This paper explores the unique role of Syon Abbey and the Birgittine Order in England from their founding in 1415 until the dissolution of monasteries in 1539. By examining its foundation, wealth, and influence, the study reveals how Syon Abbey stood apart from other English monastic institutions. Despite Henry VIII’s dissolution of monasteries, Syon’s royal patronage and reputation among the nobility and lay piety allowed it to resist until the very end. As the only Birgittine monastery in Britain, Syon played a crucial role in England's religious and social landscape. The paper also investigates the aftermath of the dissolution, focusing on the fate of Syon's monks and nuns and its broader impact.
This paper aims to show the uniqueness of Syon Abbey and the Birgittine order which was settled in England between 1415 and the dissolution of monasteries in 1539. I have analysed the order’s monastic landscape in terms of its foundation, wealth, and power in order to show how unique it was compared to other high-profile monasteries in London as well as in England in general.
The dissolution of monasteries in England, between 1535 and 1539, was, as Robert Hutchinson calls it, the “audacious legal pillage that remains the greatest act of privatisation in the history of Britain’s governance – also abruptly ended their care of the poor and the sick and the provision of education and spiritual comfort to thousands of pilgrims” and thus established a new class of gentry by redistributing the monastic wealth.1 “The Bridgettines were one of the few beacons of hope in a [monastic] landscape otherwise bedimmed by darkness.” Together with the Carthusians and Observants, Syon was classed as the most austere religious house in the realm. Syon stood out in its relations with lay and para-monastic piety a well as nobility and royalty.2
For clarification, there are two ways of spelling the name of the order. “Birgittines” and “Bridgettines” will be used respectively and alters in spelling according to the literature I used throughout this paper. I will use “Birgittines” more often, but some quotes refer to the order in the alternative convention; they all mean the same of course.
Chapter 2 introduces the historical context. Firstly, I briefly provide an overview of the dissolution of the monasteries in general. I summarise the general idea as well as the process of the dissolution. I introduce the main characters which contributed to this infamous event in world history as well as the processes they used in order to realize the ‘English Reformation’. In addition, I mention examples of resistance from other monasteries to highlight and elevate the individuality of Syon in this matter. Secondly, I summarise the basis of the foundation of the order in England. I describe how and why the Birgittines were brought to England from Sweden, what their special foundation entailed, and what this royal influence meant to their ongoing live in England. Here, the timeless pieces of pertinent literature in this field by George William Otway Woodward, The Dissolution of the Monasteries from 19663, as well as Robert Hutchinson biography of Thomas Cromwell from 20084, provided the main works of literature to cover the dissolution of the monasteries in general. In terms of the Birgittines and Syon Abbey, Susan Powell’s The Birgittines of Syon Abbey – Preaching and Printing from 20175 as well as The Bridgettine Breviary of Syon Abbey, edited by A. Jefferies Collins in 19696, were the cornerstones of literature.
Chapter 3 focusses on the dissolution of Syon Abbey and its aftermath as well as the Birgittine order. In the first part of this chapter, I analyse the process of the dissolution of the order and its monastery whereby I aim to show why this monastery was not just the last monastery to be founded in England, but also the last monastery to be dissolved. Thus, its royal foundations, its reputation among nobility and the public, as well as its printing and its connection to other famous people who rejected Henry VIII’s acts and decisions, such as Sir Thomas More and Elizabeth Barton, are critically examined. The second and final part of this chapter focusses on the aftermath of the dissolution and describes what happened to the monks and nuns of this double monastery after it had been dissolved. The aftermath is important as it emphasises Syon’s landscape set-up from a different perspective. Alongside Aungier’s The History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery the Parish of Isleworth and the Chapel of Hounslow from 18407, James Clark’s The Dissolution of the Monasteries from 20218 were the most relevant works of literature. Especially the latter proved to be incredibly helpful throughout and turned out to be highly recommendable for the general topic of the dissolution of monasteries itself.
