Conflict at Amesbury Priory

 

A short article on the Medievalists.net recounts the troubles that beset the communal life of the nuns of Amesbury in Wiltshire at the turn of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It can be read at The Kidnapping Scandal at Amesbury Priory

Despite its slightly sensationalist style, reminiscent of Coulton the story is intriguing and the article sent me to the detailed Wikipedia account of the history of the foundation at Amesbury Abbey. It also sent me to the comprehensive history in the Victoria County History of Wiltshire vol iii (1956) which can be seen at Houses of Benedictine nuns: Abbey, later priory, of Amesbury

These give more detail about the disturbing events at the monastery in these years and of the troubled times of the Prioress, Sibyl Montague. It is necessary to read all three accounts to begin to assemble a clear picture of the events that are described. That said they all seem to miss out the political context of the events at the time of the Epiphany Rising of 1399-1400 - also also possibly in respect of the calendar regarding Archbishop Arundel who did not return from exile until midsummer 1399.

 

Putting the evidence together it appears as if the former Prior took advantage of the situation when the Prioress had inevitably lost the support of her brother John, third Earl of Salisbury, and closely identified with King Richard II, with his execution at Cirencester in the wake of the failed Epiphany uprising. A high profile monastic house for either men or women was closely enmeshed in the political and social world of its day.

Amesbury, claimed by Malory in the Morte d’Arthur as the place of retirement of Queen Guinevere, enjoyed a high profile as a house of the Fontevrault sisterhood and as the home chosen by, or for, various female members of the Royal house. This gave the monastery prestige, and these ladies appear to have retained their own high status within the convent and Order. A woman of aristocratic birth like Sibyl Montague would doubtless fit in well in such a community. The whole story of the abbey and the later priory is fascinating, and worthy of a full history on its own.

The only evidence above ground today of Amesbury Priory is the parish church. Wikipedia has an account of the building at Church of St Mary and St Melor, Amesbury and the VCH article also discusses the original status of the building. It is certainly not a typical rural parish church, as I realised when I visited it many years ago. On the basis of the physical evidence and the record evidence as well as the observations of antiquarians it looks as if it was the church for the original community of nuns and then after 1177 was assigned to the community of priests and for the use of the parish, and that a new nuns church and claustral buildings were erected to the north, close to the successor country house known as Amesbury Abbey.