Monastic Wales.








Event detail for site: Carmarthen

c. 1125: Dissolution

The monks of Battle were sent home c. 1125 and were replaced by a community of Augustinian Canons.

This change was instigated by Bishop Bernard of St David’s (1115-48), the first Norman bishop of the see, who successfully strove to recover the priory. The Chronicle of Battle Abbey includes a colourful account of Bernard’s actions and describes how he was ‘seduced by the delightfulness of the place’ and showed ‘an extraordinarily strong greed’ in his attempts to acquire the monastery. The bishop was relentless and ultimately victorious but Henry I compensated Battle for its loss by granting the Sussex community Langrish (Hampshire), worth seventy shillings, to hold forever free and quit of all customs.

People associated with this event

Bernard , bishop of St David's

Bibliographical sources

Printed sources

The Chronicle of Battle Abbey, Oxford Medieval Texts, ed. Eleanor Searle (Oxford, 1980) pp. 124-125

Medieval Religious Houses, England and Wales, ed. R. Neville Hadcock and David Knowles (Harlow, 1971) p. 62

Cowley, F. G., The Monastic Order in South Wales 1066-1349 (Cardiff, 1977) pp. 168-9

Other events in the history of this site

c.1110: Foundation - The priory was founded c. 1110 when Henry I granted St Peter's chapel, Carmarthen, to the monks of Battle Abbey (Sussex) to establish a cell.  [1 sources]
c.1125: Dissolution - The monks of Battle were sent home c. 1125 and were replaced by a community of Augustinian Canons.  [3 sources]
 
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