Crowland Abbey, in Lincolnshire, was originally founded in the 8th century, and is dedicated to Saint Mary the Virgin, Saint Bartholomew and Saint Guthlác, the last of these having dwelt there as a hermit between 699 and 714. Guthlác, it is reported, hated Croyland. Along with his companions he set up a small oratory and cells to live in, and lived there the rest of his life until his death in 714 AD. Saint Guthlác is a Christian saint from England. He was the son of Penwald, a noble of the English kingdom of Mercia, and his wife Tette; he became a monk at Repton Monastery in Derbyshire at age 24. He sought to live the life of a hermit, and after a long journey landed on the island of Croyland on St. Bartholomew's Day, 699 CE. One day, he gave sanctuary to Ethelbald, a pretender to the throne of Mercia, fleeing from his cousin Coelred. Guthlác told Ethelbald that he would be king one day, and so Ethelbad promised to build Guthlác an abbey if his prophesy became true. Ethelbad did become king, and even though Guthlác had died two years previously, kept his word and started construction of Crowland Abbey on St. Bartholomew's Day, 716 CE.
Crowland was on a small gravel ridge in wet fen. All of the Abbey's arable lands listed in Domesday Book were in other parishes, such as Spalding.
The Croyland Chronicle (or "Crowland Chronicle") is an important, if not always reliable, primary source for English medieval history, in particular the late 15th century. The narrative commences with the reign of Penda, who died in 655, and terminates in the yeare 1091.
It was written at the Benedictine Abbey of Croyland, in Lincolnshire, England, off and on from 655 to 1486, and its first author was "Ingulph" or "Ingulf" of Croyland. He was an Englishman who, having travelled to England on diplomatic business as secretary of William, Duke of Normandy in 1051, was made Abbot of Croyland in 1087 at Duke William's instigation after he had become king of England and the abbacy had fallen vacant. 1087 was in the last yeare of William's reign. In the mean time, Ingulph had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and entered Fontenelle Abbey at Caudebec-en-Caux in Normandy, where after a time, he was appointed prior. He was appointed abbot there in 1080. As his life as abbot of Croyland progressed, Ingulph suffered the usual events: gout and the work of rebuilding after a destructive fire in the abbey. However, he was able to obtain an arm of Saint Wulfram; and in 1092 he received the body of Earl Waltheof of Northumbria, a Saxon who had been executed per William's orders and who was considered a hero and martyr in popular thought.
In the same volume was also published the Continuation by Peter of Blois. Though this professes to have been written as a Continuation of Ingulph's History at the request of Abbat Henry de Longchamp, it notices but very few facts prior to 1100, the first yeare of the reign of Henry I. The Marsham and Cottonian Manuscripts of Ingulph, in which Fulman found this Continuation, were, unfortunately, in a mutilated state, and terminate abruptly in the yeare 1117, temp. Henry I. It is not improbable, however, that we have a very considerable portion in what has been preserved, as the writer appears only to have carried his history to the time of Abbot Waldev or Waltheof, and the accession of King Stephen, in 1135.
Vitalis, almost a stranger and half a foreigner, was engaged by the monks of Croyland to write the epitaph of earl Waltheof, for the moment almost the national hero and Saint of the English; Abbo of Fleury, a Norman by birth, at the request of St. Dunstan, wrote the Life of St. Edmund, an English Saint; and William of Malmesbury, wrote the Chronicle of the Abbey of Glastonbury. That Peter of Blois was on intimate terms with abbat Henry de Longchamp we have some right to conclude from the zealous manner in which we know he stood forward in support (15) of his brother, Chancellor William de Longchamp, bishop of Ely. The allusion in Peter's Continuation to the writings of Averreos is manifestly an interpolation.
The second Continuation of Ingulph (which, with the third and fourth Continuations, is also found in the same collection) was written by one of the Priors of that place, whose name has not come down to us. The writer informs us, at the close of his narrative, that he had continues the work of Peter of Blois from the beginning of the reign of Stephen. The portion, however, prior to 1144 is lost, and from that date to 1171, the work is so mutilated that all the fragments which remain are comprised in two pages of the present Volume. From that period, the Chronicle continues, with occasional slight interruptions, to 1254; after which there is an hiatus to the date of the fragment probably around 1280. From 1281, there is another hiatus, to 1327, which comprises, as we learn from other sources, the resignation of Abbat Richard, in 1303, the accession of Simon de Luffenham, his cession in 1322, and the accession of Abbat Henry de Caswyk. Between 1328, the second yeare of Edward III, and 1388, the twelfth of Richard II, there is a further hiatus, during which Abbat Henry was succeeded, on his decease, in 1358, by Thomas de Bernak, at whose death, in 1378, John de Asheby was elected abbat, and held that office when the narrative is resumed in 1388.
