Alnwick Abbey was founded as a Premonstratensian monastery in 1147 by

Eustace fitz John Eustace fitz John (died 1157), Constable of Chester, was a powerful magnate in northern England during the reigns of Henry I, Stephen and Henry II. From a relatively humble background in South East England, Eustace made his career serving Henry I ...

near Alnwick,

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 ...

, as a daughter house of Newhouse Abbey in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. It was dissolved in 1535, refounded in 1536 and finally suppressed in 1539. The Alnwick Abbey site is located just within

Hulne Park Hulne Park is the only one remaining of the three parks that once surrounded Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, providing wood and meat for the Percy family, the Dukes of Northumberland. The park is walled, and was landscaped by Capability Bro ...

, on the bank of the

River Aln The River Aln () runs through the county of Northumberland in England. It rises in Alnham in the Cheviot Hills and discharges into the North Sea at Alnmouth on the east coast of England. The river gives its name to the town of Alnwick and t ...

. The only visible remnant is the impressive 14th-century gatehouse, a Grade I listed building.

Founding

Eustace fitz John became lord of the barony of Alnwick by his marriage with Beatrix, the daughter of

Ivo de Vesci Ivo de Vesci, sometimes spelt Vescy and first name sometimes Yves, was a prominent 11th-century English noble. He obtained lands and the lordship of Alnwick in Northumberland from King William II of England. He was also given lands in Malton, ...

. He endowed it amply. The charter of foundation, included in a confirmatory charter of Henry Percy,

Earl of Northumberland The title of Earl of Northumberland has been created several times in the Peerage of England and of Great Britain, succeeding the title Earl of Northumbria. Its most famous holders are the House of Percy (''alias'' Perci), who were the most po ...

, is addressed to William of St. Barbara,

Bishop of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...

. Among the souls for whose benefit it was erected, is mentioned that of Ivo de Vesci. From Dugdale's authority, it is said that the first of that order came to settle at Alnwick in the year 1147. The order first came over in 1143, and settled at Newhouse, in

, in their monastery built by Peter of Goxhill, dedicated to St. Mary and St. Martial.Geudens, Francis Martin. "Abbey of Newhouse." The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 22 January 2019 Although following a rule based on the "Rule of St. Augustine", the Premonstratensian order incorporated Cistercian values of austerity and seclusion and founded all its monasteries in rural locations. Dependencies included the hospital at Alnwick, and Guyzance Priory, which was annexed to Alnwick by Eustace fitz John.

Fourteenth-century banquet

In the chronicle of this house, preserved in the library of

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, there is an account of a banquet given by Walter de Hepescotes, the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

, A. D. 1376, on the day of the

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

, to Henry the 4th Lord of Alnwick, with the thirteen following

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

s, William de Acon, Richard Tempest, Walter Blount, Allan de Heton, John Conyers, John Heron, John Littleburum, Thomas de Ilderton, Thomas de Boynton, Ingram de Umfravil, John de Dichaunt, John de Swynton, Radulphus de Viners, and many others of the chief gentry of the country, amounting to 120, all entertained in the

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the Lat ...

; in addition to eighty-six at a second repast. The

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

s too were filled with commoners of all ages, to the number of 1,020, who were likewise there feasted.

Burials

It appears from the same authority, that a number of the Percys were interred here; particularly Henry, the second Lord of Alnwick, who died c. 1351: Henry the third Lord, who bestowed on the monks £100l at his death, A. D. 1368; also

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

his wife, daughter of

Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster Henry, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Lancaster ( – 22 September 1345) was a grandson of King Henry III of England (1216–1272) and was one of the principals behind the deposition of King Edward II (1307–1327), his first cousin. Origins He wa ...

. Henry, the fourth Lord of Alnwick, A. D. 1372, was admitted in the month of February to the Brotherhood of this chapter, together with many other knights and esquires; as also, in the succeeding year,

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

his eldest son, with his two brothers, Sir Thomas and Sir Ralph.

Other burials

John de Vesci John de Vesci, sometimes spelt Vescy, was a prominent 13th-century noble. He was the eldest son of William de Vesci and Agnes de Ferrers. He married firstly Agnes de Saluzzo and secondly Isabella de Beaumont. John died c. 1289. He succeeded to h ...

