1148, Founded by Stephen and Maud—Dedicated to St Saviour—153—, Dissolved—The site given to Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports—The greater part of the monastical buildings pulled down. Annual revenue, £286, 12s. 6d.
The town of Faversham, formerly a Saxon centre of some importance, and situated on the river Swale, south of the Isle of Thanet, contains some scanty ruins of an abbey, in the precincts of which were buried its founder, King Stephen, as also his Queen and son. Faversham was known in Saxon times as “Favresfield,” and there, in 930, King Athelstan held a Wittenagemot, or council of wise men. The town sheltered a succession of royal and distinguished visitors in the 16th and 17th centuries—amongst others, Mary, Queen of France, King Henry VIII., with Catherine of Aragon, Cardinal Wolsey and Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen Elizabeth “lay two nights” there. Nor was the place less favoured by the succeeding house of Stuart, for Charles II. dined with the Mayor of Faversham in 1660 at an expense to the town of £56, 0s. 6d. In the year 1688 James II. was arrested at Faversham whilst making his first attempt to leave England after the landing of the Prince of Orange.
At the time of the Dissolution of the monasteries, the site of this Cluniac monastic house and its adjoining lands came into the possession of Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and by him they were afterwards alienated to Thomas Ardern, the hero of probably the most notable domestic tragedy ever dramatised in this country. There are three old editions of the drama, and at least one popular ballad on the subject. Thomas Ardern came from the neighbourhood of Canterbury to Faversham at the age of 56, with a wife 30 years his junior—who became so blindly infatuated with one Mosbie that “with callous depravity and cruelty she engaged hirelings to despatch her husband during the fair of St Valentine.” It says little for the morality of Faversham and its neighbourhood that no less than ten persons of decent social position were found ready to lend themselves to the murderous undertaking. Eight of these were in the long run actually executed. “Ardern of Faversham” (1592) is a drama of very slight pretension to literary art, and the republication of 1887 adds further errors to those of the original carelessly printed drama.
[BATTLE (Benedictine)]
1067, Built and endowed by William the Conqueror—Rebuilt in the time of the Plantagenets in the form of a large quadrangle, one side of which was, after the Dissolution, converted into a private house by Sir Anthony Browne. Annual revenue £880, 14s. 7d.—1857, Sir Harry Fane restores the abbey and converts it into a mansion.
Battle Abbey was founded in 1067 by William I. in gratitude to God for the victory vouchsafed to the Norman arms at Hastings “that perpetual praise and thanks might be given to God for the said victory and prayers made for the souls of those who were slain” (Dugdale’s Monasticon). Of the few remaining portions of the abbey buildings, the grand entrance gate, consisting of a three-storeyed tower, embattled with octagonal turrets of the late Decorated period, is still in a good state of preservation. Adjoining it are the monastic offices, with square windows and an embattled parapet. A short drive from the abbey gate brings one to the Abbot’s Lodge—of picturesque and mediæval aspect, although hardly any of the ancient features are intact. The Abbot’s Lodge is now the residence of the Duchess of Cleveland, in whose absence only, the interior is open to visitors. The great hall is remarkable in its proportions—being as high as it is long—but all its details show signs of modern restoration. A few ruins lying a little to the south of the house are known as the old refectory. These are the remains of a fine Early English building, of which the roof has unfortunately disappeared, and beneath it are some vaulted crypts—also of the same period. During the excavations in 1817 the foundations of the eastern part of the abbey church were exposed, disclosing a triple apse and several bases of a crypt. Of the abbey church hardly one stone remains, its former site being now a flower garden.
William the Conqueror had planned the erection of the abbey on a vast scale, intending to endow it with sufficient land to maintain seven score monks. Several Benedictine monks were transported from Marmontier in Normandy, and one of their number, Gausbertus, elected abbot. Many privileges were granted to the abbey by its royal founder, including sanctuary; freedom from the Bishop’s jurisdiction, treasure trove, and to the abbot, the right to forgive any condemned thief he might meet going to execution. According to some accounts William was present at the consecration of the abbey—while other historians write of that ceremony as taking place in 1094, seven years after the king’s death. The Roll of Battle Abbey was supposed to be a list of the barons, and other eminent persons, who accompanied the Conqueror to England, and to have been compiled by the monks of Battle and hung up in their monastery. An English version of some verses referring to the Roll was inscribed on a tablet in the parish church of Battle and ran thus:—
“This place of war is Battle called because in battle here,
Quite conquered and overthrown the English nation were;
This slaughter happened to them upon St Cecilia’s day,
The year thereof (1066) this number doth array.”
A considerable amount of historical research has been undertaken at different times with a view to establishing the authenticity of this list of names (notably by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A.), and not a few of our English aristocracy, whose ancestors came over with the Conqueror, trace their pedigree from some forefather whose name they claim to have been inscribed on the Roll of Battle Abbey. The site of the abbey at the Dissolution was granted to one Gilmer and passed through the hands of many families of distinction. In 1857 the estate was bought by Sir Harry Fane. Public admission to the historical field of Senlac is given only once a week. It is to be hoped that the site of one of the most memorable events in English history may some day become national property and that the many tourists attracted to Battle Abbey may help towards safeguarding its interests as a sacred possession of the people.