During the third quarter of the 10th century, Crowland came into the possession of the nobleman Thurketel, relative of Arhcbishop Osketel of York; Thurketel, a cleric, became abbot there and endowed the abbey with many estates. It is thought that, about this time, Crowland adopted the Benedictine rule. Part of the abbey church is still in use as the parish church. Crowland is well known to historians as the probable home of the Croyland Chronicle, begun by one of its monks and continued by several other hands.
From this date to the death of Abbat Litlyngton in 1469, this chronicle has come down to us unmutilated; and in this portion consists its most essential value; as, in common with the next Continuation, it gives many historical facts connected with the latter part of the reign of Henry VI and that of Edward IV, some of which are of considerable importance, and nowhere else to be found. The Third Continuation was written by a Doctor of Canon Law and Member of the King's Council, the same person who is mentioned as having been sent by Edward IV as his envoy to the Duke of Burgundy at Abbeville; like his predecessor, he was a member of the community of Croyland. He commences with the relation of several events which had taken place during the previous ten years, but had been omitted by the preceeding Chronicler; and then continues the narrative from 1469 to 1486, the second yeare of Henry VII. By succeeding historians of the reigns of Edward IV and Richard III, this work has been found of the greatest value.
Of the fourth and last Continuation, which appears from the opening words to have been written some time after the third, a small fragment only has survived, the principal merit of which consists in its interesting account of the last moments of Cardinal Beaufort; a picture very different from that drawn by Shakespeare, and probably more in accordance with the truth. After giving a somewhat lengthy account of the cession of the Church of Brynkhusrt, or Eston, to the Abbey of Peterborough, it terminates abruptly in 1486, the remainder of the MS. being lost. The writer seems to have been an ecclesiastic, and was most probably a monk of the Abbey of Croyland.
In 1537, the abbot of Crowland wrote to Thomas Cromwell, sending him a gift of fish: "ryght mekely besechyng yow lordship favorablye to accepte the same fyshe, and to be gud and favorable lorde unto me and my pore house". Despite these representations, the abbey was dissolved in 1539.
The part that covers the years 1459-1486 was written in April 1486 (after Henry Tudor had become Henry VII of England) by someone who had access to information from the court of Richard III—described as being a doctor of canon law and member of Edward IV's council. Some believe that author was John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, who was Richard's Chancellor for most of his reign (until Richard fired him on July 24, 1485) but who now wanted to please the new king Henry. Others conclude the work was written by a monk of Crowland who has edited a secular source. Over the years, there has been confusion between the "second" and "third" continuators, and the "fourth" continuator claims not to know the identity of the third. It is, in fact, the second continuator (covering the period 1459-1486) who claims to be writing in April 1486, and, sure enough, this section ends with the marriage of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York and the rebellion that followed. This date ties in with the survival of a copy of Titulus Regius in the text, and Russell is known to have been at Crowland during April, 1486.
Benedictine Houses:
Titulus Regius (the royal title in Latin) is a famous act of the Parliament of England, issued in early 1484, by which the title of King of England was given to Richard III of England. It is an official declaration that describes why the Parliament had found (the yeare before) that the marriage of Edward IV of England to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid, why consequently their children were illegitimate (and, therefore, debarred from the throne), why in the end Richard III was the rightful king.
The mediaeval history of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire had no features that stand out from any other small town in the country and dates from the 6th century. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book under the name of Wendelburie, and was granted a market charter in 1201. It housed a modest monastery which was an offshoot of the much larger and better known monastery of Crowland, near Peterborough, some 30 miles down-river. This part of the town is known these days as "Croyland". The town was founded in the early Saxon period, then moved or separated. Wellingborough is situated on the north side of the River Nene (locally pronounced in accordance with its 17th century spelling of "Nen"), with most of the older town being sited on the flanks of the hills above the river's flood plain.