The Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate [nb 1] was a monastery of Franciscan women living an enclosed life, established in the late 13th century on a site often said to be of five acres, [1] though it may have been as little as half that, [2] at the spot in the parish of St. Botolph, outside the medieval walls of the City of London at Aldgate that later, by a corruption of the term minoresses, became known as The Minories , a placename found also in other English towns including Birmingham, Colchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Stratford-upon-Avon.
As some varieties of the monastery's formal name make clear, the women of this abbey were members of the Order of St Clare, otherwise known as Clarisses, or more usually in English as Poor Clares. This was and is the female branch of the Order of St Francis or Order of Friars Minor known as Franciscans. In the structures typical of the mendicant orders, they were professed nuns of the Franciscan Second Order. As an expression of humility, the male Franciscans had adopted for themselves the Latin term fratres minores ("lesser brothers"), rendered in English as "friars minor" or just "minors". In a similar way, the Poor Clares were known in Latin as sorores minores ("lesser sisters") and in medieval England as "minoresses".
The Aldgate house was founded at least by 1291, when it is mentioned in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica , compiled in 1291–1292 at the behest of Pope Nicholas IV preparatory to papal taxation to finance a crusade to the Holy Land. Some think that there was perhaps a community operating on the site as early as 1281. [3] The title of "founder" was later consistently attributed to Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Leicester and Earl of Lancaster, a son of Henry III of England and brother of King Edward I. The new monastery was to house a group of enclosed Poor Clares. [4]
The members of the convent were brought to England by Edmund's second wife, Blanche of Artois, who was the widow of Henry le Gros, King of Navarre, and regent of the Kingdom of Navarre during the minority of their daughter, Joan I. [4] The high rank of the founder (and foundress) meant that the foundation was effected with a rapidity that contrasted with other minoresses houses in England. [5]
Though established only relatively recently (1212), the Poor Clares already had a mitigated form of their Rule, approved by Pope Urban IV, which allowed the Order to own property, as opposed to the restrictions originally laid down by the foundress, Clare of Assisi. The precise calibrated formulation of these matters is referred to as the Isabella Rule, after the sister of Louis IX of France (St Louis), St Isabella. Though never a nun, she had in 1256 founded the Poor Clares' Abbey of Longchamp in part of the Forest of Rouvray (now the Bois de Boulogne), west of Paris. [6]
Some indication of the degree of mitigation of St Clare's early severity can perhaps be seen from an example taken from a century after the Abbey's foundation. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest child of King Edward III, and his wife Eleanor de Bohun placed their youngest surviving daughter Isabel (1386–1402) in the Abbey. It speaks volumes for the degree of austerity in the house that by the widowed Eleanor's 1399 will, the daughter received a bed of cloth of gold, precious books and 40 pounds. [7] Eleanor was to die in the house and her daughter Isabel was to become the abbess. [4]
It so happened that Queen Blanche, wife to the Abbey's founder Edmund Crouchback, was a niece of King Louis and his sister Isabella, the latter being the foundress of the Poor Clares' Abbey of Longchamp, heavily involved in the drawing up of the mitigated Rule named after her. Both Louis and Isabella would later be regarded as saints.
