RIEVAULX ABBEY AND ITS SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT, 1132-1300 Emilia Maria JAMROZIAK Submitted in Accordance with the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History September 2001 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr Wendy Childs for her continuous help and encouragement at all stages of my research. I would also like to thank other faculty members in the School of History, in particular Professor David Palliser and Dr Graham Loud for their advice. My thanks go also to Dr Mary Swan and students of the Centre for Medieval Studies who welcomed me to the thriving community of medievalists. I would like to thank the librarians and archivists in the Brotherton Library Leeds, Bodleian Library Oxford, British Library in London and Public Record Office in Kew for their assistance. Many people outside the University of Leeds discussed several aspects of Rievaulx abbey's history with me and I would like to thank particularly Dr Janet Burton, Dr David Crouch, Professor Marsha Dutton, Professor Peter Fergusson, Dr Brian Golding, Professor Nancy Partner, Dr Benjamin Thompson and Dr David Postles as well as numerous participants of the conferences at Leeds, Canterbury, Glasgow, Nottingham and Kalamazoo, who offered their ideas and suggestions. I would like to thank my friends, Gina Hill who kindly helped me with questions about English language, Philip Shaw who helped me to draw the maps and Jacek Wallusch who helped me to create the graphs and tables. I am also indebted to Axel MUller of the International Medieval Institute who gave me much encouragement with all things medieval during my time at Leeds. Above all my gratitude goes to my parents who supported my interest in medieval history through many years of my studies, financially and otherwise. The research leading to this thesis was made possible by the generous financial assistance from the ORS, the University of Leeds, School of History and Stefan Batory Foundation. In addition, I want to state that any remaining errors are exclusively my own. ii ABSTRACT This thesis examines Rievaulx abbey's relationship with its social environment from the foundation in 1132 to 1300. In particular it analyses social networks around this institution and the types of relationships with individuals, families and tenurial groups developed over the course of the first two hundred years of Rievaulx abbey's existence. Although the work focus primarily on Rievaulx abbey, comparative material from other Yorkshire houses as well as continental Cistercian houses is discussed. The core source is the cartulary of Rievaulx abbey. By a careful analysis of the distribution of information, its hierarchy according to certain inferable rules, and the relations between individual entries in the cartulary, this thesis shows how Rievaulx abbey understood the social networks of which this monastic house became a part, and how the monastic community saw its own place among the diverse social strata of twelfth-century Yorkshire. In the first chapter, issues of religious foundations, the motivations of patrons and their interpretations currently present in scholarship are discussed before the analysis of the troubled relationship between Rievaulx abbey and its patrons. The second chapter contains an examination of the interaction of the Cistercian monasteries with lay people in the respect of fraternities, burial requests and prayers as well as the implications of the abbey's landholding for its benefactors and their heirs. The central part of the thesis, in the second chapter examines the relationship of Rievaulx abbey with its lay neighbours and benefactors. The closing parts of this chapter are devoted to the complexities of land holding and the abbey's perception of its relationship with benefactors. Chapter three presents issues of monastic co-operation, conflict and the monopolist tendencies of religious houses before examining the place of Rievaulx abbey in relation to other monasteries in Yorkshire. The next chapter discusses Rievaulx abbey's contacts with archbishops, bishops, deans, chapters and canons in the wider context of the internal Church politics. The fifth, final chapter examines Rievaulx abbey's involvement in the wool trade and the consequences of its business with the Italian merchants on the background of historiographical interpretations of Cistercian economy and its involvement in the commercial world. iii CONTENTS Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Table of Abbreviations v List of maps, tables and figures vi Introduction 1 Chapter I Rievaulx abbey and its patrons 15 A. Foundation of Rievaulx abbey and its founder 27 B. Family of the patron, his tenants and Rievaulx abbey 38 C. The Ros family as the patrons of Rievaulx abbey 41 Chapter II Rievaulx abbey and the lay neighbours 67 A. Aristocratic families and Rievaulx abbey 76 1. The Mowbray and Stuteville