Syon Abbey and the Birgittine order enjoyed a special reputation among nobility and the royal household. This reputation of Syon’s landscape, in combination with its wealth and influence, caused this unique monastic landscape to survive Henry VIII’s and Thomas Cromwell’s dissolution until the very end, despite voicing the rejection of the king’s acts publicly from 1535 onwards. The entire Birgittine landscape in England, as the last monastery to be founded in England until the end of the dissolution in 1539, was founded by King Henry V in the early fifteenth century and remained to be the only monastery of the Birgittine order in Britain until its dissolution. These three components, the founder, the time of the foundation, and the fact that it is the only monastery of the order, just elevates this monastery to a definite distinctiveness in itself on the British Isles. This double monastic house inhabited monks and nuns with an approximate ratio of one monk to four nuns at all times. The abbey church, which was first excavated by Time Team and Wessex Archaeology in 2003, was situated in the centre of the monastic complex. The monks, alongside their famous library inhabited the northern part of the abbey with their entrance to the abbey most likely in the west-end of the church. The nuns lived in the southern part of the monastery with a much bigger building complex in comparison to the monks, with their entrance to the abbey being most likely to the east-end of the church.9 The monks were known for their extensive library as well as their printing abilities. The nuns were popular for their preaching and handling of pilgrimages. Other buildings and what this monastery contained in order to be self-sufficient, are mentioned later on.
The monastery, because of its founder and its location, enjoyed many noble and influential people who visited regularly. Catherine of Aragon, Sir Thomas More, Margaret Beaufort, and even Henry VIII belonged to the most regular visitors. The name “Syon” also attracted many pilgrims from all walks of life. In addition, the land this monastery acquired, in combination with their printing, their pilgrims, and donations, helped them to generate a lot of money, elevating them to one of the richest monasteries in the country during the dissolution.
The monastery’s reputation among the royal household, nobility, and the public, as well as their wealth their special foundation, helped this unique monastery to survive the dissolution until the very end. This paper outlines how resistance against the dissolution of the monasteries unfolded, using the Birgittine Order of Syon Abbey as a unique example, highlighting how Syon Abbey can be seen as a case of its own in the process. In the course of the paper, I analyse the political, religious, social and also materialistic contexts to compliment my argumentation.
By 1518, cardinals had already called for the need of a monastic reform. Bishop Thomas Wolsey and Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggino were appointed to lead the reformation of monasteries by Henry VIII. In 1528-1529, Wolsey was granted papal bulls enabling him to suppress certain monasteries and use their revenues to found new dioceses, abbeys, schools, and colleges. Colleges were also funded and supported by occasional suppressions of decaying houses. Wolsey himself supressed twenty-nine religious houses in order to fund twin colleges in Oxford and Ipswich10. Everett comments: “By the late 1520s there were many who were advocating the suppression of religious houses that no longer fulfilled their purpose and diverting their wealth to perceived better uses.”11 Hence, Thomas Wolsey became the richest man in England after Henry VIII. He extracted as much money as he could from the treatises he negotiated while he pillaged the goods of the bishoprics. It was rather easy for him to do so as he obtained a papal dispensation from Pope Clement VII to suppress alien, minor, and decaying monasteries, as “neither God was served, nor religion kept” within these crumbling walls. As Lord Chancellor, Wolsey received commissions for every favour conferred and levied a shilling per pound on the value of all the wills proved by the administrators. Thus, he earned a staggering £50,00012 per year until he fell from power in 1529. Thereby, Wolsey did not just pave the way for the large scale dissolutions a decade later, but also served as a role model and mentor for Thomas Cromwell.13 Wolsey was keen on Cromwell: “The Cardinal of York [Wolsey], seeing Cromwell’s vigilance and diligence, his ability and promptitude, both in evil and good, took him into his service and employed him principally in demolishing five or six monasteries.”14 Cromwell learned how to make money with corruption and ruthlessness, acquiring tips and tricks throughout his service to Wolsey in the 1520s. Other methods to accumulate money were to rent out properties for more than agreed, generous bribes were taken in order for the monastery to be spared suppression, and confiscated goods were not catalogued but sold straight away for example.15
In order to get a sense of the scale that followed the beginnings of the actual dissolution, it is important to mention that in 1530, there were at least 825 religious houses in England and Wales (502 monasteries, 136 nunneries, 187 friaries) inhabiting 7,500 men and 1,800 women whilst England and Wales had a combined population of roughly 3.5 million.16 Thus, 1 in 375 was the ratio of population of religious people to total population. Despite the impressive numbers of monasteries and their inhabitants, it is not the most important factor when considering the dissolution. Landowning was their principle form of wealth as the religious orders were landlords on a very large scale, accumulating £160,000-£200,000 annually.17 According to the historian and archaeologist James Bond, monasteries and nunneries alone possessed between twenty and twenty-five percent of the land in England. There are higher estimates as well, but this estimated figure seems applicable and realistic.18
