Crowland or Croyland is a town and civil parish in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated between Peterborough and Spalding. Crowland contains two sites of historical interest, Crowland Abbey and Trinity Bridge.
The Croyland Chronicle, also called Crowland Chronicle, is an important primary source for English medieval history, particularly the late 15th century. It is named for its place of origin, the Benedictine Abbey of Croyland or Crowland, in Lincolnshire, England. It was formerly also known as the Chronicle of Ingulf or Ingulphus after its supposed original compiler, the 11th-century abbot Ingulf. As that section of the text is now known to have been a later forgery, its author is instead known as Pseudo-Ingulf. The validity of the source itself has been questioned, partially due to the unknown identity of the original author, and gaps in all continuations of the text. There has also been substantially little effort made to find and translate the original manuscript.
The Fens or Fenlands in eastern England are a naturally marshy region supporting a rich ecology and numerous species. Most of the fens were drained centuries ago, resulting in a flat, dry, low-lying agricultural region supported by a system of drainage channels and man-made rivers and automated pumping stations. There have been unintended consequences to this reclamation, as the land level has continued to sink and the dykes have been built higher to protect it from flooding.
Orderic Vitalis was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Working out of the Abbey of Saint-Evroul, he is credited with writing the Historia Ecclesiastica, a work detailing the history of Europe and the Mediterranean from the birth of Jesus Christ into his own age. The son of a cleric, he was born into a noble family, claiming both English and Norman heritage. While he is known primarily for the Historia Ecclesiastica, he also was able to ascend to various positions within the church including script master, librarian, and cantor. A prolific writer, he addressed various topics in his writings, both religious and secular. Modern historians view him as a reliable source.
Lincolnshire, England derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough of Stamford. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book. Later, Lindsey was applied to only the northern core, around Lincoln; it was defined as one of the three 'Parts of Lincolnshire', along with Holland in the south-east and Kesteven in the south west.
Pega is a Christian saint who was an anchoress in the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, and the sister of St Guthlac.
Saint Guthlac of Crowland was a Christian hermit and saint from Lincolnshire in England. He is particularly venerated in the Fens of eastern England.
Ælfwald was an 8th-century king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom that today includes the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. The last king of the Wuffingas dynasty, Ælfwald succeeded his father Ealdwulf, who had ruled for 49 years. Ælfwald himself ruled for 36 years. Their combined reigns, with barely any record of external military action or internal dynastic strife, represent a long period of peaceful stability for the East Angles. In Ælfwald's time, this was probably owing to a number of factors, including the settled nature of East Anglian ecclesiastical affairs and the prosperity brought through Rhineland commerce with the East Anglian port of Gipeswic. The coinage of Anglo-Saxon sceattas expanded in Ælfwald's time: evidence of East Anglian mints, markets, and industry are suggested where concentrations of such coins have been discovered.
Ingulf was the Benedictine abbot of Crowland from 1087.
Medeshamstede was the name of Peterborough in the Anglo-Saxon period. It was the site of a monastery founded around the middle of the 7th century, which was an important feature in the kingdom of Mercia from the outset. Little is known of its founder and first abbot, Sexwulf, though he was himself an important figure, and later became bishop of Mercia. Medeshamstede soon acquired a string of daughter churches, and was a centre for an Anglo-Saxon sculptural style.
Croyland Abbey is a Grade II-listed manor house, in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
William of Ramsey was a 13th-century English Benedictine monk of Croyland Abbey, born at Ramsey, Huntingdonshire.
Spalding Priory was a small Benedictine house in the town of Spalding, Lincolnshire, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and St Nicholas.
Barlings Abbey was a one of nine Premonstratensian monasteries in the county of Lincolnshire, England. It was founded in 1154, as a daughter house of the Abbey of St. Mary and St. Martial in Newsham.
Thurcytel was abbot of Crowland and perhaps also of Bedford Abbey.
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th centuries. The site is a Scheduled Historic Monument.
The Abbot of Crowland was the head of Crowland Abbey, an English monastery built up around the shrine of Saint Guthlac of Crowland by King Æthelbald of Mercia, and refounded as a Benedictine house circa 948. The last abbot was John Wells, who was constrained to surrender the monastery to the king's agents during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539.
Cissa of Crowland was a saint in the medieval Fenlands. He was the successor of Guthlac as abbot of Crowland, and is mentioned in Felix' Vita Guthlaci. According to the Crowland Chronicle his tomb was next to Guthlac's, and like the tomb of Guthlac, was destroyed by the Scandinavians. His relics were translated to Thorney Abbey in the 10th-century.
Bettelin of Crowland, also known as Beccel, was an 8th century hermit and saint of Crowland, and a follower of Guthlac.
The Historia Croylandensis is a series of bound documents, allegedly from the 15th century, containing a fake history of the Benedictine abbey of Croyland in Lincolnshire, England.
