Gloucester Abbey

Gloucester Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in the city of Gloucester, England. Since 1541 it has been Gloucester Cathedral.

History

Early period

A Christian place of worship had stood on the abbey site since Anglo-Saxon times. Around 681, with the consent of Æthelred of Mercia, Osric of Hwicce, founded a monastery at Gloucester in honour of St. Peter and St. Paul. A relative, Kyneburg, was consecrated as the first abbess by Bosel, Bishop of Worcester. Monastic life flourished, and the possessions of the house increased, but after 767 it seems probable that the nuns dispersed during the confusion of civil strife in England. Beornwulf of Mercia is said to have rebuilt the church, and to have endowed a body of secular priests with the former possessions of the nuns."Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of St Peter at Gloucester". ''A History of the County of Gloucester'', Volume 2. (William Page, ed.) London: Victoria County History, 1907. 53-61. British History Online
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Benedictine monastery

In 1022 Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, had the Benedictine rule introduced and the abbey dedicated to St Peter. Knowles, David; Brooke C. N. L.; and London, Vera C. M. ''The Heads of Religious Houses: England and Wales 940–1216'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1972 p. 52 The monastic buildings were destroyed by fire, and in 1058 Bishop Aldred of Worcester rebuilt the church, but seized a number of holdings to compensate for the expense. In 1072 the convent consisted only of two monks and eight novices, and Abbot Wilstan had gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Abbot Wilstan died in 1072, and St. Peter's was invigorated when King William I appointed the energetic Norman monk Serlo to be abbot. Serlo had been a monk at Mont Saint-Michel, and had been recommended by Osmund, Bishop of Old Sarum. The monastery prospered under Serlo's rule. William the Conqueror gave the convent the manor of Barnwood and the church of St Peter Mancroft at Norwich. Walter de Lacy and his wife were generous benefactors. Upon his death in 1085, he was buried in the chapter house. In 1130, their son Walter, who had entered the monastery at the age of seven, became abbot. Ernulf de Hesdin gave the manor of Linkenholt in 1081. In 1093 when William II lay sick at Gloucester in 1093, he gave the church of St. Gundelay at Newport. William held Christmas court at Gloucester that year. In 1095, with the aid of the king, Serlo compelled Thomas of Bayeux, Archbishop of York, to restore all the lands in the possession of the see of York since 1058, when Aldred seized them. Serlo built the abbey Church of St Peter.

In the Middle Ages the abbey became rich and powerful. King Henry III was crowned there in 1216 at the age of nine. King Edward II, who had died in nearby Berkeley Castle, was buried there in 1327 and a shrine erected over his tomb. The additional funds this generated enabled the east end of the church to be rebuilt in the new perpendicular style and the west end to be remodelled. Later work created the south porch and the present tower and Lady Chapel. It is recorded that the abbey lost about a quarter of its complement of monks in 1377 due to the Black Death. In 1378, when Parliament was held in Gloucester, the king stayed at the abbey.

Dependencies

* In 1134, William Fitznorman gave the church of St David, Kilpeck, and the Chapel of St Mary at Kilpeck Castle to Gloucester Abbey, and a priory cell was established about 400 yards south east of the church, to house some monks displaced from Llanthony Priory by attacks of the Welsh. Kilpeck Priory closed in 1422.
* The Priory of Saints Peter, Paul and Guthlac in Hereford was a dependency of Gloucester Abbey.
* Ewenny Priory was founded by Maurice de Londres in 1141. Maurice granted the Norman church of St. Michael to the abbey of St. Peter at Gloucester, together with the church of St Brides Major and the chapel at Ogmore "in order that a convent of monks might be formed".
* In 1146 the college of Augustinian canons at Stanley St. Leonard was given to the monastery by Roger de Berkeley III, with the consent of the prior and canons, and became St. Leonard Priory. His grandfather, Roger de Berkeley I, had retired as a monk to St Peter's Abbey around 1091.

Dissolution

On 2 January 1540, the abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and granted to the newly created Bishop of Gloucester who had previously been the last Abbot of Tewkesbury Abbey. It became The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity in Gloucester the following year.

Many of the former abbey buildings have been Grade I listed, including the Cathedral, the Cathedral Cloisters, Cathedral Treasury and the Cathedral Chapter House, together with the Little Cloister, Little Cloister House, the Infirmary and Church House, the former Abbot's Lodging.

Notable burials

Notable people buried in St Peter's Abbey included:
*Osric, king of the Hwicce
*Robert Curthose, eldest son of William the Conqueror (c.1051–1134) Henry I gave the manor of Rodley to fund a candle at the high altar for his brother's soul.
*Edward II of England, seventh Plantagenet king of England (1307–1327).
*Walter Froucester (died 1412), Abbot of Gloucester
* Walter de Lacy (died 1085), Anglo-Norman baron
*Bernard de Neufmarché (c.1050–c.1125), Norman Lord, creator of Breconshire.
*Roger de Pitres (died bef. 1083), Norman Constable of Gloucester Castle

See also

* Abbot of Gloucester
* Gregory of Caergwent
* List of monastic houses in Gloucestershire

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gloucester Abbey
Benedictine monasteries in England
Anglo-Saxon monastic houses
Monasteries in Gloucestershire
1022 establishments in England
1540 disestablishments in England
History of Gloucester
11th-century church buildings in England
Christian monasteries established in the 11th century
Burial sites of the De Lacy family