The social position which abbeys enjoyed as a consequence of their wealth and estates carried with it responsibilities which abbots, abbesses, priors etc. were expected to discharge in very much the same way as any other landlord.19 It is important to mention that the confiscation of the endowments of monastic houses in order to convert them was not a revolutionary idea. Henry V, who reigned between 1413 and 1422, decided that alien priories, small religious houses in England dependent upon mother houses in France, had to sever their foreign connection or suffer expropriation. It had been thought advisable to abolish individual small convents which had fallen on hard times for various reasons.20
Before the actual dissolution of monasteries happened between 1535 and 1539, there were some key events that not just lead to but also influenced the process massively. The failure of Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, to secure the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon from 1527 onwards led to his downfall and appointment of Thomas Cromwell. In 1531, a convocation accepted the king as supreme head of the church in England, rather than the Pope. In 1532, Sir Thomas Moore resigned as Lord Chancellor. In March 1533, Thomas Cranmere became Archbishop of Canterbury who, in May 1533, declared the king’s first marriage as invalid and the second as legal.21 During those years, it became obvious that money had always been the tangible main reason for the dissolution, starting to take shape with the adoption of a purely monetary line of distinction between the smaller abbeys with less than £200 annual income and those with more, by the government in 1535.22 The foundation of this charter was provided by the Valor Ecclesoaticus, which is a survey of the wealth of what the English Church had drawn up in 1535.23 In spring 1534, the Succession Act and the Treasons Act were passed. Every monk and friar had to swear an oath to them.24 These two acts were followed by the Act of Supremacy in November 1534.25 The vast majority of monks and friars swore an oath on all three acts individually; also, the Englishmen which “shared the prejudice of their contemporaries against foreigners, a prejudice which had very materially assisted the king in his rejection of the authority of the bishop of Rome.”26 Thus, the procedures against the monasteries had popular support. By 1534, 7342 people had sworn the “Oath of Succession”.27 In April 1535 Syon were obliged to swear the oath. The most learned brother, Richard Reynolds28, refused at once and was executed in May at Tyburn with three Carthusian priors from other monasteries. They were hanged, drawn and quartered in their robes. Thereby, they were not degraded from their orders first. In the following month, two other London Carthusians were hanged in York. This ruthless and degrading procedure demonstrated the pitilessness of the king towards traitors. On 22 June 1535, John Fisher29 was executed after being proclaimed cardinal by the Pope for his stands against Henry VIII. Thus, Birgittines and Carthusians emerged to be the leading opponents of the king.30 “The lands and goods of traitors were forfeit to the crown, and, on the legally dubious argument that a monastery’s possessions were the property of its abbot, these houses were seized and dissolved.”31 Thus, a crucial precedent was established. The “voluntary” surrender of the monastic houses to the crown with numerous examples, also explained by the fear of death and an uncertain future which were undoubtedly and increasingly present throughout the late 1530s.32
In addition, relics and pilgrimages were an important motive for the dissolution especially in the case of Syon. Religious orders were discredited, and their suppression was facilitated in order for the relics to be taken as both, a worthful possession as many shrines were richly ornamented with precious stones, gold etc., and as an object that was ridiculed and destroyed. The attacks on shrines climaxed in 1538 and with it, in many cases, came the surrender of the abbey which contained them; “and yet the financial aspect of the dissolution remains undoubtedly the most prominent. The standing sources of the crown were no longer adequate to meet the ever-increasing costs of government and defence, particularly the costs of ships and guns which were so important.”33 The wealth and influence of the monasteries naturally caught Henry VIII’s eye, also because monasteries were chief patrons and main earners from pilgrims and relics.
Thomas Cromwell’s plan was clear from the very beginning. In a document from 1534, Cromwell describes how smaller houses were to be propriated, larger ones were to have their incomes pruned and bishops were to be put on a fixed salary. Albeit the beginnings were relatively modest by targeting smaller and more defenceless monasteries. Since the king had been recognised as “Supreme Head of the Church in England” by the English clergy,34 Thomas Cromwell was able to personally supervise the dissolution of various monasteries, most prominently Christchurch.35 Interestingly, Cromwell spoke against the use of parliament to dissolve smaller monasteries because of the opposition it might cause. Instead, it should be done step by step rather than all at once, as it would have happened if parliament had ordered it.36 I do not doubt that is one reason to stop parliament from interfering, but I guess the corruption and personal gains he acquired during the dissolution were his main motives.
