Gilling Abbey was a medieval
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
monastery established in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
, England.
It was founded at Gilling in what is currently
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
[Blair ''Church in Anglo-Saxon Society'' p. 187 footnote 20] by Queen
Eanflæd
Eanflæd (19 April 626 – after 685, also known as Enfleda) was a Deiran princess, queen of Northumbria and later, the abbess of an influential Christian monastery in Whitby, England. She was the daughter of King Edwin of Northumbria and Æth ...
, the wife of King
Oswiu of Northumbria
Oswiu, also known as Oswy or Oswig ( ang, Ōswīg; c. 612 – 15 February 670), was King of Bernicia from 642 and of Northumbria from 654 until his death. He is notable for his role at the Synod of Whitby in 664, which ultimately brought the chur ...
, who persuaded her husband to found it at the site where Oswiu had killed a rival and kinsman, King
Oswine of Deira
Oswine, Oswin or Osuine (died 20 August 651) was a King of Deira in northern England.
Life
Oswine succeeded King Oswald of Northumbria, probably around the year 644, after Oswald's death at the Battle of Maserfield. Oswine was the son of Osric ...
.
[ Oswine died around 651 or 652. Eanflæd forced her husband to found the monastery in order to atone for Oswine's death, since Eanflæd was Oswine's second cousin.][Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 78] Under the laws of the time, the only way Eanflæd could take revenge for her cousin's death was to kill her husband or accept a substantial gift known as a weregild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
. The abbey was built on that weregild.[Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' p. 80] Eanflæd also requested that the first abbot be a kinsman of Oswine.[Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 230] By founding the monastery shortly after Oswine's death,[Mayr-Harting ''Coming of Christianity'' p. 106] Oswiu and Eanflæd avoided the creation of a feud.[Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 234]
The monastery promoted Oswine as a saint, one of a number of murdered Anglo-Saxon kings that were considered saints.[Yorke ''Conversion of Britain'' p. 193]
The first abbot of the monastery was a relative of Oswine's named Trumhere __NOTOC__
Trumhere (or Thumhere; died ) was a medieval Bishop of Mercia.
Trumhere probably was consecrated about 658 and died about 662.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 220 He was born in England but was educated in Ireland.St ...
.[Kirby "Northumbria" ''Saint Wilfrid at Hexham'' p. 19] The second abbot was Cynefrith, who later left the abbey and went to Ireland.[Blair ''World of Bede'' p. 101] Another early abbot was Trumbert
Trumbert (or Tunberht or Tunbeorht) was a monk of Jarrow, a disciple of Chad and later Bishop of Hexham.
Life
Trumbert was educated at Lastingham by Chad, and was a teacher of Bede.Bede ''Ecclesiastical History of England'' iv 3 He was the b ...
, who either became Bishop of Hexham
The Bishop of Hexham was an episcopal title which took its name after the market town of Hexham in Northumberland, England. The title was first used by the Anglo-Saxons in the 7th and 9th centuries, and then by the Roman Catholic Church sinc ...
after being abbot,[Kirby "Northumbira" ''Saint Wilfrid at Hexham'' p. 23] or was abbot after being deposed as bishop.[Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 91] Gilling may be identical with the monastery of ''Ingetlingum'', which had close ties to the monastery at Ripon
Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...
, which was held by Wilfrid
Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...
.[Roper "Wilfrid's Landholdings" ''Saint Wilfrid at Hexham'' p. 61] Gilling became depopulated from the plague,[Blair ''World of Bede'' pp. 162–163] sometime before 669.[Mayr-Harting ''Coming of Christianity'' p. 166] Because of this, one of the monks there, Ceolfrith
Saint Ceolfrid (or Ceolfrith, ; c. 642 – 716) was an Anglo-Saxon Christian abbot and saint. He is best known as the warden of Bede from the age of seven until his death in 716. He was the Abbot of Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey, and a major co ...
, brother of Cynefrith, went to Ripon.[ Ceolfrith later went to Wearmouth-Jarrow, where he became abbot.][ It is unknown whether the depopulation of the monastery from the plague meant the end of the religious community at Gilling, or if it continued to exist after that.][Pickles "Locating ''Ingetlingum'' and ''Suthgedling''" ''Northern History'' p. 316]
The abbey's location has traditionally held to have been in or near Gilling West, Yorkshire. An alternative location of Gilling East, Yorkshire has been proposed by historians Richard Morris and Ian Wood.[Pickles "Locating ''Ingetlingum'' and ''Suthgedling''" ''Northern History'' pp. 313-314]
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{{short description, Medieval monastery in Yorkshire
Monasteries in North Yorkshire
Anglo-Saxon monastic houses
7th-century establishments in England
Christian monasteries established in the 7th century
7th-century church buildings in England