A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



after the field of Barnet in 1471, and accord- 

 ing to some writers, Margaret of Anjou. 



Abbot Thomas Skevington was consecrated 

 Bishop of Bangor at Lambeth on 17 June, 

 1 509, but he continued to hold the abbey in 

 commendam until his death in 1533- 



The abbey's share towards the ' king's 

 personal expenses in France to recover the 

 Crown,' in 1522, was the large sum of 

 66 13,. 4^ 



In a butlerage account of customs paid on 

 wine out of various ships at Southampton and 

 Portsmouth, in 1526, which yielded a sum of 

 15 i Of. on 155 tuns, it is stated that the 

 total prisage of wine was fifteen tuns, whereof 

 five tuns (one tun each) were delivered to 

 the monasteries of Beaulieu, Tichfield, Netley, 

 Waverley and St. Denis. 2 



The abbot of Beaulieu was summoned to 

 Convocation in 1529, but he was not present. 3 



In a list of ' fines made with divers persons 

 by the king's commandment' of 1531 occurs 

 the name of ' the Bishop of Bangor otherwise 

 called the abbot of Beaulieu,' for the heavy 

 sum of 333 6s. 8d., for his offences against 

 the statutes of provisions and praemunire. 4 In 

 the following year however we find the 

 abbot-bishop was put on the commission of 

 the peace for Hampshire. 5 



On 17 August, 1533, Abbot Skevington 

 died, and on the following day Harry Huttoft 

 wrote to Cromwell begging that the post 

 might be given ' to one of the same religion, 

 a good man, the abbot of Waverley,' adding, 

 ' he will do his duty every way, and if you 

 knew of his manner of living you would be 

 his assured good master.' On 20 August, 

 Sir William Fitzwilliam wrote from Windsor 

 to Cromwell concerning the abbot's death, 

 and stating that he was in the king's dis- 

 pleasure for offences against the royal game. 

 ' I chanced, in communication with the king, 

 to mention one who a virtuous man and a 

 good husband(man), and had ever been good 

 to his game though the forests of Wolmer and 

 Windsor and other places are about his house, 

 and I thought he would make a good abbot 

 of Beauley. On his asking who he was, I 

 replied, the abbot of Waverley. He said it 

 was truth, and willed me to write to you to 

 put him in remembrance, on his coming to 

 London, that he might take order for the 

 same. I assure you the suggestion came from 

 myself alone, and not from any solicitation of 

 the abbot.' 



1 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. iii. 2483. 



3 Ibid. iv. 2528. 3 Ibid. iv. 6047. 



4 Ibid. v. 657. 



5 Ibid. v. 1694 (2). 



On the same day Lord Audeley wrote to 

 the Duke of Suffolk as to the vacancy at 

 Beaulieu, for which much suit was being 

 made. He did not make any specific sugges- 

 tion, but urged that whoever was appointed 

 abbot should be ' a man of great gravity and 

 circumspect, and not base of stomach or faint 

 of heart when need shall require, the place 

 standeth so wildly ; and it is a great sanctuary, 

 and boundeth upon a great forest and upon 

 the sea coast, where sanctuary men may do 

 much displeasure if they be not very well and 

 substantially looked upon.' 6 In accordance 

 with the king's wish John Browning, abbot 

 of Waverley, the preserver of the king's game, 

 was speedily made abbot of Beaulieu. In 

 September Huttoft wrote a grateful letter as 

 to the appointment to Cromwell. 



The Valor of 1535, taken when Browning 

 was abbot, gave the gross annual value of 

 Beaulieu as 428 6s. 8^., and the net value 

 326 135. 2frf. 



Under the Act of 1536, dissolving the lesser 

 monasteries, more than two-thirds of the 

 Cistercian abbeys were suppressed. Their 

 inmates were, as a rule, transferred to the 

 larger houses of the order. In March, 1536, 

 Abbot Browning died, and Thomas Stevens or 

 Stephens, abbot of Netley, was appointed his 

 successor. In the following February Netley 

 was suppressed, and the whole of the monks 

 went to their mother house at Beaulieu. 7 



Lord Lisle was most anxious to obtain the 

 fine spoils of Beaulieu, and wrote both in 

 February and June of 1536 to servants of 

 Cromwell to endeavour to secure them. On 

 the first occasion he was told that there was 

 no likelihood that Beaulieu would be sup- 

 pressed ; and on the second application he 

 was assured that it would be lost time to sue 

 for it, and recommended to try for St. Mary's, 

 Winchester, or for ' Waverley, which is a 

 pretty thing.' 8 



Shortly after Stevens' appointment as abbot, 

 we find him eager to curry favour with 

 Wriothesley. Hearing through a servant 

 that he wanted a horse ' My Lord of Beau- 

 lieu said he had nothing but should be at your 

 commandment, and sent his men to take up 

 for you his own riding horse, which you will 

 receive herewith. His only fault is that he 

 is too. little for you, though the biggest in all 

 his park.' 9 



6 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. vi. 1001, 1006, 

 1007. 



7 Gasquet's Henry Vlll. and the Monasteries, ii. 



453- 



8 Letters and Papers, Hen. Vlll. x. 339, 1058. 



9 Ibid. xi. 1455. 



144 



