Lyre Abbey (french: L'abbaye Notre-Dame de Lyre) was a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, founded in 1046 at what is now the village of

La Vieille-Lyre La Vieille-Lyre () is a commune in the Eure department in Normandy in northern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territ ...

. From the mid-12th century it was a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

house. It was abolished at the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

and the abbey buildings mostly destroyed.

History

Foundation

One of the many monasteries that sprang up in

in the 11th century, the

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

of Lyre was founded in 1046, a near contemporary of

Bec Abbey Bec Abbey, formally the Abbey of Our Lady of Bec (french: Abbaye Notre-Dame du Bec), is a Benedictine monastic foundation in the Eure ''département'', in the Bec valley midway between the cities of Rouen and Bernay. It is located in Le Bec Hello ...

and the two great monasteries at

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Abbaye aux Dames An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conc ...

and the

Abbaye aux Hommes An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

(Saint-Étienne).

William FitzOsbern William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford, Lord of Breteuil ( 1011 – 22 February 1071), was a relative and close counsellor of William the Conqueror and one of the great magnates of early Norman England. FitzOsbern was created Earl of Hereford ...

, (c. 1020-1071), Lord of Breteuil and Adeliza de Tosny founded the abbey. FitzOsbern is one of the very few proven

companions of William the Conqueror William the Conqueror had men of diverse standing and origins under his command at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. With these and other men he went on in the five succeeding years to conduct the Harrying of the North and complete the Norman conqu ...

known to have fought at the

Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...

in 1066. He was a relative and close counsellor of

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, being later made

Earl of Hereford The title of Earl of Hereford was created six times in the Peerage of England. Dates indicate the years the person held the title for. Earls of Hereford, First Creation (1043) * Swegen Godwinson (1043–1051) ''earldom forfeit 1051–1052'' Earl ...

. From its founder the abbey received important grants in its immediate vicinity, but also further afield. In the wake of the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

FitzObern became one of the great

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s of early

Norman England England in the High Middle Ages includes the history of England between the Norman Conquest in 1066 and the death of King John, considered by some to be the last of the Angevin kings of England, in 1216. A disputed succession and victory at the ...

, acquiring extensive lands there, from which he made generous donations to Lyre Abbey, which emerges in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

as one of the Norman abbeys with the greatest landholdings in England. Throughout the 12th century Lyre continued to receive lands and rents both in England and in Normandy. The principal benefactor in this period was Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester,

Count of Meulan The county of Meulan, in Normandy, France, appeared as an entity within the region of the Vexin when the otherwise unknown Count Waleran established an independent power base on a fortified island in the River Seine, around the year 1020. Waleran' ...

, a major figure close to Kings

Henry I Henry I may refer to: 876–1366 * Henry I the Fowler, King of Germany (876–936) * Henry I, Duke of Bavaria (died 955) * Henry I of Austria, Margrave of Austria (died 1018) * Henry I of France (1008–1060) * Henry I the Long, Margrave of the ...

and

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

. This was a period when Lyre’s

scriptorium Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes and ...

was very active, bearing witness to the abbey’s vitality and prestige by the quality of the illuminated manuscripts it produced and which are now conserved in libraries throughout Europe. In the mid-12th century the monks undertook the rebuilding of the abbey church but in 1188 it was destroyed in a fire. The subsequent rebuilding, in 1199, then lasted until the

. During the century following the abbey extended by purchase its lands and rents. The visitation carried out in 1269 by Eudes Rigaud,

Archbishop of Rouen The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Rouen (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Rothomagensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Rouen'') is an archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in France. As one of the fifteen Archbishops of France, the Ar ...

, records the presence of 37 monks in the monastery, but also 15 more resident in England or in Wales at the Lyre dependencies of

Carisbrooke Carisbrooke is a village on the south western outskirts of Newport, Isle of Wight and is best known as the site of Carisbrooke Castle. It also has a medieval parish church. St Mary's Church (overlooking Carisbrooke High Street with views to the ...

(

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbor ...

(

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

), Livers Ocle (

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

) and Wareham (

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

) in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Llangua Llangua ( cy, Llangiwa) is a village in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, United Kingdom. Saint Ciwa is said to have built a church there in the VIIth century. Location Llangua is located nine miles north-east of Abergavenny on the A465 ro ...

(

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

) in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Decline

The Order of St Benedict underwent a crisis from the 12th century onwards and the baton passed in some sense to the

Cistercian Order The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint B ...

and to the new formula of the mendicant orders, in particular the

Franciscans , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

and the Dominicans. The donations of the wealthy faithful followed the trend and Lyre Abbey was no exception among existing monasteries in finding itself with reduced donations. LyreSceau

The

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...

was an accelerating factor in the decline, the abbey being twice pillaged by the forces of King

Charles II of Navarre Charles II (10 October 1332 – 1 January 1387), called Charles the Bad, was King of Navarre 1349–1387 and Count of Évreux 1343–1387. Besides the Pyrenean Kingdom of Navarre, Charles had extensive lands in Normandy, inherited from his father ...