Though some secondary literature speak of the nuns brought to launch the new English Abbey being of Spanish origin, in all probability they came from France, and more exactly from Longchamp, founded by Blanche's aunt, Isabella. [8] We know that around 1293-1294 another house of Minoresses founded in England at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire was populated by a group from Longchamp under the command of a former Abbess of Longchamp, Jeanne of Nevers. [9] Moreover, the Rule prescribed for the Aldgate nuns by Pope Boniface VIII was that of Longchamp. [4] That the Isabella Rule was in fact implemented at Aldate can be seen from a 15th-century English-language manuscript once belonging to the Abbey, and whose text represents the Isabella Rule. [10] As to the choice of women Franciscans for both Longchamp and Aldgate, an indication of the impetus of the Franciscan movement can be gained from the fact that in France alone, between 1220 and 1534 some 328 male Franciscan houses were founded. [11]
The founder, Earl Edmund, provided an initial endowment consisting of lands and tenements in the London suburbs and later in Derbyshire. Another early benefactor was Sir Henry le Galeys, Mayor of London in 1273 and 1281–1283. He died in 1302, having who endowed a chantry in the chapel of St Mary built by him in the nuns' church, and where he was buried. [4]
Notwithstanding this income and also important privileges and exemptions that were bestowed from an early date on the house by King Edward II and Pope Boniface VIII, the nuns' income seems to have been modest to poor. In 1290 we find a reference to the poor state of the buildings, [12] and in the 14th century the nuns were repeatedly let off both ecclesiastical and civil taxes on the grounds of their poverty. Nevertheless, in that same century there came a series of substantial benefactions from influential figures, such as Queen Isabella, widow of Edward II, Margaret, Countess of Norfolk and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. [4]
The heavy royal connections of the abbey's beginnings appear to have imparted from the outset a certain cachet to the house [13] and in particular in the early days women aspiring to become professed nuns had to be of noble birth, [14] though by the 14th century the daughters of wealthy merchants were also entering. [15] The presence of the noble and the rich within the abbey's walls was not confined to nuns. After the death of her husband, Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, in 1401, Margaret Beauchamp née Ferrers, was given an indult from the pope to reside in the Abbey with three matrons as long as she wished, though presumably not as a nun. More surprisingly still, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, whom we have already seen placing his young daughter Isabel in the Abbey, had a house right next to the conventual church and was allowed to have a private entrance made through. [4]
In April 1502 the Abbess sent a gift of distilled water of roses to the Tower of London for Elizabeth of York, the wife of Henry VII. The Queen gave a gift of money to three nuns and a servant of the Abbess. [16]
Like the general population, the Abbey must have suffered more than once from the plague and other epidemics. In 1514 the Bubonic Plague reappeared in London and was severe enough to drive Henry VIII and Erasmus well away from the city, and a new outbreak came the following year by April. [17] It is said that some twenty-seven of the abbey's nuns died of the plague in 1515. [18]
It must have been shortly after the outbreak of plague that the convent buildings were destroyed by fire. In addition to the benefactions of private individuals, the mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London made a contributions of 200 marks, but at the special request of Cardinal Wolsey to the Court of Common Council, it was decided in 1520 to give 100 marks more to complete the building. It is ironic that Henry VIII also gave £200 at this time, [4] which did not impede his closing and despoiling the house less than two decades later.
The following list is incomplete. Furthermore, to judge by the more abundant data available from the mother house, the Abbey of Longchamp, it is possible that a nun could serve more than one term of office as abbess, even at a distance of several years.
The seal of the Abbey in 1371 depicted the Virgin Mary standing holding the Christ Child, which is not a particularly common motif in medieval English nunneries. At other periods the favoured image on the Abbey's seals seems to have been the Coronation of the Virgin. [23]
According to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535, the abbey's income amounted to £342, 5 shillings 10½ pence gross, and £318, 8 shillings 5 pence net, while its possessions included several rents in and around London, manors and lands on the Isle of Wight, Berkshire and Hertfordshire.
The abbey was surrendered in March 1539, and the terms granted to the nuns were similar to those given in other nunneries. The abbess, Dame Elizabeth Salvage, received a life pension of £40 a year, four nuns received life pensions of £3, 3 shillings 8 pence each, ten nuns received £2 13 shillings 4 pence, nine nuns £2, and a novice £1, 6 shillings 8 pence. No provision appears to have been made for the six lay sisters.
Following the Dissolution, the abbey is said to have served for a time as the residence of John Clerk, Bishop of Bath and Wells, a veteran diplomat of Henry VIII; the King seizing the Bishop's own London residence in compensation. [24] It also came to house officers of the Tower of London. In 1552, under Edward VI, it was given to Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey. [25] In 1554 it reverted to government use, housing the Ordnance Office and its stores, transferred there from the Tower of London. Some of the abbey buildings survived until their destruction by fire in 1797.
In 1964 the coffin of Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, who died aged eight, was unearthed by chance at the abbey site, and later reburied in Westminster Abbey.
Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, later Duchess of York and Duchess of Norfolk was the child bride of Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, one of the Princes in the Tower. She died at the age of eight.
Elizabeth de Clare, 11th Lady of Clare was the heiress to the lordships of Clare, Suffolk, in England and Usk in Wales. She was the youngest of the three daughters of Gilbert de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford and Joan of Acre, and sister of Gilbert de Clare, who later succeeded as the 7th Earl. She is often referred to as Elizabeth de Burgh, due to her first marriage to John de Burgh. Her two successive husbands were Theobald II de Verdun and Roger d'Amory.
