He appeared to Gilbert, a Benedictine monk, and to him disclosed the fraud, enjoining him to bring to light the true bones from their hiding-place. This was solemnly done. But Ely unexpectedly disclosed the artifice they had practised, and claimed that they were in possession of the true relics.
As neither party would yield, "the relics of St. Alban" for a hundred years received reverential and impartial homage both at St. Albans and at Ely. Eventually Ely disclaimed their right, on the appeal of Robert de Gorham, the eighteenth abbot, to the Pope.
In the history of the "Wars of the Roses," the city of St. Albans played a prominent part.
In 1455 Henry VI. set up his royal standard on the north side of the town, whilst the Yorkists, under the Duke of York and the Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker," encamped in the fields east of the town.
On May 3 of the same year in Holywell Street and its adjacent roads fought the two armies to decide the succession to the English throne. The Yorkists gained the victory. The king was taken a wounded prisoner.
On February 17, 1461, St. Albans was for the second time the scene of a terrible battle. The Lancastrians, with Queen Margaret at their head, defeated the Yorkists under the Earl of Warwick, and restored Henry VI. to the throne.
The principal portions now in existence of the original Norman church by Paul of Caen are the tower, the eastern bays of the nave, and the transepts. Though it exhibits specimens of architecture of different periods, and has undergone much restoration, the main architectural outlines, as conceived by Paul, have been adhered to all the time.
Within recent years Sir Gilbert Scott, succeeded by Sir Edmund Beckett, made extensive renovations. The only reminder of the once vast monastic buildings is the great gateway, within a few yards of the west entrance to the abbey.