Deals were made where lands and monastic houses were bought off of Cromwell, the priory of Ingham in Norfolk for example, which was bought for £100. Hutchinson summarises the dissolution process as follows:
“The process of dissolution was simple and brutal. Cromwell’s commissioners visited a monastic house, called together the community and announced their fate. Its property deeds were collected together, its great seal seized and the movable values – the gold and silver sacred vessels and the vestments – inventoried. The lead of the roof was measured and the bells counted as the first stages in the recycling of the monastic buildings. A second visit checked the accounts and accepted the surrender. The tombs within the church were sometimes removed by the deceased’s families to places of safety. Others were destroyed for the price of their stone and metal and still more appropriated for re-use elsewhere by some who sought status on the cheap. Some buildings were demolished; others merely had their roofs removed to render them unfit for future worship. Monasteries were also sold and converted into private homes for the gentry enriched by the redistribution of their lands.”37
This quote provides a general idea of how the process of dissolving a monastery proceeded. However, it is only to be seen as a generalization. There are various accounts where the process went differently. Nevertheless, Hutchinson accomplished to summarize and generalise the procedure sufficiently.
Hence, not all monastic houses co-operated. The Augustinians at Hexham Priory in Northumberland armed themselves with guns and artillery in September 1536 constating. ‘We be twenty brethren…and we shall die ere that you shall have the house.’ They held out for two weeks but after two weeks finally surrendered.38
In the beginning of 1538, the end of monasticism was widely recognized as Richard Layton wrote to Cromwell ‘that the King was determined to suppress all monasteries’ and also spread this idea publicly. However, Cromwell tried to negate this claim by despatching a circular to abbots and priors in order to calm the situation down and prevent outroar and panic.39 Overall, 1538 marked the beginning of the dissolution of monasteries that were of greater scale, when in the summer of that year, an attack was launched against a number of the greatest shrines of the country. Thereby, the shrines of “Our Lady of Walsingham and Ipswich” were brought to the capital, along with other objects such as paintings that were used for pilgrimages, just to be ignited in front of a cheering crowd. This destruction of shrines climaxed with the dismantling of the most sacred of them all, the shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury.40 Cromwell also secured an allegiance with a group of Lutheran princes, the Schmalkaldic League in May 1538, whereby he not just secured the prestige and power on the British Isles, but also on the continent.41 On 13 May 1539, Audley introduced a bill for the dissolution of larger monasteries. This act was different compared to the one that had been passed three years prior, as it provided a legal basis for the transfer of assets of inhabitants of monastic houses to the king “of their own free and voluntary minds”. Unsurprisingly, this act did not face any opposition42 as the dissolution was in in full force, most of the opposition had been eliminated already, and the force and ruthlessness of the procedures were very well known. Thus, Syon was officially vulnerable to Cromwell and the dissolution.
The destruction of these beautiful religious houses must have been devastating for the people of the surrounding areas. The monasteries would have been the largest and most prominent buildings for miles around. By stripping these buildings down brick by brick, Borman claims that Cromwell’s men were committing most shocking acts of vandalism, symbolising his despised reforms in the most brutal way possible.43 376 monastic houses were suppressed, raising an estimated £100,000 from selling valuables, on top of the annual income of £32,000 per year from the remaining houses.44
Often neglected when thinking about the consequences of the dissolution are the people who lived in the religious houses.
“It was a lamentable thing to see legion of monks and nuns who have been chased from the monasteries wondering hither and tither, seeking means to live. Several honest men have told me what with monks, nuns and persons dependent on the monasteries suppressed, there were over 20,000 who knew not how to live.”45
The former inhabitants of these dissolved religious houses were either relocated or given a pension to supply for necessities. Unfortunately, this aid only reached a minority.46
Syon Abbey, a double house of nuns and monks,47 was instituted and endowed by Henry V and was the last monastery to be founded in medieval England.48 The foundation charter of Henry V states that the king wanted the abbey to be known as “monasteri[um] Sancti Salvatoris, et Sanctae Brigittae de Syon, ordinis S. Augustini.” It was the only house of the Birgittine order to be established in England.49 The name “Syon” itself alludes to the hill in Jerusalem on which the city of David was built. Like the biblical city’s prominent location, Syon’s position between Westminster and Windsor, the river on the side, the main road on the other, allowed to stand as a visual reminder of Henry’s devotion. Henry named himself “a true son of the God of peace, who gave peace and taught peace and chose St Bridget as a lover of peace and tranquillity.”50
The beginnings of the Birgittine House are surrounded by obscurities. In 1406, Sir Henry FitzHugh escorted Philippa, daughter of Henry IV, to Sweden for her marriage with Eric XIII. There, FitzHugh accompanied the young queen on a visit to the motherhouse of St. Bridgit, a monastery for both men and women at Vadstena in the Linköping diocese. Fitz Hugh then signed a charter conveying his manor near Cambridge to trustees with the duty to assign the property to any brothers of the order within ten years to build a monastery on 28 November 1406. The year after, Vadstena decided to send two representatives to England for a lengthy period of time in the following year.51 There, the Birgittines decided against the idea of establishing a community at Cherry Hinton, Cambridge. Hence, Henry V laid the foundation stone of Syon Abbey at Twickenham on 22 February 1415 where on 3 March the charter for the foundation was passed.
