MAIDSTONE The abbey of St. Mary, Boxley, was founded in 1146 by William de Ypres, son of the count of Flanders. It was colonised by monks from Clairvaux, one of the four principle daughter houses of Citeaux. William de Ypres was King Stephen’s military commander during the civil disorder and controlled practically the whole of Kent. It is thought that Queen Matilda placed William de Ypres in power in Kent during the crisis of 1141 and had later given him permission to found a Cistercian abbey at Boxley, which was a royal manor, so that William might build an abbey as a mark of his authority. Apparently the monks of St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, were particularly irked by his power and referred to his rule of Kent as a tyranny, which is a rather exaggerated statement of William’s presence in the county. The abbots of Boxley acquired a prominent place in parliament. In 1171 the abbot was one of those who quickly buried Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, after he was murdered. In 1193 the abbots of Boxley and Robertsbridge were sent abroad to look for Richard I, whom they found in Bavaria on Palm Sunday. During the reign of King Edward I the abbot of Boxley was summoned to parliament several times, but was not called thereafter.

Edmund Grey, Lord Hastings, was then made Earl of Kent; and his descendants enjoyed the earldom till the time of Queen Anne; and then the 13th Earl was created Duke of Kent, but was the last of his line to enjoy the titles. Edward, fourth son of George III., and father of Queen Victoria, was created Duke of Kent. Wat Tyler's rebellion began at Dartford, in 1381; Jack Cade's insurrection began at Blackheath, in 1450; the wars of the Roses made some figure in Kent; the rebellion, headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt, in the time of Mary, took place here; and a victory by Fairfax, in 1648, was obtained at Maidstone.

The abbey acquired some fame through its possession of the celebrated Rood of Grace, a cross with an image supposed to be miraculously gifted with movement and speech. More than a century before the Dissolution the abbey was described as ‘the abbey of the Holy Cross of Grace’. But at the abbey’s dissolution in 1538 ‘certain engines and old wire’ were found in the cross which, when operated by the monks, caused the eyes and mouth to move. News of the exposure appears to have been widely spread and was probably staged as a warning to the credulous; indeed, it was probable that nothing was more damaging to the cause of the monasteries. The 1535 assessment put the net value of the house per annum at £208.

Rochester cathedral, and in the churches of Bridge, Northbourne, Ash, Great Mongeham, Sandwich-ST. Clement, Wade-ST. Nicholas, Canterbury-St. Martin, Minster, Herne, Westwell, Folkestone, Hythe, Lenham, Graveney, Faversham, Chalk, and Horton-Kirkby; good specimens of decorated English churches are at Chartham, Barham, Chilham, Stone, Hever, and Sandhurst; and good specimens of later English ones are the nave of Canterbury cathedral, and the churches of Maidstone-All Saints, Chislehurst, Sevenoaks, Nettlested, Cranbrook, Tenterden, Ashford, Aldington, Wingham, and Bishopsbourne.