RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



severe penance, unless there was a legitimate 

 excuse, in which case he was to acquaint some 

 neighbouring abbot and to send letters. From 

 this duty of yearly attendance, exemptions 

 were made from time to time on the score of 

 the poverty of the house or its distance, 

 notably at the general chapters of 1260, 1263 

 and 1270.* 



Some light is thrown upon the history of 

 the monastery as a trading community by the 

 grant of a protection and safe conduct to the 

 abbey in 1281 for taking a ship laden with 

 corn and other goods from time to time to 

 Gascony and other places within the king's 

 power, and bringing thence wine and other 

 goods. 4 



From the taxation roll of 1291 we find 

 that the temporalities ofBeaulieu in the arch- 

 deaconry were then valued at producing an 

 annual income of 100, of which the imme- 

 diate environs of the abbey supplied 66 13*. 

 4.d. The temporalities in the archdeaconry 

 of Berks produced an income of g i i s. 8d. ; 

 those of the archdeaconry of Oxford ^32 

 is. lod. There was also 11 us. Sd. from 

 St. Keverne in Cornwall, and 6 135. \d. 

 from houses and fisheries in Little Yarmouth. 

 In spiritualities there was the rectory of 

 Shilton with an income of j 6s. 8d., and 

 Inglesham with an income of 4 6s. Sd. 



In 1312 licence for alienation in mortmain, 

 in favour of Beaulieu, was obtained for mes- 

 suages and lands in Upton and Holebury, on 

 payment of a fine of 30*." 'In 1316 the 

 abbey obtained a valuable grant of a messuage, 

 mill, 60 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow, 

 and 6 acres of wood at Hipley,* and in 

 March of the following year confirmation 

 was given to six small grants to the abbey. 5 



The advowson of the church of Ringwood 

 was granted to the abbey in February, 1329, 

 by Edward III. in fulfilment of a wish of the 

 late king ; and on condition that four monks 

 should be maintained beyond the thirty-two 

 then at Beaulieu, to celebrate mass daily for 

 the souls of himself, his mother and his heirs. 8 

 In 1332 this grant of Ringwood made by the 

 procurement of Roger de Mortimer was 

 revoked. 7 By the return of knights' fees of 

 1346 we find that the abbot of Beaulieu held 



I See Turks Arch, and Topog. Assoc. Cistercian 

 Statutes, by J. T. Fowler, ix. 223 ; x. 51, 217, 

 388, 502 ; xi. 95. 



a Pat. 9 Edw. I. m. 6. 



3 Ibid. 5 Edw. II. pt. i, m. i. 



4 Ibid. 10 Edw. II. pt. i, m. 33. 



II Ibid. pt. 2, m. 23. 



Ibid. 3 Edw. III. pt. i, m. 35. 

 7 Ibid. 6 Edw. III. pt. 3, m. 12. 



one fee in Over Burgate in perpetual alms. 8 

 In the return for Berkshire for the feudal 

 aid of 1316 he held the hundred and vill of 

 Faringdon with Coxwell, Inglesham, and 

 Little Faringdon, and he and others held 

 Langford, Shilton and ' Bernynton.' 9 



The abbot of Beaulieu, whose predecessors 

 had sat in Parliament since 1260, by fine of 

 ten marks, obtained in 1341 the king's 

 sanction to be freed, for himself and his 

 successors, from attendance at Parliament, 

 inasmuch as all the abbey lands were held in 

 free alms, and not by barony or otherwise of 

 the king in chief. 10 



Abbot Herring presided for twenty years, 

 and on his death the custody of the abbey 

 was assigned, on 6 January, 1392, to Thomas, 

 Earl of Kent, and Tideman de Winchecombe, 

 one of the monks. 11 After some delay Tide- 

 man de Winchecombe was elected abbot, 

 but he only ruled for a very brief period ; for 

 in August, 1393, he was elected Bishop of 

 Llandaff, at the instigation of the pope. 



A grant of Edward III. in 1468 gave the 

 monks of Beaulieu a weekly Thursday 

 market within the precincts, and confirmed 

 their rights of pasturage in the forests of 

 Bere and Porchester, with other former privi- 

 leges. 12 



On 15 December, 1483, the abbot of 

 Beaulieu was summoned, together with two of 

 his community, by Richard III. to appear at 

 Westminster, and bring with him all muni- 

 ments and writings by which he claimed 

 special sanctuary rights, within six days after 

 the receipt of the mandate. 13 It has been 

 conjectured, with much probability, that this 

 summons arose from the abbey having given 

 shelter to the enemies of the Yorkist faction. 

 Every church and churchyard had certain 

 temporary sanctuary rights pertaining to them ; 

 but in a few instances, of which Beaulieu was 

 the most celebrated English example in the 

 south, these rights were extended for an 

 indefinite period and over a far wider area 

 than the actual consecrated site. At Beaulieu 

 Innocent III. had granted these special sanc- 

 tuary rights to the whole of the original 

 grant of land to the monks made by John, 

 the bounds of which were clearly defined in 

 the charter. Among those of note who 

 availed themselves of this sanctuary may be 

 mentioned Perkin Warbeck, Lady Warwick, 



8 feudal Aids, ii. 327. 



9 Ibid. i. 51. 



10 Pat. 15 Edw. III. pt. 3, m. 35. 



11 Cole MS. xxvi. f. Syb. 



12 Woodward's Hut. of Hants, iii. 86. 



13 Harl. MS. 6603, f. 336. 



