Challenges the orthodox view that lay patronage of monasteries dwindled in significance throughout the middle ages.
Lay patronage of religious houses remained of considerable importance during the late medieval period; but this is the first full-length study dedicated to the subject. Based on a wide range of medieval documentary sources, including wills, monastic registers, inquisitions post mortem, cartularies and episcopal registers, this book traces the descent of these later patrons and assesses their activities, in particular their bequests and benefactions, theirinvolvement in the affairs of their houses, and their burials in the conventual churches; and it argues that the ties which bound the two parties together, whether amicable, indifferent or abusive, continued right up until the Dissolution brought monastic life in England and Wales to an end.
KAREN STÖBER is a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Aberystwyth
Table of Content
Monasticism and Patronage in England and Wales: Continuity and Change
Manifestations of Monastic Patronage in the Later Middle Ages
The Burial Preferences of Monastic Patrons in the Later Middle Ages
The Monastic Patronage of Five Noble Families
Patrons at the Dissolution
Conclusions
Appendix: Medieval English and Welsh Monasteries and their Patrons