Stoke-by-Clare Priory
Stoke-by-Clare Priory was a
Anglo-Saxon monastery
Earl Alfric, who lived in the reigns of Kings
Refoundations
This earlier church, with all its endowments, was given in 1090 by
Dependency of Bec Abbey
From 1090 and for the rest of its monastic existence, the Priory was a dependency of
An uncertain existence
Stoke-by-Clare Priory, as an alien priory, remained down the years in an uneasy situation in the eyes of the English crown. Repeatedly, not least during the Hundred Years' War, the priory’s revenues were wholly or in part diverted to the English crown.
Among other grants, the priory received the right to hold a Thursday market at Stoke, and a yearly fair of three days at the feast of
Upon the death of Prior John Huditot in 1391, Robert Braybrooke (Bishop of London) and William (prior of Ogbourne, who had been authorized by Pope Boniface IX to act for the abbot of Bec in the case of dependent English houses) presented Richard de Cotesford, an English monk of the house, to the Henry le Despenser, Bishop of Norwich, to succeed as prior, with the assent of the king, who was acting patron since the heir of the Earl of March was at the time a minor. Despite this apparently positive turn of events, other developments proved less advantageous. Already in 1379
It was the next month, however, that the priory had enough high ranking support to secure another advantage, becoming denizen, i.e. naturalised. Unfortunately, to obtain this from the crown, Prior Richard Cotesford, had to pay 1,000 marks, at the rate of 100 marks a year, towards the building programme at Westminster Abbey.[5] Another requirement was that the priory’s monks were in future all to be of English birth, and payments of any kind to any foreign abbey were excluded.[6] These were standard measures in England at the time.
Suppression
Despite its cost, developments in English national politics meant this new status did not last long. As part of the process sometimes called the Dissolution of the Alien Priories, in 1415 the Priory was suppressed on the proposal of the patron, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, to the benefit of the new Stoke College, intended to be a college of secular canons. The project gained the approval of a bull from the antipope John XXIII (1410–1415), regarded at the time by England as the legitimate pope, and was ratified by Pope Martin V, the universally acknowledged pope from 1417. These turbulent papal politics would at least part explain why the first charter of foundation was not sealed by the earl until 9 May 1419.[7] who was also buried on site.
Priors of Stoke-by-Clare
- Nicholas, occurs 1174[8]
- John de Havelen, reign of Henry II
- Hugh, occurs 1198, 1202
- Richard, occurs 1222
- John, occurs 1247, &c.
- Henry de Oxna, appointed 1325
- Peter de Valle, appointed 1367
- John de Huditot, died 1391
- Richard de Cotesford, appointed 1391
- William de Sancto Vedasto, appointed 1395
- William George, appointed 1396
- William Esterpenny, appointed 1396
References
- George Cokayne,The Complete Peerage of England Scotland Ireland Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant Extinct or Dormant, Vol. III, Ed. Vicary Gibbs, London 1913, p. 243
- ^ Kelly, E. R., ed. (1875). "STOKE-by-CLARE". The Post Office Directory of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk. London: Kelly & Co. p. 917.
- ^ C. Warren Hollister, Henry I, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2001, p. 16.
- ^ cf. Marjorie M. Morgan, The Suppression of the Alien Priories, in History NS 26, 103 (1941) 208
- ^ 'Colleges: Stoke by Clare', in A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1975), pp. 145-150. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/suff/vol2/pp145-150 [accessed 4 September 2017].
- ^ Alien houses: Priory of Stoke by Clare, in A History of the County of Suffolk, vol. 2, London 1975, pp. 154-155. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=37951 Date accessed: 26 July 2009.
- ^ Clive Burgess and Martin Heale, ‘’The Late Medieval English College and its Context’’, - Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge, 2008, pp. 80, 83. Cf. 'Colleges: Stoke by Clare', in A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1975), pp. 145-150. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/suff/vol2/pp145-150 [accessed 4 September 2017]; ‘'Alien houses: Priory of Stoke by Clare’’', in ‘’A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2’’, London 1975, pp. 154-155. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=37951 Date accessed: 26 July 2009.
- ^ List from ‘'Alien houses: Priory of Stoke by Clare’’', in ‘’A History of the County of Suffolk: Volume 2’’, London 1975, pp. 154-155. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=37951 Date accessed: 26 July 2009.