(Charles the Bad) in about 1359 and again in 1365. In 1419, Normandy came under English rule. When, however, in 1430, a new abbot Guillaume le Bas, a monk of

Jumièges Abbey Jumièges Abbey () was a Benedictine monastery, situated in the commune of Jumièges in the Seine-Maritime ''département'', in Normandy, France. History Around 654 the abbey was founded on a gift of forested land belonging to the royal fisc ...

, was imposed on the monastery, the monks resisted on the grounds that he was too favourable to England and in 1440 it took an escort of English troops to enable the abbot to take possession. When in 1449, the forces of

Charles VII of France Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461), called the Victorious (french: le Victorieux) or the Well-Served (), was King of France from 1422 to his death in 1461. In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII inherited the throne of F ...

retook the territory, Guillaume le Bas submitted to the new regime but the opposition of his monks continued. The abbot resisted and finally left the abbey only in 1463, when he was appointed Latin Bishop of

Avlonari Avlonari ( el, Αυλωνάρι) is a village and a community (unit) of the Municipality Kymi-Aliveri, in the eastern part of the Aegean island of Euboea, Greece. It was the seat of the municipality of Avlon, Ancient Aulon (hence the name; has h ...

in Greece. A whole new chapter of woes opened for Lyre as for so many other monasteries with the advent of

commendatory abbots A commendatory abbot ( la, abbas commendatarius) is an ecclesiastic, or sometimes a layman, who holds an abbey ''in commendam'', drawing its revenues but not exercising any authority over its inner monastic discipline. If a commendatory abbot is a ...

. High-ranking outsiders, not rarely laymen, were appointed to be heads of monastic houses as a reward for their service to the crown. Few resided at the monastery, but through an intermediary they syphoned off a substantial proportion of the monastery’s income. In the first half of the 16th century the commendatory abbot of Lyre was the

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Bishop of Lisieux A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, who occupied more or less simultaneously the same post at six other abbeys including

Mont-Saint-Michel Mont-Saint-Michel (; Norman: ''Mont Saint Miché''; ) is a tidal island and mainland commune in Normandy, France. The island lies approximately off the country's north-western coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches and i ...

and

Bec BEC may refer to: As an acronym House * Bapatla Engineering College * Basaveshwar Engineering College * Bengal Engineering College Curriculum * Business Environment and Concepts, a section of Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination * Bus ...

. While the revenues flowed out to the commendatory abbots, the monastery buildings in many places fell into ruin for want of funds to repair them. LyreBlason

In 1646 an important change came about when the then commendatory abbot, the

Bishop of Évreux A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, Jacques Le Noël du Perron brought to the abbey the Maurist reform. The aggregation to the

Congregation of Saint-Maur The Congregation of St. Maur, often known as the Maurists, were a congregation of French Benedictines, established in 1621, and known for their high level of scholarship. The congregation and its members were named after Saint Maurus (died 565), ...

meant at first an influx of more monks to join the existing community. A new and more austere lifestyle was introduced and a dedication to scholarly activities. From the end of the 17th century the Maurists reconstructed practically all the abbey buildings, but the new burst of energy did not succeed in galvanizing recruitment and in 1698 there were only 7 monks. The arrival of the Maurists did not mean that the appointment of commendatory abbots had ceased and in the 18th century Lyre was in the hands of two prelates of the

House of Rohan The House of Rohan ( br, Roc'han) is a Breton people, Breton family of viscounts, later dukes and princes in the French nobility, coming from the locality of Rohan (commune), Rohan in Brittany. Their line descends from the viscounts of Porhoët ...

, both Prince Bishops of Strasbourg.

Suppression

The end of Lyre Abbey at the time of the

came in two phases. Consequent upon the decision taken on 13 February 1790 by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

to dissolve all religious orders, the ten monks of Lyre were thrown into crisis. Already their relations with the local villagers were tense, exacerbated by the revolutionary propaganda which included them in the hated landowning classes. By nightfall on 16 May several of the abbey’s valuables had already been stolen, though some of the locals accused the monks themselves of being responsible. As the situation evolved, the community, minus the prior and subprior, were in effect prisoners for months in their own house. When finally they were allowed to leave, the abbey as a monastic community ended seven and a half centuries of existence. In the second phase, the abbey buildings, having been like all similar properties throughout France declared possessions of the state, started to be leased out from September 1790 and were then eventually sold off in lots. The abbey church was made the parish church, but its parlous condition prompted the parishioners to abandon it again for their original church. In November 1797 they were vindicated when the abbey church collapsed in part, and in early 1798 the decision was taken to sell off the rest of the buildings. There was a general demolition; stone and funeral monuments were all carried off and the trees felled. By 1804 an official survey noted that there was no further trace of the abbey, except for part of the abbot’s residence.