In May 1415, Henry requested four consecrated sisters and three novices in charge of two brothers to come from Sweden to England. It was difficult to draw up constitutions or regulations applicable to Syon specifically, as St. Bridget’s “Rule of Saint Saviour” remained unsettled in England especially because the “Additiones” made to amplify the rule enhanced doubtfulness among English abbots, abbesses, and clerics in general. However, by the end of 1417 the Swedes had been joined by postulants from various orders but even then, neither had any formally constituted community existed, nor had any English Birgittine been professed yet.52 In response to entries by Henry V, pope Martin V enclosed twenty-seven sisters, five priests, two deacons and four lay brothers in the celebrate erat prima profession ordinis sancti saluatoris de Syon in regno anglie per manus venerabilis patris domini Henrici Chicheley cantuariensis archiebiscopi, on 21 April 1420. On 4 May 1421, Bishop Clifford of London confirmed the election of the first abbess and the first confessor general. The first abbess was Matilda Newton, a Benedictine nun, who valued her Benedictine rules and implemented them at Syon, especially the liturgy, teaching, and style of education.53 From there, the community grew so rapidly that the tenth profession was celebrated in 1427. On 11 November 1431, the community moved to what is today known as Syon House, down the river at Isleworth.
“In that new home the convent became renowned for a piety at once fervent and enlightened, and for an unflinching austerity practised in the strictest seclusion; it drew not a few of its sisters from the foremost families in the land; the universities, Cambridge in particular, provided it with a number of its brethren, the books brought by those scholars making their library one of outstanding merit; the laity flocked to the abbey sermons.”54
Henry V proposed to build three monastic houses nearby his royal palace at Sheen to provide constant prayer around his residence. The three houses were Carthusians, Celestines, and finally Birgittines.55 The arrival of the Birgittines was depicted by Susan Brigden as “a spirit of renewal”.56 Syon was and is often described as the “toe-hold” in England. The brothers oversaw the spiritual health of the nuns and had a pastoral responsibility for the pious laymen and women in the precincts. Through preaching and printing, the Birgittines aimed to reach out to a constituency of pious lay questers, thereby achieving what Walter Hilton described as a “medled life” combining the vita contemplativa with external, charitable deeds.57
The abbey church itself was consecrated in 1488 with further enhancement over the following thirty years. It was a church of astonishing size as recent archaeological investigations have shown. It must have been “one of the greatest buildings in the late medieval Britain.”58 The monastery held land in Sussex, Gloucester, Lancaster, Cambridge, Essex, Wilts, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, and Kent; lands that were valued at £1616 at the time.59 Only between 1461 and 1479, £5629 were spent on building the monastery. The church measured approximately one-hundred-feet of width and two-hundred-and-forty feet of length as excavations by Time Team have discovered. Because it was a double house with a shared church, many of the abbey’s buildings were duplicated. There were separated Cloisters for the brethren and the nuns, with separate Dorters and Fraters as well as a shared Sacristy and Chapter House. Also, there was a kitchen, a brewhouse, a bake-house, a dairy, a cistern for fish, a smithy, a horse-mill, and many other buildings on site that made the monastery entirely self-sufficient.60
Henry VII’s particular vision was to create a network of foundations in spiritual affiliation to himself and his family, as well as his officials. His Lord Treasurer John Dynham linked London’s Dominican and Franciscan convents, the charterhouse of Sheen and Smithfield as well as Syon Abbey in common acts of posthumous commemoration.61 Syon had some courtier benefactors as Westminster Abbey, the Charterhouses, and the new convents of Observant friars. They all had their principal Tudor patron: King Henry VII. Likewise, Edmund Horde, prior of the Charterhouse at Hinton, belonged to an extended family network connecting him to the exalted social circle surrounding Syon Abbey.62
