A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Peterborough, the latest insertion being that of 

 William of Woodford, who died in 1299. Of 

 Robert's successor, Alexander of Holderness, who 

 ruled for four years, there is nothing of particular 

 importance to chronicle. In 1227 Henry III. 

 granted the abbey a weekly Friday market at 

 Kettering, and a yearly fair at Peterborough on the 

 second Sunday in Lent and seven following days.^ 



In 1 23 1, during the rule of Martin of Ramsey, 

 the monastery was visited by the bishop of Lincoln, 

 when various ordinations were laid down and 

 accepted. The abbot was not henceforth to bor- 

 row money on usury from either Jews or Christians 

 without the consent of the chapter, nor in that 

 case ever to pledge the monastery or its goods of 

 any kind. Another injunction was to the effect 

 that the sacrist should have the horses and arms 

 with the bodies of deceased knights (on the abbey 

 estates) ; but if the horse of a deceased knight 

 was worth more than four marks, the abbot should 

 have it ; the arms, or the price of them, were to 

 be laid up in some safe place for the defence of 

 the country and the peace of the church, and 

 their money equivalent used for the repair and 

 provision of arms.^ Pope Gregory IX., during 

 Martin's abbacy, granted to the abbey the 

 privilege of holding divine service during any 

 general interdict, but without bell-ringing and 

 with closed doors.^ 



Swapham leaves it on record that when 

 Walter of Bury St. Edmunds was installed as 

 abbot, in 1233, he offered a pall covered with 

 peacocks, and a splendid cope of red samite em- 

 broidered with representations of the apostles and 

 their martyrdoms. The same chronicler gives an 

 extended account of his various benefactions to 

 the abbey, and of his boldness in giving the 

 church of Castor in accordance with the king's 

 order and in defiance of the pope. In 1237 

 the church of Peterborough was solemnly dedi- 

 cated by Bishop Grossetete and his suffragan.* 

 The next abbot, William of Hotoft, after holding 

 office for about three years, resigned in 1249, on 

 the complaint of the monks to the bishop of 

 Lincoln that he was enriching his kindred at the 

 expense of the monastery. ^ John de Caux, 

 prior of St. Swithin's, Winchester, was elected 

 abbot in 125 1, and ruled the monastery with 

 success for twelve years. In the year of his ap- 

 pointment, Pope Innocent IV. granted leave to 

 the monks to have their heads hooded at the 

 quire offices during the winter months, a not un- 

 common favour in English monasteries.' He 

 was appointed papal chaplain in 1260 by 

 Alexander IV.' 



1 Chart. II. Hen. III. pt. 1. m. 19. 



2 Gunton, Hist. ofPeterb. Suppl. 301-2. 

 S Ibid. 30. 



* Sparke, Hist. Coenobii Burgensis, 1 1 7-122. Matth. 

 Paris, Chron. Majora (Rolls Ser.), iii. 517. 



5 Matthew Paris, op. cit. v. 84. 



6 Gunton, Hist. ofPeterb. 35. 



7 Cal. of Papal L. i. 374. 



In the diminutive thirteenth-century chartu- 

 lary is an interesting and detailed entry of the 

 payments in kind due to the monastery about the 

 middle of the thirteenth century from the various 

 manors at certain feasts, such as Easter, Christ- 

 mas, All Saints, and SS. Peter and Paul. The 

 manors making such customary payments are 

 entered in the following order : — Peterborough, 

 Eye, Thorpe, Walton, Wittering, Glinton, 

 Castor, Cottingham, Kettering, Irthlingborough, 

 Stanwick, Oundle, Ashton, Warmington, Al- 

 walton, Etton, Tinwell, and Pilsgate. Some 

 manors only yielded eggs, and egg payments 

 were always made at Easter ; others only two or 

 three sheep ; but several supplied specified num- 

 bers of each of the six sorts of payments in kind. 

 The totals amounted to 62^ sheep (multonei\ 

 117 ells of cloths ; 85 disci,* 6,360 eggs, 53 hens, 

 and 600 loaves of bread.^ 



Abbot Robert of Sutton, elected in March, 

 1262, joined with the barons two years later in 

 holding the town of Northampton against the 

 king. Whittlesey says that when the king and 

 his son saw the abbey's banner on the walls, 

 they vowed the destruction of the monastery. 

 On gaining the victory, however, over the 

 barons, Henry was content to forgive the 

 abbot on payment of a fine of 300 marks 

 to the king, ^20 to the queen, ^^60 to Prince 

 Edward, and £fi \y. ^d. to Lord Zouch. The 

 abbey also gave pledges to take the part of the 

 king ; but the battle of Lewes, when the king 

 and Prince Edward were taken prisoner, brought 

 about renewed heavy fining of the abbey by the 

 barons. Simon de Montfort and his colleagues 

 received from the monks the sum of ;^i86 14s. 8^. 

 During the whole period of the struggle, the 

 abbey gates remained open, and the partisans of 

 either the king or the barons found the tables 

 of the refectory well provided for their needs. 

 This wise policy, as Whittlesey remarks, had 

 the result of saving their manors in many places 

 from fire and other evils.^" After the battle of 

 Evesham in 1265, when the crown gained so 

 complete a victory, the unfortunate abbey was 

 again heavily mulcted in fines that considerably 

 exceeded ;^i,000. Indeed, Whittlesey in enu- 

 merating the various sums paid by the abbot to 

 Henry, over a term of several years, ere he 

 recovered the king's favour, totals them up to 

 j^4,324 i8j. 3^/. In 1273 Abbot Robert was 

 summoned by Gregory X. to the Council of 

 Lj'ons. He died on the return journey ; his 

 body was buried in a monastery near Bologna, 

 but his heart was brought back to Peterborough 

 in a silver cup and interred before the altar of 



8 * Discus' may mean (i) a dish or wooden trencher, 



(2) the meat or food placed on a dish or platter, and 



(3) a measure of ale or wine ; it probably here has 

 the second signification. 



» Egerton MS. 2733, fF. 177-8. 

 10 Sparke, op. cit. pp. 134-7. 



88 



