Cistercians
-
“….The [former Cistercian] Abbey at Coggeshall isn’t your average home — even by the standards of the sort of homes featured in Country Life. It’s a historic former monastic complex of immense character and charm set in 25 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens on the banks of the River Blackwater, less than a mile from the…
-
Legends about tunnels leading to and fro churches and abbeys are rife throughout the British Isles. However, there are very few such tunnels actually proven to exist. Most of them are, in fact, remains of cellars and store rooms. However, a recent discovery at Tintern Abbey in Wales had indeed discovered what definitely is a…
-
To us the curious intricacies of medieval marriage seem endlessly complicated…and often cost a lot to those who disagreed with a certain situation. Contexts of Marriage in Medieval England: Evidence from the King’s Court circa 1300 by Robert C Palmer contains a fascinating instance with a twist. After all, we usually hear of women…
-
ANOTHER MISSING QUEEN: JOAN OF SCOTLAND
Alexander II, Bishop of Salisbury, burial mystery, Cistercians, Dorset, Eleanor of Provence, Ermengarde, Henry III, Hugh X of Lusignan, Isabella of Angouleme, Joan of Scotland, John, pilgrimage, Reformation, Richard of Cornwall, Richard Poore, royal marriages, Scotland, Tarrant Crawford Abbey, York MinsterThe village of Tarrant Crawford really isn’t a village anymore. If you type the address into your Satnav, it will vanish from the screen while driving down the nearby main road–there are no signposts and the only other road visible is a simple farm track fringed by thick trees. However, here at one time was…
-
What was the lifestyle of medieval monks in Britain? What went on in those wondrous abbeys that ruled their neighbourhoods, often with fists of iron? They had some harsh rules, not least that the people they lorded it over had to pay exorbitant sums to have their grain milled by the abbey. Woe betide…
-
It is a fact that the medieval Church was ruthless in its acts and ambitions. We all know of particular popes, cardinals and archbishops who would stop at nothing to achieve their own personal and political ends, but it came as a surprise to me to discover just how brutal the Church could be on…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 