The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond Part 20

1203 Jan. 31. Samson appointed by the Pope on a commission concerning the dispensation of Crusaders from their vows: and summoned over sea to advise the King on this question.

_pp._ 207-11.

1203 Dec. 21. John at Bury, and makes valuable offerings: but prevails on convent to grant him for life the use of the jewels which his mother Queen Eleanor had presented to St.

Edmund. _p._ 251.

1208 Mar. 24. Interdict comes into force throughout England.

1210 Sept. 23. Fall of central tower of Abbey Church.

1211 Dec. 30. Death of Samson: buried in unconsecrated ground.

_p._ xl.

1213 July. King John expresses a wish for the vacancy to be filled: Hugh (II) of Northwold chosen.

1214 July 2. Interdict solemnly dissolved.

1214 Aug. 12. Samson's body exhumed and buried in the chapter-house of Bury Abbey. _pp._ xlii., 247.

SECTION III

_FROM 1214 TO DISSOLUTION IN 1539_

1214 Nov. 4. King John at Bury: makes a speech in the chapter-house a.s.serting his rights over the election of abbot. _p._ 251.

1214 Nov. 20. The discontented earls and barons meet at Bury (probably on St. Edmund's Day) "as if for prayer."

Archbishop Langton reads to them Henry I's charter: and each swears on the high altar to make war on John unless he gives them the liberties contained therein (_Roger of Wendover_, vol. iii. 293-4).

1215 Mar. 10. Commissioners appointed by the Pope finally give judgment in favour of Hugh's election as abbot.

1215 June 9. King's approval to appointment of Hugh given in Staines meadow.

1215 June 15. Magna Charta signed.

1215-6 Louis, son of Philip II of France, invited by the barons to help them in their struggle against John. East Anglian towns sacked--Norwich and Lynn by the French; Cambridge, Yarmouth, Dunwich, Ipswich and Colchester by the barons (Ramsay's _Angevin Empire_, 1903, _p._ 497). Bury St. Edmunds a stronghold of the king (Norgate, _John Lackland_, 1902, _pp._ 257-8). Louis himself fighting in the south of England. No evidence of Louis or his hordes ever being at Bury.

1216 Oct. 19. Death of John at Newark. Henry III succeeds to the throne.

1220 (_circa_). Richard of Newport, sacrist, destroys the old chapter-house and rebuilds it from foundations. _p._ 247.

1220 Death of Herbert the prior. Richard of Insula (afterwards 12th abbot) succeeds him.

1224 Abbot Hugh at the Royal camp before Bedford Castle, attended by knights holding manors under St. Edmund.

1225 (_circa_). Abbot's Bridge built.

1229 Abbot Hugh II made Bishop of Ely: died August, 1254. Described by Matthew Paris as "flos nigrorum monachorum."

1229 Nov. 20. Richard of Insula recalled from Burton and installed as 12th abbot on St. Edmund's Day.

1234 Abbot Richard sent abroad on an appeal to Pope Gregory IX.

Attacked on his return with mortal illness, and dies at Pontigny. Buried in the chapter-house at Bury, where his skeleton was discovered on January 1, 1903, with skull sawn through and sternum severed (evidently for embalming purposes). _p._ 247.

1235 Henry of Rushbrook, prior of Bury, elected 13th abbot.

1235 Royal Charters granted to Abbot Henry to hold two fairs at Bury and a market at his manor of Melford.

1245 Abbot Henry excused by the Pope, on account of the gout, from attending the Council of Lyons.

1245 At the request of the convent, Henry III calls his newly-born son Edmund (founder of the house of Lancaster). Text of Royal letter in Arnold III. 28.

1248 July 5. Bull of Pope Innocent III (signed at Lyons) prescribing the solemn celebration of the feast of the translation of St. Edmund (April 29). Text in _Nov. Leg.

Angl._ (1901) II. 574.

1248 Death of Abbot Henry: buried in chapter-house. Edmund of Walpole, LL.D., appointed 14th abbot.

1250 Henry III takes the Cross: the abbot does the same, exposing himself to general derision (Matt. Par. v. 110).

1252 Simon of Luton (afterwards abbot) made prior.

1254 Richard of Clare, seventh Earl of Gloucester, claims St.

Edmund's manor of Mildenhall: threatened with excommunication by the Pope.

1254 Aug. Death of Hugh, Bishop of Ely (Abbot of Bury, 1213-29).

1256 Aug. Statutes approved by Pope Alexander IV for the governance of the Abbey of Bury, providing _inter alia_ for "two persons watching the body of St. Edmund and two the church treasure and clock night and day."

1256 Dec. 31. Abbot Edmund died: buried in the chapter-house.

_p._ 247.

1257 Jan. 15. Simon of Luton, prior, elected 15th abbot: cost of confirmation by the Pope, 2,000 marks.

1263 Nov. Franciscan friars expelled from Bury, under a rescript from Pope Urban IV, and compelled to migrate to Babwell.

1264 (Easter). Serious conflict between the monastery and the burgesses. The abbot complains to the king: fine inflicted on the burgesses.

1265 Defeat and death of Simon de Montfort. Many barons of his party take shelter at Bury, but subsequently dislodged.

1267 February. Henry III summons the barons who owe military service to the Crown to meet him at Bury.

1272 Sept. 1. Henry III at Bury on his way to Norwich.

1272 Nov. 16. Death of Henry III (Rishanger says at Bury).

1275 April 17. Edward I and his Queen come to St. Edmundsbury on a pilgrimage, "as they had vowed in the Holy Land."

1275 July 1. Foundation stone of new Lady Chapel laid by Prior Robert.

1279 April. Death of Abbot Simon at Melford: buried in the Lady Chapel, which he had built "at the cost of himself, his parents and his friends" (Leland, iv. 164).