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare, originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis, are members of an enclosed order of nuns in the Roman Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan branch of the order to be established. Founded by Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, and before the Third Order. As of 2011, there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations.
Minories is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in the Aldgate area of the City of London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate.
Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke was the second wife of Franco-English nobleman Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, and is best known as the founder of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Isabelle of France was a French princess and daughter of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile. She was a younger sister of King Louis IX of France and of Alfonso, Count of Poitiers, and an older sister of King Charles I of Sicily. In 1256, she founded the nunnery of Longchamp in part of the Forest of Rouvray, west of Paris. Isabelle consecrated her virginity and her entire life to God alone. She is honored as a saint by the Franciscan Order. Her feast day is 26 February.
Agnes of Bohemia, O.S.C., also known as Agnes of Prague, was a medieval Bohemian princess who opted for a life of charity, mortification of the flesh and piety over a life of luxury and comfort. Although she was venerated soon after her death, Agnes was not beatified or canonized for over 700 years.
Minories is a street in Central London and former civil parish also known as Holy Trinity Minories
The Buttevant Franciscan Friary is a ruined 13th-century Franciscan friary is situated in the middle of the town of Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland. The Augustinian friary in nearby Ballybeg is often confused with the Buttevant Franciscan Friary in historical documents.
Henry de Beaume, O.F.M., , also known as Hugh Balme, was a Franciscan friar, priest and theologian. He became a supporter of the reform work of Colette of Corbie, among the Poor Clare nuns, which, in turn, led a reform movement of his own branch of the Franciscan Order. He is honored as a Blessed within the Order.
Colette of Corbie, PCC was a French abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. She is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church. Due to a number of miraculous events claimed during her life, she is venerated as a patron saint of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers, and sick children.
Amesbury Abbey was a Benedictine abbey of women at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, founded by Queen Ælfthryth in about the year 979 on what may have been the site of an earlier monastery. The abbey was dissolved in 1177 by Henry II, who founded in its place a house of the Order of Fontevraud, known as Amesbury Priory.
Amesbury Priory was a Benedictine monastery at Amesbury in Wiltshire, England, belonging to the Order of Fontevraud. It was founded in 1177 to replace the earlier Amesbury Abbey, a Saxon foundation established about the year 979. The Anglo-Norman Amesbury Priory was disbanded at the Dissolution of the monasteries and ceased to exist as a monastic house in 1539.
Holy Trinity, Minories, was a Church of England parish church outside the eastern boundaries of the City of London, but within the Liberties of the Tower of London and therefore in the East End of London. The liberty was incorporated in the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney in 1899, and today is within the City of London. Converted from the chapel of a nunnery, Holy Trinity was in use as a church from the 16th century until the end of the 19th century. It survived as a parish hall until it was destroyed by bombing during World War II.
Grovebury Priory, also known as La Grave or Grava was a priory in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England. It was established in 1164 and disestablished in 1414.
Waterbeach Abbey was an abbey at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, England. It was established in 1294 by nuns from the Second Order of St. Francis who had come from Longchamp Abbey in France, which also at least inspired the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate. By 1351, the flood-prone abbey had become disused, the nuns having moved to the nearby Denny Abbey. The site is a scheduled monument.
The Convent of Poor Clares at Gravelines in the Spanish Netherlands, now northern France, was a community of English nuns of the Order of St. Clare, commonly called "Poor Clares", which was founded in 1607 by Mary Ward. The order of Poor Clares was founded in 1212 by Saint Clare of Assisi as the Second Order of the Franciscan movement. It is an enclosed religious order which follows an austere lifestyle. After the Reformation and its consequence, the Dissolution of the Monasteries between 1536 and 1541 by Henry VIII, the only opportunity for recusant English women to enter religious life was to leave the country and join a community overseas.
When referring to Roman Catholic religious orders, the term second order refers to those communities of contemplative cloistered nuns which are a part of the religious orders that developed in the Middle Ages.
The Colettine Poor Clares are a reform branch of the Order of St. Clare, founded by Clare of Assisi in Italy in 1211. They follow the interpretation of the Rule of St. Clare established in 1410 by Saint Colette, originally a French hermit and member of the Third Order of St. Francis.