In the late 1510s, Margaret of Windsor, Margaret Beaufort’s god-daughter, became prioress of Windsor. By this stage, Syon was the English religious institution with the greatest outreach. The abbey was a focus for visitors of all social classes as well as in close reach from the king’s new palace of Richmond, albeit no shrine was present, it was a place of resort for pilgrims.63 There were countless pilgrims who visited the monastery at special times to receive the Syon pardon and other indulgences.64
“Alms were dispensed daily; there were images, beads, and rosaries to be obtained; the preaching at Syon was famous, and the pardon days, especially at Lammastide, were known nationwide […]. While access to the abbey was to some extent available to all, it was the powerful and well connected who had most intimate access to the community.”65
Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother, even had her own closet overlooking the church and received a papal permission to eat with Birgittines. I will mention some more relations of her later in the chapter. Richard Pace lived at Syon from 1525 onwards in order to use the brothers’ library to study Hebrew and write his correction of the Old Testament.66 Pace provides a hint to the extent of library: “a mass of books such as I have never seen assembled in one place.”67
“Although the royal household was the focus of political life, London’s religious institutions, especially Syon Abbey and the Carthusian monasteries […] shaped the literate culture of medieval England.”68 This quote shows that Syon was not just famous for pilgrimages, services, and preaching but also for copying and promoting printed books. The publication of texts increased from 1520. Henceforth, the Birgittines were the first in response to the Lutheran threat and later against the religious orders in England. The Birgittines entered into the fight against the dissolution through a more frequent exposition of dogma and spiritual and moral conduct. John Fisher was the only bishop to refuse to agree to the king’s title as supreme head and wrote De causa matrimonii serenissim[i] regis Anglie liber in support of the validity of the marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Between 1521-1527, the Birgittines published five books against Luther at a time where just owning them was considered a severe offence.69 Only a few years prior, the Birgittines enjoyed the patronal power of Margaret Beaufort in relations to their printed publications of devotional literature. Margaret also looked to the Birgittine priests for her Christian instructions.70
Confessor General of Syon Abbey John Fewter and Agnes Jordan led a “savy campaign” of vernacular publications during their joint leadership of the monastery. Whereby, eleven out of fourteen printed English books emanated from Syon. Thus, donations from wealthy Londoners and the observants of Greenwich and Richmond as well as from the Charterhouse generated a substantial budget for their mission.71 Henry V himself donated books to community members when he founded the monastery.72 In fact, even Henry VIII was very fond of Syon with the royal family, also the extended royal family, providing generous donations and visiting the site regularly. Especially Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary, later Queen Mary, showed a great interest and affection towards the monastery and its abbey.73
“Syon was at that time a hotbed of treasonable gossip.”74 But not just the ‘treasonable gossip’ was key to Cromwell’s attitude towards Syon, it was also the conform to supremacy because of their “popularity perceived eminence as sanctuaries of piety and honour.”75 Cromwell knew Syon very well, as he had been Chief Steward of Syon in the mid-1520s and thus Syon regularly featured in his “remembrances”. “Syon was famous for its preaching and learning: it had a renowned library with at least 1,400 volumes, but the invention of printing enabled it to reach a much wider audience with its devotional literature.”76 Cambridge University has a catalogue which contains 40,000 volumes that were set to have been stored in the brothers’ library in the 1530s.77 Brothers of the monastery were all university-trained scholars who donated some of their books to the library while being allowed to keep books as their own possession. The sisters had their own smaller library which was only meant to store prayer books, psalms, and carol books for their services.78 However, Syon’s printing abilities were of bigger concern to Cromwell, and he knew that he could not act as brutally as he had done with other monasteries before, because of the many daughters of noble houses and families that lived there.