families and their tenurial groups 78 2. The Gant family and their tenants 110 3. The Vescy family and their tenants 118 4. Other baronial families and their tenants 121 B. Knightly families 126 1. The Birkin family and their tenants 126 2. The family of Saxe of Horbury 132 3. The Bulmer family and their tenants 133 4. The Meinil family and their tenants 136 5. The Lasceles family 138 6. The Balliol family 142 7. The Tunstall family and their tenants 143 C. The complexities of relationships 146 Chapter III Rievaulx abbey and other religious houses 158 iv A. Close neighbours 167 B. Houses sharing the same founder 175 C. Other Cistercian houses 178 D. Distant houses with bordering granges 180 E. Contacts with the Sempringham order 185 F. Other religious institutions 191 Chapter IV Rievaulx abbey and the secular Church in the North 194 A. The Archbishops of York and Rievaulx abbey 197 B. The Bishops of Durham and Rievaulx abbey 207 C. Archdeacons, chapters, deans, and canons and their connections with 213 Rievaulx abbey Chapter V Rievaulx abbey and the Italian merchants 226 Conclusion 254 Bibliography 259 V LIST OF MAPS, TABLES AND FIGURES Map 1. Parish and township boundaries 23 Figure 1. The Espec-Ros family, patrons of Rievaulx abbey 43 Map 2. Estates of Rievaulx abbey 77 Table 1. Entries in the cartulary related to the waste below Pickering 147 Map 3. Selected religious houses in Yorkshire before 1300 161 Figure 2. Levels of production and the estimated amount of contracted 242 wool Table 2. Rievaulx Abbey's Wool Trade 1279-1297 244 Table 3. Estimated amount of the yearly contracted good wool 248 Table 4. The amount of wool contracted for 1294 249 vi ABBREVIATIONS Cartulary Cartularium de Abbatie de Rievalle, ed. by James C. Atkinson, Surtees Society 88 (1889) CRR Curia Regis Rolls (London: HM Stationary Office, 1922-) CChR Calendar of Charter Rolls (London: HM Stationary Office, 1903) CR Calendar of Close Rolls (London: HM Stationary Office, 1892-) CPL Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 1, Papal letters (1198-1304), ed. W. H. Bliss (London, 1893) CPR Calendar of Patent Rolls (London: HM Stationary Office, 1901-) DNB Dictionary of National Biography, ed. L. Stephen, S. Lee, 63 vols. (London, 1885-1900) EEA English Episcopal Acta, vol. 1- (Oxford: EYC Early Yorkshire Charters, ed. by William Farrer and Charles Clay, 12 vols. (Edinburgh and Wakefield: Ballantyne Hanson, 1914-1965) Peerage Complete Peerage, or a History of the Houses of Lords and all its Members from the Earliest Times by G. E. C., revised edn. V. Gibbs, H. A. Doubleday, G. H. White, 13 vols. in 12 (London, 1910-59) PL Patrologiae Cursus Completus Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne, 221 vols. (Paris, 1844-64) PU Papsturkunden in England, ed. Walter Holtzmann, 3 vols. (Berlin and GOttingen: Weidmannsche and Vadenhoeck, 1931-1952) Statuta Joseph Canivez, Statuta Capitulorum Ordinis Cisterciensis sb anno 1116 ad annum 1786 (Louvain: Revue d'histoire ecclêsiastique, 1933-1941) VCH Victoria County History: Yorkshire, 3 vols. (London, 1907-3) YD Yorkshire Deeds, ed. W. Brown, C.T. Clay, M.J. Hebditch, M.J. Stanley Price, 10 vols, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series 39, 50, 63, 65, 69, 76, 83, 102, 111, 120 (1909-55) 1 INTRODUCTION The ruins of Rievaulx abbey located in the steep valley on the North York moors are a important tourist attraction drawing one hundred thousand visitors per year by the mid-1990s. In recent years, English Heritage has transformed this site of former precincts with a new visitors' centre, information boards and guided tours. Despite these recent developments, the history of Rievaulx abbey, in contrast to its material remnants, has not attracted much attention. The scholarly interest in Rievaulx abbey, its architecture in particular, was originally of antiquarian character. First descriptions of the architectural remains of Rievaulx appeared in the 1820-1850s.1 The earliest academic study of the abbey ruins, even though short, was published in 1894 by William St John Hope. 2 The last private owner of Rievaulx Abbey donated the site to the Office of Works in 1918 and soon after the site was opened to the public after the excavations carried out by Charles Peers in 1919-21. Unfortunately these were done with very little archaeological supervision. Later, in the 1950s further excavations took place, but the exploration did not go below the level of the latest surviving floors. The archaeological surveying and excavations carried out between 1992 and 1996 by the team led by Dr Glyn Coppack, Professor Fergusson, and Stuart Harrison provided substantially new information for the material history of the abbey. The head of the first excavations, Peers, published a guide to Rievaulx Abbey containing a short history of the monastery and description of the architecture according to the state of research at that time.