Blythburgh Priory

Blythburgh Priory was a medieval monastic house of Augustinian canons, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, located in the village of Blythburgh in Suffolk, England. Founded in the early 12th century, it was among the first Augustinian houses in England and began as a cell of St Osyth's Priory in Essex. Although it acquired a conventual life of its own, its community was always small and in some respects maintained dependency upon the parent house. It was earmarked for closure by Cardinal Wolsey during the late 1520s but survived his fall and continued until dissolution in 1536.

Although it stood near the medieval parish church of the Holy Trinity, Blythburgh, renowned landmark overlooking the estuary of the river Blyth, the Priory was a separate group of structures with its own large Norman church and conventual buildings in stone. While it is important to distinguish between the (lost) church of the priory, and the (existing) parish church, the connection between the two sites may have its roots in pre-Conquest times.

The priory ruins have been known to county historians for centuries, but they became overgrown and neglected during the 20th century, standing in the grounds of a private residence where public access was discouraged. They have been the subject of various campaigns of investigation in recent years, and are now carefully preserved and remain in private ownership. A great deal of information about the priory's patrons, its charters, estates and temporalities, can be derived from the surviving Priory Cartulary, edited by Christopher Harper-Bill, and from related records.

A special aspect of the priory's topographical interest lies in its association with a far older phase of East Anglian history. For various reasons it is believed to have had a connection with the 7th century Anglo-Saxon King Anna of the East Angles (died A.D. 653 or 654), a Christian ruler who died defending his kingdom in battle. According to the 12th-century ''Liber Eliensis,'' Blythburgh was then believed to have been his burial place, and that of his son Jurmin.

The seventh-century back story

Following the death of the powerful East Anglian King Raedwald, c. A.D. 624, his ascendancy over English rulers continued not with his East Anglian successors but with Edwin of Northumbria, whom Raedwald had assisted to the throne of York in 616. King Edwin's 626 conversion to Christianity and marriage to Princess Æthelburh of Kent set the stage for conflict between his dominion in eastern England and the opposing combined forces of the King of the Britons Cadwallon ap Cadfan and of King Penda, King of Mercia, a devotee of Woden.

Christianity in East Anglia took root under Sigeberht, Raedwald's stepson. Returning from exile in Gaul as a Christian, Sigeberht built schools and monasteries and settled Felix as his bishop at Dommoc, and Fursey, Irish monk and missionary, at Cnobheresburg. Sigeberht shared his rule with Ecgric, possibly a nephew of Raedwald's, but in time left power and entered his monastery of Beodricesworth. Penda invaded the kingdom, and both Sigebert and Ecgric were killed in the battle.

King Anna, a nephew of Raedwald's, next emerged as East Anglian ruler. He is described by Bede, writing about 80 years later, as a good and Christian king. He held the kingdom through the 640s, providing protection and baptism to King Coenwalh when he was driven out of Wessex by Penda, c. 645-48, and restoring Coenwalh to his throne. Around 651 Penda attacked East Anglia with an army. Anna, having won time for Fursey's monks to escape from their monastery to Gaul, was himself exiled, perhaps in Much Wenlock. Anna returned to his kingdom where in 654 Botolph, perhaps the former chaplain to two of Anna's religious daughters in Gaul, began building his monastic cell at ''Icanho'', a location believed to have been at Iken beside, or upon, the inland estuary of the river Alde, not far from Rendlesham.

Penda attacked again, and in a great battle at Bulcamp fought in 653 or 654, Anna was slain, according to Bede. The account of this battle occurring at Blythburgh, where Anna died together with his son Jurmin, and of his burial nearby, appears in the ''Life of Etheldreda'' as found in the 12th-century ''Liber Eliensis''. We learn much more about Anna's saintly daughters Seaxburga, Eorconberht's queen in Kent, and Etheldreda (St Audrey) of Ely, Ecgfrith's queen in Northumbria, who continued their religious work. After the death of Penda at the Battle at the river Winwaed near Leeds in 654, with Anna's brother Æthelhere of East Anglia at his side, the last brother Æthelwold inaugurated a more peaceful age in East Anglia. After 664 this was continued by his nephew King Ealdwulf of East Anglia. An accommodation with Mercia was reached by the conversion of Penda's son King Wulfhere and his marriage to Anna's granddaughter Eormenhild, daughter of Seaxburga.

A royal vill

At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, Blythburgh was a royal estate with two carucates of land and two other associated churches without lands of their own. Like other Domesday churches which had dependent daughter churches, which were associated with a substantial estate near royal lands, and which were located near the geographic or strategic centre of a Hundred, Blythburgh can be inferred to have been home to an earlier, pre-Norman minster church. It has therefore been thought likely that the canons took over the former parent church at the foundation of the priory and that Blythburgh parish church (Holy Trinity) and Walberswick church were probably the two dependent churches. These conclusions were dramatically reinforced by the dating of standing ruin of the south wall of the priory church to the 11th-12th centuries, older than the crossing and east works. This wall may well be part of the nave of an older parish church which preceded the foundation of the priory, or indeed part of the former minster church itself.

The ''Life of Saint Etheldreda'' (founder of the abbey of Ely), which forms part of the ''Liber Eliensis'', reports that Anna’s and Jurmin’s remains had been buried at Blythburgh. This belief may predate the Conquest because the 12th-century ''Liber'' also tells that Jurmin’s body had been moved from Blythburgh, as a relic, to Bury St Edmunds. The story associating Anna's last battle with Blythburgh, therefore, was in existence early in medieval times. The place of the battle given by Bede as Bulcamp, if interpreted as being the place of that name on the northern bank of the river Blyth, opposite and slightly upstream of the parish church on a broad bluff overlooking the estuary, opened the surrounding landscape to a wider dramatic reading.

The medieval foundation

Rise of canons regular

During the later 11th and early 12th centuries, Benedictine monasticism centred upon large religious communities in cities, with imposing buildings, powerful abbots and scholars, and considerable affluence. In contrast there arose a desire to follow a more primitive type of religious life, as canons regular in smaller, secluded communities. The Augustinian houses of canons began to be established on this principle.

The first house of canons regular in England was at St Botolph's Priory, Colchester, which was reorganized on a conventual basis before 1106. Around 1108, Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate

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