In 1534, Anne Boleyn visited Syon in order to gain admittance to the nuns’ choir but was refused entrance at first. She was denied entrance because no married person was allowed to enter the abbey, thus her marriage to King Henry VIII caused her being rejected. However, after some discussions she was allowed inside. Anne Boleyn, who was a passionate protestant, lectured the nuns on their ignorant praying which they ought to abandon while the nuns lay on the floor with their heads down effectively blinding themselves to her presence. Scholars argue whether this behaviour by the nuns is to be understood as a form of compromise so that the sisters do not see this married, evangelical woman in their abbey, or as a silent but visual protest. Similar ambiguous behaviour occurred following further visitations. Also, all services conducted by the brothers showed a lack of obedience that year. Thus, the Birgittines’ presented a steady opposition to first the divorce and then the supremacy, occasionally marked by overt (and dangerous) gestures, that only gradually subsided. “[…] it was only through intimidation and persuasion that ‘what seemed like principles opposition from Syon was eventually neutralised.”79 Opposition of the Birgittines started with their support of Elizabeth Barton the Nun of Kent, who denounced the king’s desire for divorce passionately. The nuns even invited Barton and Sir Thomas More to Syon to exchange ideas. Barton even stayed and spent some time at Syon.80 Syon, alongside the Charterhouse in London, showed first indications of resistance in 1533 with their voiced objections of Henry VIII’s divorce.81
However, in July 1535, Agnes Jordan the abbess at Syon and her sisters, except two, were agreeable to the oath of succession and cooperated with Cromwell and the king’s orders. Cromwell immediately sent down a swarm of reformist preachers,82 which shows that despite of the reputations and noble connections Syon had, there were no exceptions made. Another event motivated Cromwell to send these reformists to Syon. On 24 August 1535, something extraordinary happened which started the dissolution of the monastery on a very different level compared to that of the nuns of the monastery. Brother Robert Ricote had been forced to preach in favour of the king. When he opened his speech, nine brothers walked out. Subsequently, the brothers ceased to preach at Syon completely.83
“At Syon Abbey, those who were decided against the royal supremacy used their established channel of print and publication to set out their position. ‘No temporall lawe maye bunde any spirituall persone’ declared Richard Whitford, a prolific Syon author, ‘exepte it be graunted or ratified by a decre of the Pope and his Cardinalles or by a general counsell.’”84
The location and the profile of Syon assured access to all the metropolitan printers.85 Thomas Cromwell’s one reference to a religious house in his remembrance at the turn of the year from 1538 to 1539, was Syon Abbey. Its reluctance to reconcile to the royal supremacy for five years at this point, bothered and to some degree impressed Cromwell very much.86
On 25 November 1539, Syon was ultimately suppressed with generous pensions granted to the abbess, fifty-three choir nuns, four lay sisters, twelve brothers, and five lay brothers. Agnes Jordan received £200 a year.87 “This [giving out of pensions] was no doubt, largely due to the court influence of many of their number, and partly because Henry retained some of his old affection for this royal monastery.”88
The monastery was an object of especial vengeance as it was a place of asylum to Henry VIII’s enemies.89 The community dispersed of which many spent their next years in smaller groups in England, France, and the Netherlands.90 Charles Wriothesley, a nephew of an early choir sister, recorded in a contemporary chronicle: “A.D. 1539. The 25 daie of November the house of Syon was suppressed into the Kinges hands, and the ladies and brethren putt out, which was the vertues [most virtuous] house of the religion that was in England.”91
The commissioners who dissolved Syon Abbey knew of the difficulty of their task as historian James Clark describes:
“The royal commissioners were conflicted because the traditions off the religious houses persisted, not only in sight and sound, but also in widespread word and image, to the very end. […] Their hold on the public scene drew much of its strength from the fact they were still closely associated with those ideas and institutions on which the Tudor state was steadily rising: property, lordship, prelacy and the crown.”92
This quote emphasises the connections and royal foundations on which this monastery was built on, alongside their reputation among nobility and the public, as well as their power provided by property and lands.93 Historian Peter Ackroyd adds to this debate: “some of the most effective opposition came from the religious orders closest to the royal family itself, the Bridgettines of Syon Abbey.”94 Yet, despite of their resistance, their royal foundations, their connections, their reputation among nobility and the public, the Birgittines had to give in. The seal of the monastery was carried away to exile with sister Agnes Smyth after refusing to surrender it to the crown; a final symbolic refusal to adhere to the rules of Cromwell and Henry VIII.95
After the dissolution, Richard Whitford remained in London. Two nuns returned to their family home. Agnes Jordan alongside a small group of nuns shared a leased farmhouse in the Thames Valley where they had an improvised chapel for conventual worship. The nuns cultivated a wider network of former regulars of other congregations. Catherine Palmer went to Antwerp with an “advanced guard of sisters.” A cross section of canons, monks, and friars went into exile, went back to France or to the Scottish border.96
