Chaucer’s Prioress Recalled

Chaucer's Prioress Recalled William Smith (bio) William Smith William Smith is a retired archivist living in Warminster, Wiltshire, UK. He read Theology at St. Peter's College, University of Oxford, where his interests in monastic history and medieval liturgy first began. His publications include articles in these fields and a recent book and monograph on the pre-Reformation use of Hereford. Footnotes 1. "House of Benedictine Nuns: 1. The Priory of Stratford at Bow," in A History of the County of Middlesex. Victoria County History vol. 1, ed. J. S. Cockburn, H. P. F. King and K. G. T. McDonnell (London: Institute of Historical Research, 1969), 156–59, at 156 (subsequent citations of individual volumes of Victoria County History will appear as VCH followed by county name and volume number); Sally Thompson, Women Religious, the Founding of English Nunneries after the Norman Conquest (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991, repr. for Sandpiper Books Ltd, 1996), 191 n.1, 229; Duncan Hawkins and Chris Phillpotts, "The Priory of St Leonard Stratford-at-Bow and Parish Church of St Mary Bromley-by-Bow," London Archaeologist 11, no. 2 (Autumn 2005): 38–46, at 38a. Dated but still useful histories of the priory are by William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, revised edition by H. Caley, H. Ellis and B. Bandinel, 6 vols. in 8 (London: James Bohn, 1846), 4:119–23; and Thomas Tanner, Notitia Monastica (London: William Bowyer, 1744), 298. 2. Collectanea, 6 vols., with preface, notes and index, by Thomas Hearne (London: William and John Richardson, 2nd ed. 1770), 1:55; VCH Middlesex 1:156a; Monasticon Anglicanum, 4:119a; Hawkins and Phillpotts, "The Priory of St Leonard Stratford-at-Bow," 38b. 3. Rouleaux des morts du neuvième au quinzième siècle, recueillis et publiés pour la Société de l'Histoire de France, par Léopold Delisle (Paris: Veuve Jules Renouard, 1866; reprinted New York: Johnson Reprint, 1968): 281–344 (XXXVIII no. 201: Rouleau mortuaire du bienheureux Vital, abbé de Savigni, 1122), at 341. The title (Titulus sancti Leonardi Stratfordiensis ecclesie) prays that the soul of Vitalis together with those of all the faithful departed may rest in peace, adding ... Orate pro nostris sororibus defunctis. The roll would have circulated in France and England on the death of Vitalis, each religious house adding their own titulus by way of commemoration. 4. The Bollandists, however, give the date as January 7, which may represent his translation. See Bibliotheca hagiographica latina antiquae et mediae aetatis [BHL] (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1949), 8707. 5. The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940–1540, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972–2008), 1 (940–1216), ed. D. Knowles, C. N. L. Brooke and Vera C. M. London, 1972; 2 (1216–1377), ed. D. M. Smith and Vera C. M. London, 2001; 3 (1377–1540), ed. D. M. Smith, 2008 [henceforth cited as HRH], 1:221, 2:612. The next known prioress is Alice in 1226/27 (HRH 2:612, where Alice is followed by Katherine, occurring 1245, 1248), not Katherine (named as Catherine), as in HRH 1:221. 6. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford, ed., A Survey of London by John Stow reprinted from the text of 1603 with introduction and notes, 2 vols. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1908), 1:253–4; Lisa Hilton, Queens Consort: England's Medieval Queens from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Elizabeth of York (New York: Pegasus Books LLC, 2010), 63. 7. "Houses of Benedictine Nuns: 6. The Abbey of Barking," in VCH Essex 2, ed. William Page and J. Horace Round (London, 1907), 115–22, at 122, which dubiously includes Matilda in its list of abbesses between Ælfgyva (occurs 1066/87) and Agnes (appointed 1114/22 [?1121]), though it seems to be implied (122 n. 73) that she was custodian. This suggests a tenure between November 11, 1100, when she became queen, and May 1, 1118, when she died, thus coinciding with the later part of the voidance of the abbey that appears to have existed between Ælfgyva and Agnes. HRH 1:208 omits Matilda from its list of Barking abbesses while not suggesting that she may have been custodian. The early pre-Conquest abbey of Barking was founded...

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