A HISTORY OF 
general or the abbess of Fontevraud in 
England, and had some journeys to take 
in this capacity,? for which he had to seek 
safe conducts from the king. 
Both the mother house at Fontevraud * 
and the priory of Almesbury* in England, 
where the king’s mother and daughter had 
made their profession,® were in great poverty 
at this time, but there is no mention made 
of poverty at La Grave. Its history in the 
fourteenth century is a little difficult to 
trace; in 1316 the manor was stated to be 
the property of the abbess of Fontevraud, 
but ‘now in the hand of the Princess 
Mary,’* and in 1349 the pope wrote a 
letter to King Edward III., asking him to 
allow the abbess and convent to regain pos- 
session of the house of La Grave, of which 
they had been despoiled.”. It seems however 
to have returned to its original position as a 
cell of Fontevraud, for it was reckoned in 
the next century among the alien priories, 
and granted in 1438 to Eton College; and 
a few years later, in 1481, its property was 
1 Pat. 25 Edw. I. m. 18d. 
2 Ibid. ; Pat. 15 Edw. I. m. 4. 
3 Pat. 20 Edw. I. m. 28, where it states they had 
only the blackest of bread to eat on Fridays. 
4 Ibid. 21 Edw. I. m. 18. 
5 Ann, Mon. (Rolls Series), iii. 326 (in the year 
1285). 
6 The daughter of Edward I. at Almesbury 
(Feud. Aids, i. 21). 
7 Cal. of Pap. Letters, iii. 39-40. 
BEDFORDSHIRE 
transferred 
Windsor.® 
The original endowment of the house 
was simply the royal manor of Leighton, 
with land belonging to Walter Pullan, worth 
325.9 Some smaller gifts of land in Edles- 
borough,’® and Stewkley?! (Bucks) and in 
Studham* were added later. The value of 
the manor in Leighton in 1291 was £32 
6s. 8d.; and other temporalities of the priory 
in the deanery of Dunstable amounted to 
£2 25. 2d.% In 1302" the abbess of Fon- 
tevraud held one knight’s fee in Stewkley ; 
in 1316%° the manor of Leighton, and half a 
fee in Studham; in 13467° only half a fee in 
Stewkley. 
to the dean and canons of 
The names of only two priors remain :— 
Nicholas,*” occurs 1258 and 1263; 
William de Lyencourt,'® occurs 
1287, 1297 
1283, 
8 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 1085 and Pat. 20 Edw. IV. 
9 Dugdale, Mon. vi. 1085. 
10 Pat. 9 Edw. I. m. 3. Licence for alienation 
in mortmain of 6} acres in Edlesborough. 
11 Feud, Aids, i. 82. 
12 Tbid. 21. 
13 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 
14 Feud. Aids, i, 82. 
15 Tbid. 21. . 
18 Tbid. 128. It was at this time that the abbess 
said she had been despoiled of the priory. 
17 Anct. Deeds (P.R.O.), D. 222, 331. 
18 Pat. 11 Edw. I., 15 Edw. I., 25 Edw. I. 
404 