Abbots

Monastic abbots

* Robert du Châlet (c. 1050-), first abbot. * Erfast * Bernon * Ernault or Arnault * Hildevert or Hildebert * Gilbert I de Glos * Guillaume I * Raoul I * Hildier (-1147) * Guillaume II (1148-1166) * Osbert or Osbern (-1177) * Geoffroy I (1177-1206) * Guillaume III de Ferrières (1206-1216) * Robert de l’Isle (1216-1221) * Richard of Leicester (1221-1226) * Jean I d’Almenesches (1226-1241) * Geoffroy de la Vallée (1241-1246) * Gilbert de la Haye (1246-1262) * Robert II de Gauville (1262-1282) * Raoul II de Romilly (1282-1296) * Guillaume IV Héduart (1297-1329) * Hildier II (1330-1331) * Robert III (1332-1334) * Guillaume V Tesson (1334-1350) * Jean II (1350-1362) * Guillaume VI Leblond (1362-1367) * Guillaume VII (1367-1374) * Georges Nizier or Le Mercier (1374-1389) * Astorge de Beauclerc (1390-1400) * Etienne du Pré (1400-1414; resigned) * Simon de Monceaux (1414-1440) * Guillaume Le Bas (1440-1463; later Latin Bishop of

)

Commendatory abbots before the Maurist Reform

* Louis d'Harcourt (1463-1479) * Pierre III d'Amboise (1479-1481) * Benoît de Chaumecy or de Chamecy (1484-1500) * Jean III de Cléry (1500-1512; elected by the monks of Lyre) *

René de Prie René de Prie (1451–1519) was a French people, French Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Bishop (Catholic Church), bishop and Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal. Biography René de Prie was born in Touraine in 1451, the son of Antoine de Prie, baron ...

(1512-1516; a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

, he died at the abbey in 1516.) * Ambroise Le Veneur de Tillières (1516-1531) *

Jean Le Veneur Jean Le Veneur (died 8 August 1543), son of a Norman baron, was a French Abbot, Bishop, Courtier, royal official, and Roman Catholic cardinal. Biography He was born into a noble family of Normandy. He was the second son of Philippe, baron of Till ...

(1531-1535; a

, and the brother of his predecessor) * Gabriel Le Veneur de Tillières (1535-1549; great nephew of his predecessor) *

Hippolyte d'Este Ippolito (II) d'Este (25 August 1509 – 2 December 1572) was an Italian cardinal and statesman. He was a member of the House of Este, and nephew of the other Ippolito d'Este, also a cardinal. He is perhaps best known for his despoliation of the ...

(1549-1571; a

) * Louis or Aloyse d’Este (1575-1586; a

) * Louis of Lorraine (1586-1588; a

). * Louis of Lorraine (1593-1598; a

) * Charles of Bourbon (1598-1599;

) Half-brother of King

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

. Cf. Joseph Bergin, ''The Making of the French Episcopate, 1589–1661'', Yale University Press, New Haven, 1996, p. 581; Louis Dussieux, ''Généalogie de la maison de Bourbon: de 1256 à 1871'', Lecoffre, Paris, 1872, p. 81; Nicolas Louis Achaintre, ''Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon, t. 2'', Mansut, Paris, 1825, p. 26. *

Jacques Davy Duperron Jacques Davy Duperron (15 November 1556 – 6 December 1618) was a French politician and Roman Catholic cardinal. Family and Education Jacques Davy du Perron was born in Saint-Lô in Normandy, into the Davy family, of the Norman minor nobility ...

(1599-1618; a

) * Jean Davy du Perron (1618-1621; brother of his predecessor)

Commendatory Abbots from the Maurist Reform

* Jacques Le Noël du Perron (1622-1648; died 1649) * Louis Barbier de La Rivière (1649-1670) * Jacques Bretel de Grémonville (1670-1686) * Jean-Jacques Séguier de La Verrière (1688-1689) * Louis VI de Calvière (1689-1698) *

Armand Gaston Maximilien de Rohan Armand de Rohan (Armand Gaston Maximilien; 26 June 1674 – 19 July 1749) was a French churchman and politician. He became Bishop of Strasbourg in 1704, Cardinal in 1712 then Grand Almoner of France in 1713 and member of the regency council ...

(1698-1713; a

) * Pierre de Pardaillan de Gondrin (1713-1733) * Louis Constantin de Rohan (1734-1779) * François de Narbonne-Lara (1779-1789; last abbot)

Burials

William of Breteuil William of Breteuil was Benedictine abbot of Breteuil, near Beauvais, France. He rebuilt the monastery after it had been nearly destroyed by the Normans. He was the eldest son of William FitzOsbern, 1st Earl of Hereford. He was held captive an ...

Notes

Reading

* Charles Guéry, ''Histoire de l’abbaye de Lyre'', Imprimerie de l’Eure, Évreux, 1917
gallica.bnf.fr
* Laurent Ridel, Nigel Wilkins, Notre-Dame de Lyre : Histoire d'une abbaye disparue, Mont-Saint-Aignan, Presses universitaires de Rouen et du Havre, 2019, (ISBN 979-10-240-0452-5). {{Authority control 1046 establishments Benedictine monasteries in France Buildings and structures in Eure Christian monasteries established in the 11th century Duchy of Normandy Monasteries destroyed during the French Revolution Norman architecture English churches with Norman architecture 11th-century establishments in France