Syon remained in the king’s hand during the remainder of Henry’s reign. John Gates was appointed keeper in 1540 and represented the king’s interests on site. In 1541, the dissolved monastery became a prison for Katherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife. She had been kept strict but served as Queen until she was beheaded in February 1542 for adultery. On 14 February 1547, the corps of Henry VIII was brought to Syon on the first night of his eight-day funeral procession. This emphasises that Henry still had affections for this place as he chose this site to be his first place of procession himself. Henry’s successor, Edward VI, granted Syon to his uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector, in his first year of power. As the Duke of Somerset was executed in 1552, the mansion was confiscated by the crown again. As a result, a small part of the abbey had been used to build Syon House which still stands today97. Historian James Clark describes Somerset’s project as ‘the most beautiful mansion house.’98 In 1553, John Dudley the Duke of Northumberland was granted Syon House. Dudley was executed after unsuccessfully trying to install Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England; instead of Mary I, who reverted Syon when she became Queen. In 1554, the Act of Parliament passed, reinstating the Pope as head of church as well as his entire authority. In 1557, Queen Mary I re-established the monastery as a result of Cardinal Pole who met some of the Birgittines on his way back from Rome. He told the queen about their desire to return, which she happily granted.99
Various individual houses were re-founded by the catholic Queen Mary I, including the house of the Birgittines which had been occupied, and still is to this day by the Duke(s) of Northumberland.100 When the Birgittines returned they received the grant of their old buildings, the ones that still existed as well as their demesne lands.101 Syon’s legacy was finally secured by Mary I’s will on 30 March 1558.102 There, Mary “bequeathed £500 to Syon ‘to reedifye some part of ther necessary howses…and furnish themselves with ornaments.’”103
However, it was difficult to stock the monastery with “such who had been veyled before (it being now thirty years since their dissolution) in which time most of the older nuns were in the graves, and the younger in the arms of their husbands.”104 A great benefactor Sir Francis Englefield built the two sides of the monastery that were decayed and pulled down at his own expenses.105 In the year before, Queen Mary brought back twenty-one sisters and Katherine Palmer106, abbess of Maria Troon, a Birgittine convent in the Netherlands. They were accompanied by two priests and one lay brother.107 Syon’s nuns held together as a network before they resumed with their conventual life upon their return to Syon. Altogether, twenty-one women were named in the charter of restoration on 1 March 1557, of which three women died before their formal enclosure five months later and two more had died before the turn of the year.108 However, after two years the order was supressed again. This time, the group stayed together and went into a long and arduous exile. Philip II of Spain provided a ship for them to travel to Maria Troon.109
Syon always played a part in politics because of the royal foundation, the links with nobility, and its location near to London. King Edward IV used the abbey’s Lancastrian connections to affirm his legitimacy and the brothers and sisters always had a close connection to Westminster and Whitehall.110 With Syon Abbey and the Birgittine order, Henry V established a unique monastery in the Thames Valley. Its foundation and reputation among royalty, nobility, and the public was unlike any other religious house in England. Despite it being the only Birgittine monastery in England at that time, or maybe as a result of that, Syon Abbey became one of the richest and most influential religious houses in the country. Catherine of Aragon, Sir Thomas More, Queen Mary I, and even Henry VIII loved to spend time there. The monastery’s printing abilities as well as the vast lands it possessed, enhanced the monasteries influence and power. Thomas Cromwell knew how difficult it would be to dissolve this monastery which resulted in the dissolution being the last one to be done in England in 1539. Because of the monastery’s early resistance against Henry VIII’s oaths of the mid-1530s, its support towards Elizabeth Barton and Sir Thomas More, and the refusal to accept the Henry VIII as their head of church, deemed this monastery to be among the nearly 400 monasteries to be dissolved. However, despite their reputation, wealth, and power, they had to give in and leave the site in the end, but they were able to resist the dissolution until the very end due to their unmatched attribution among royalty and the public. Henry VIII gave out generous pensions and chose Syon to be his first stop of his funeral-procession which emphasises the order’s status even more. Also, Queen Mary’s attempt to re-establish the order in 1558 enhances this idea.
Syon Abbey and the monastery of the Birgittine order was as influential and powerful as it was unique and highly regarded. The monastery had to accept their fate in the end as many hundreds had to before them. However, it was for their influence, reputation, power, and wealth that they could hold on until the very end despite publicly rejecting Henry VIII’s oaths, his marriage, or him being the head of church.
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