tribute to the new King in London were massacred as the fall of Jerusalem had inflamed feelings against all non Christians. Anti-Jewish attacks took place all over England. The King was furious as Jews were under royal protection, as they were the only people able to provide banking services in those days. He needed their loans to finance his crusade.
On November 20th King Richard visited the Abbey of St Edmund. Samson knew the King needed money and offered to pay 1000 marks to buy the Manor of Mildenhall from him. This was a bargain for Samson as the Manor brought in rents of £100 a year so it paid for itself inside seven years. He donated his share of this Manor to the convent in return for part of Icklingham Manor. Having received Icklingham he promptly donated it to St Saviour's hospital to provide food and lodgings for the poor and for needy travellers.
Richard took and sold everything that, as King, he could lay his hands on, and having raised enough money, left England for the crusade in December 1189.
Before he left he appointed his half brother Geoffrey Archbishop of York. His brother John was given the West Country, the counties of Nottingham and Derbyshire and overlordship of Ireland but banished from England for three years. William Longchamps was made Chief Justiciar and Chancellor and left in complete control of England. | | 1190 | On Palm Sunday, riots broke out and 57 Jews were murdered in Bury. Abbot Samson's response was to obtain the King's permission to expel the Jewish community from the town. The religious pretext was to keep the town of the Saint for St Edmund's men. The Jews probably lived in Heathen Street, today known as Hatter Street, and many of their houses were stone built for safety.
Jewish communities continued to suffer bloodthirsty attacks across the country until a final massacre took place in York in March 1190. Money owed to the Jews became due to the King when they died, but the King had rarely enforced collection of such debts. Being able to redeem a mortgage by killing the lender may explain some of these murders.
On Crusade, English ships entered the Mediterranean for the first time in history. King Richard made an alliance with the great maritime republic of Genoa and Richard adopted St George as his patron saint as a symbol of this pact.
In the winter of 1190 to 91 King Richard and King Philip were in Sicily where they stormed Messina. John was allowed to return to England where he found the Barons extremely hostile to the rule of William Longchamps, and he took up their cause, which was quickly to have violent consequences. This period is the time in which modern stories of Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest have been set, but there is no evidence that Robin Hood and his merry men ever existed at this time.
| | 1191 | The Crusaders reached Cyprus and in May King Richard married Berengaria of Navarre at Limassol. In June the Crusaders landed in the Holy Land at Acre which was captured and after the garrison surrendered they were massacred. They marched on to Jerusalem, but Richard was distracted by disputes in England between John and his supporters and the Chief Justice Longchamps. Things became so tense that Longchamps fled the country in September.
By this time the vast open market place at Bury had been considerably encroached on by permanent buildings, shops and booths. The burgesses avoided the normal market tolls by doing this, and claimed that the town reeves had given them permission. However, the reeves should have been answerable to the convent, but seem to have just continued paying the sacrist the old rent roll of £40 a year. Samson had to agree that the burgesses had acquired legal rights to hold these properties, despite the fact that the original grants had probably being made illegally.
Around 1191 Herbert the Dean erected a windmill at the Haberden. To protect his own income from the milling fees, which he charged at his own mill, the Abbot forced him to take it down. Windmills were the latest technology at this time. Hitherto the watermill had reigned supreme. | | 1192 | By October it was clear that Jerusalem could not be taken from Saladin and a treaty was signed and Richard sailed back to Europe. A storm separated his ship from the fleet and he landed and decided to travel overland through hostile territory. In December he was recognised and handed over to Duke Leopold of Austria who imprisoned him at Durnstein.
Back in England, John now tried to take over the country and captured some castles, as nothing had been heard of the King since the storm. Jocelin recorded that civil war occurred throughout England during King Richard's captivity. Abbot Samson and the convent of the monks at Bury excommunicated all those who were responsible for violence and conflicts, "fearing, not Count John the King's brother, nor anybody else." When John became King in 1199 no doubt he remembered this insult, as well as other opposition to him by Samson. | | 1193 | Samson not only opposed the rebels in words but in March 1193 he took up arms along with some other abbots at the siege of Windsor, leading many knights which was a very costly operation. Windsor was held by John's supporters.
Finally a ransom demand of 100,000 marks was received from Emperor Henry VI who had seized Richard from Duke Leopold. John was persuaded to make a truce at the end of March and try to raise the money by imposing massive taxes on the country. The whole Angevin Empire contributed to the ransom but there were counter-offers from Philip of France and the price continued to rise.
After the truce Abbot Samson travelled to Germany to visit King Richard taking many gifts with him. It is likely that these gifts were to be part of his ransom money. It has been supposed that the Bury St Edmunds cross was one of these gifts.
At St Edmundsbury, Jocelin of Brackland recorded that the silver frontal of the altar and many other precious ornaments, had been disposed of firstly to pay for the recovery of the manor of Mildenhall to finance Richards' crusade in 1189, and now for King Richard's ransom. "Indeed when King Richard was a prisoner in Germany there was not one treasure in England that was not given or exchanged for money, and yet the shrine of St Edmund remained intact." The Abbot swore he would never give permission for the saint's shrine to be despoiled but offered to open the church doors so that the Barons of the Exchequer could help themselves. None dared to do so because of fear of the Saint's power. | | 1194 | King Richard was finally released following payment of 150,000 marks represented by about thirty four tons of silver or roughly three times the King's normal annual income. This was a massive drain on his Empire with most of it coming from England. On 13 March he landed in England to a generally good reception, but he had to storm Nottingham.
He raised further taxes on the country and in May 1194 left England, never to return. Before he left, King Richard made five places available to knights to hold tournaments, one of which was at Stanford Heath about 13 miles north of Bury St Edmunds. Jocelin recorded the drunken aftermath of one such tournament when 80 knights rampaged through abbey and town. The very able Hubert Walter was this time left in charge of the country.
By 1194 Abbot Samson had managed to pay off all the debts of the Abbey inherited from Abbot Hugh. However his determination to control the town and retain as many of the old abbey privileges as possible, led him to enact a charter which contained the seeds of a century of discontent and, eventually, rebellion by the towspeople.
The burgesses had acquired certain legal rights by prescription. For example, they had long paid annual rents for tenements in the market, instead of by the day, and thus could not be easily disposessed. Samson knew this, even if his monks did not. They had also had to pay Rep-selver, or reaping silver, as a substitute for the harvest labour the lord of the town was entitled to exact in the 11th century. By now, even this commuted payment was irksome, and Samson agreed that they could pay the Reeve a joint 20 shillings a year instead. Similarly the old sor-peni was exchanged for an annual payment of 4 shillings. The townspeople thus exchanged levies previously made upon individuals, for one payment made in common from joint resources. This points to an advanced corporate life in the town, whether the formal mechanisms of local self-government existed or not. The burgesses also jointly paid Samson £40 to get a charter confirming these rights. Unfortunately such charters were personal to each abbot, and did not absolutely bind their successors.
Samson's charter of 1194 was, on the face of it, a concession to the town as he also gave the wardship of four town gates into the hands of the burgesses. However he retained the right to veto their choice, and kept the East Gate in his own hands. He also compelled the Burgesses to conduct their legal affairs in the borough court or Portman-Moot, which met in the Tollhouse and was under the Abbot's control. They could not use their own court in the Guildhall, or go to the Shire or Royal courts. Not only did this mean being judged by the Port Reeve, appointed by the Abbot, but even the costs and fines would go to the abbey, and not to town funds. At this time the | | |