Eustace de Vesci Eustace de Vesci (1169–1216) was an English lord of Alnwick Castle, and a ''Magna Carta'' surety. He also held lands in Sprouston, Roxburghshire, Scotland as brother in-law to King Alexander II of Scotland. Eustace was a leader during the Baro ...

William de Vesci William de Vesci (c.1125–1184) was an Anglo-Norman feudal lord and Sheriff. Born William fitz Eustace at Knaresborough Castle, Yorkshire, the son of Eustace Fitz John and Beatrix de Vesci, he took his mother's surname. He was appointed Sher ...

and his wife Burga de Stuteville (daughter of Robert III de Stuteville) *

Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, titular King of Mann, KG, Lord Marshal (10 November 134120 February 1408) was the son of Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy, and a descendant of Henry III of England. His mother was Mary ...

* Mary of Lancaster

Famine and pestilence

During the abbacy of Walter de Hepescotes, this house was afflicted with a great scarcity, together with a pestilence, whereby all the cattle belonging to the monastery were destroyed.

Representation in parliament

The abbot of this house was summoned to the

parliaments In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. T ...

of the 23rd, 24th, 28th, 32nd, and 34th years of King Edward I; also to that held at Carlisle, 35th of the same reign; and to the parliament of the 19th King Edward II.

Dissolution and subsequent possession

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the revenues of this house were valued at £1,89l. 15s. by Dugdale, and £1,94l. 7s. by Speed, there being then thirteen canons. King

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first E ...

in the fourth year of his reign, granted the site to Ralph Sadler and Laurence Winnington. It came afterwards to the possession of the Brandling family and the Doubledays. Francis Brandling welcomed King James at Alnwick Abbey on 7 May 1617 for two nights. The king had come from

Bothal Castle Bothal Castle is a castle and stately home in the village of the same name near the River Wansbeck, between Morpeth and Ashington in the English county of Northumberland. Botl is Old English for a dwelling. Bothal could refer to a particular ...

and was on his way to Scotland.

Gatehouse and tower

There are no remains of the Abbey except for the

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the mo ...

and

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

, which by the architecture and arms sculptured upon the building, show it is of much more modern date than the foundation of the house. This tower is not square, but oblong, having an exploratory turret on each corner. The north side is ornamented with a niche, canopied, capable of receiving a statue five feet high: most probably it contained the

effigies An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of the dedicatory Virgin. Beneath is a figure of an

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

, with expanded wings. Over this entrance are shields of arms, a cross, supposed to be the arms of the Vesci family, and a

Cross moline The cross moline (also cross anchory, French ''croix ancrée'' "anchor cross") is a Christian cross, constituting a kind of heraldic cross. History The name derives from its shape, which resembles a millrind, the iron clamp of the upper millst ...

. On the south side, in a niche, is the figure of one of the Religious, of the order of White Friars of Premonstratenses, in his proper habilament, in fairly good preservation. This front is ornamented with shields of arms, the arms of Brabant adopted by the Percys, with the arms of

Lucy Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...

s quarterly, the principal; and also the arms of Vesci. A gate opens to the east, on each side of which are the figures of cherubs supporting armorial shields: on this front is also a canopy and niche for a statue. Here are the arms of Brabant and the arms of the Lucys on separate shields. At this entrance, as also on the north side, were

machicolations A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...

; and in the centre of the arching of the gateway is a square aperture, from which the possessors could annoy assailants. The

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

of this tower is excellent; the gates of

lattice Lattice may refer to: Arts and design * Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material * Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios * Lattice (pastry), an orna ...

braced with iron still remain. Above the gate going into the court of the house is an escutcheon of white

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...

, much injured by the weather, but retaining some marks of the sculptor, to distinguish that it once contained the crest of the Doubledays, an arm in armour suspending a mullet. The antiquity of this piece has been much doubted, but the materials determine that point clearly. The gatehouse is Grade I listed as a

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

Abbots

Appearance in film

The Gatehouse is featured in the opening scenes of the 1998 film ''Elizabeth''.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{coord, 55.41985, N, 1.71914, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Alnwick Monasteries in Northumberland Premonstratensian monasteries in England 1147 establishments in England 1539 disestablishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century