Event detail for site: Brecon

c. 1100: Foundation

The foundation was evidently initiated by Roger, a monk of Battle, who was staying with Bernard of Newmarché and persuaded him to grant the church of St John the Evangelist to his Sussex abbey of St Martin.

The account of Brecon's foundation in the Chronicle of Battle Abbey (below) reveals how precisely the cell was established and endowed. While it contains some errors, charters in the Brecon Chartulary are a valuable corrective. Heale has recently argued that in this case , as in others, it is most likely that Bernard had simply granted lands to Battle without any intention of founding a cell. It was probably the monks themselves who chose to convert a bailiwick into a dependency as a more effective way of administering the lands; thus it seems that the dependency was established at the initiative of the mother-house rather than the founder and for administrative purposes. Indeed none of Bernard's foundation charters refer to the formation of a cell. Burton ('Foundation, transition and transformation', p. 24) argues that the account of Bernard's motive for founding Brecon, as outlined in the Battle Chronicle, may well be a 'legend', for although it is possible that a monk from Battle was in Wales his alleged presence is more likely 'convenient'. She suggests that Bernard was probably more concerned to cement his reputation as a conqueror of Wales - in the fashion of William in England - and thus drew monks from the Conqueror's own foundation.

one of the king's (Henry I) barons, a splendid man, Bernard surnamed 'Neufmarché', at the passionate entreaty of one Roger, a Battle monk who had by chance been staying with him for some time, gave the church of St Martin's free, and with all appurtenances, a certain possession called 'the old town' and the church near it of St John the Evangelist, situated outside the wall of his castle at Brecon in Wales. Brother Roger set to work as a new colonist, rebuilding it from the very foundations with enormous care and labour. He associated with himself another monk of the abbey called Walter, a man of great common sense. He constructed living quarters there and in the meantime by prayer or gift he acquired a few possessions of lands and tithes for the place from the neighbours. Faithful to his commission to the limit of his ability this indefatigable man strove to return to his mother church many times enlarged the talent of the little possession entrusted to him. Now, as time was going on, and the brethren were devoting themselves wholly to the good of the place it happened that Agnes, the wife of Bernard, chanced to be taken ill and gave them out of her inheritance and with the assent of her husband a certain hamlet situated in England, outside Wales, called Berrington, wholly free and quit in eternal possession and thus, little by little, by the generosity of Bernard as well, in lands, mills, churches and tithes the possessions of this church were increased. When, by the confirmation of the royal authority and that of the aforesaid Bernard the place and all its possessions was recognised as the right of Battle Abbey, Walter was made prior by the convent and abbot of Battle. They decided that servants of God should join the community to carry on Divine Office there according to the Rule, and that as a recognition of subject status they should pay the church of Battle annually a part of their revenue, namely twenty shillings.

(Chronicle of Battle Abbey, trans. Searle)

People associated with this event

Bernard of Neufmarché; Newmarket; Newmarch , landowner (founder)

Bibliographical sources

Printed sources

The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, Oxford Medieval Texts, ed. Eleanor Searle (Oxford, 1980) pp. 86-89

Burton, Janet, 'Transition and transformation: the Benedictine houses', in Monastic Wales: New Approaches, ed. Janet Burton and Karen Stöber (University of Wales: Cardiff, 2013) p. 24

Heale, Martin, The Dependent Priories of Medieval English Monasteries, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 22 (Boydell and Brewer: Woodbridge, 2004) p. 28

Other events in the history of this site