RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the said S' Richard Halton is most dyscrete, suffi- 

 cient, and able to be yo r supprior. And for my 

 parte, as far as in me is, being yo r foundo r , I assent 

 to his election, trusting ye woll all or the most 

 parte of youe assent to the same, yo r most prouffet 

 and weales perfitely remembred, notw'standing he 

 having a vicary, whiche makes him more able to 

 occupie the same Rowme. And upon a parte of 

 yo more towardly, humbly, and obedient demean- 

 ors to be used hereafter then has bene of late, may 

 and shall have me to be yo r better good lord and 

 com to promotion upon yo r good demerette, w'out 

 whose help I see not as y' shall cum therunto. 

 Wherefore I counseill youe all thus to be contented 

 and elect hym w'out any obstinacie or grudge as 

 ye intende to pleas me. At Morpath the penult 

 day of February Anno xv H. VIII. 1 



From these evidences it will appear that the 

 advowson of the priory, which passed from one 

 lord of Gillesland to another as a piece of real 

 property,* existed in reality as well as in name, 

 and was a potential force in the regulation of 

 the house. 



From its geographical position the priory 

 was exposed to constant dangers from the 

 attacks of Scottish marauders. Its unprotected 

 condition so close to the frontier served as an 

 invitation to the Border clans to harass it in 

 retaliation for the depredations of their English 

 enemies. After the outbreak of the War of 

 Independence its real troubles began. In 1296, 

 the year of the rupture with Balliol, the 

 Scottish army encamped at Lanercost after 

 burning the priory of Hexham and the nun- 

 nery of Lambley, and laying waste the valley 

 of the Tyne. 3 By a timely alarm, no doubt 

 created by the artifice of the canons, the 

 Scots retreated through Nicolforest with their 

 plunder, having burnt only certain houses of 

 the monastery but not the church. 4 No 

 words were too strong on the lips of English 

 writers to describe the cruelties and impieties 

 practised by the enemy on that occasion. The 

 poet historian of Bridlington 5 narrates that 



i B.M. Add. MS. 24,965, f. 218. 



a The advowsons of religious houses founded by 

 subjects descended to their heirs, unless alienated 

 or forfeited, as the houses of royal foundation re- 

 mained with the Crown. For instance, the advow- 

 son of Lanercost was reckoned in the 'extent' of the 

 Dacre possessions in 1340 and 1485 (Inq. p.m. 

 13 Edw. III. ist Nos. 35 ; Cat. of Inq. p.m. Hen. 

 VII. i. 157). Similarly the advowsons of St. 

 Bees and Calder descended among the lords of 

 Egremont (Inq. p.m. 15 Edw. II. No. 45 ; 39 

 Edw. III. ist. Nos. 17). These examples might 

 be easily multiplied. 



Chron. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), ii. 261. 



* Heminburgh, Chron. (Engl.Hist. Soc.), ii. 102. 



e Quoted by J. Raine as the lines of Peter 

 Langtoft in The Priory of Hexham (Surtees Soc.), 

 i. p. Ixxxii. 



157 



Corbrigge is a toun, the brent it whan thei cam : 

 Tuo hous of religioun, Leynercoste and Hexham, 

 Thei chaced the chanons out, ther godes bare away, 

 And robbed alle about : the bestis tok to pray. 



The devastation, added the chronicler of 

 Lanercost, cannot be imputed to the bravery 

 of warriors, but to the cowardice of robbers, 

 who invaded a thinly-populated country 

 where they were sure to find no resistance. 6 

 The bold initiative taken by the Scots in this 

 and in the following year under Wallace 

 caused a sensation throughout the northern 

 counties. Their savage deeds provoked loud 

 calls for reprisals on the part of the English. 

 One writer declared that as the house of 

 Lanercost had suffered innumerable evils, 

 inexorable vengeance should be enacted in 

 return. Fordun, the Scottish historian, re- 

 garding the whole thing with complacency, 

 remarked that Wallace returned safe and 

 sound to his own country after a successful 

 expedition. 7 



Several visits of Edward I. to the priory in 

 the latter part of his reign are on record. A 

 few days were spent there with Queen Eleanor 

 in the autumn of 1280 on his way to New- 

 castle, when the convent met him at the gate 

 in their copes and the king graciously made a 

 votive offering of silk cloth to the church. It 

 was reported that during his short stay he 

 took 200 stags and hinds while hunting in his 

 own domain of Inglewood. Again, soon 

 after midsummer 1300, as he passed through 

 Carlisle with the nobles and magnates of his 

 kingdom on his way to the siege of Carlave- 

 rock, he turned aside and made a short stay 

 at Lanercost. On his last fateful visit to the 

 north in 1306, he came to the priory with 

 Queen Margaret at Michaelmas and continued 

 there till the following Easter, the journey 

 having been completed by easy stages in a 

 horse litter owing to age and infirmity. It 

 was while he sojourned at Lanercost that the 

 brothers of Robert de Brus and other Scottish 

 captives were sent to Carlisle for execution, 

 the stern old warrior having with his own 

 mouth sentenced Thomas de Brus to be 

 dragged at the tails of horses from Lanercost 

 to Carlisle before the dread sentence of hang- 

 ing and beheading was carried out. The 

 heads were suspended on the three gates of 

 Carlisle, except the head of Thomas de Brus, 

 which was reserved to decorate the keep of 

 the castle. 8 



Chron. de Lanercost, 174, 193. 



7 Scotichronicon (ed. W. Goodall), ii. 172. 



8 Chron. de Lanercost, 105, 194, 2056. On 

 the last day of June 1300, Edward I. sent an 

 oblation by the hand of Henry de Burgo, canon 



