Appurtenances
Properties, right and duties appertaining
(belonging) to another property.
'Arleighe' / Earley
Earley, a manor in the Domesday Book and now
a small town adjacent to Reading in Berkshire.
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Auditor
An officer of the Exchequer or another financial
court; the official responsible for examining
the accounts. The name derived from the fact
that accounts were originally presented orally.
Bulmershe
The manor of Bulmershe, Reading, Berkshire,
belonged to Reading Abbey at the time of the
Dissolution of the Monasteries. After Reading
Abbey was dissolved, Bulmershe was granted
to William Grey (see below). It is now home
to one of the campuses of the University of
Reading.
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Court of Augmentations
The Court of Augmentations was one of a number
of financial courts established during the
reign of Henry VIII. It was founded in 1536
to administer monastic properties and revenues
confiscated by the crown at the Dissolution
of the Monasteries. The court had its own chancellor,
treasurer, lawyers, receivers and auditors.
In 1547 the Court of Augmentations was amalgamated
with the Court of General Surveyors, which
had been established in 1542 to administer
crown lands. In 1554, the roles of the Courts
of Augmentations, General Surveyors, and First
Fruits and Tenths were taken over by the Exchequer.
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Dissolution of the Monasteries
The disbanding and destruction of religious
houses in England and Wales under Henry VIII.
In 1536 the religious establishments with annual
incomes of less than £200 per annum were dissolved.
The attention of Henry and his chief minister
Thomas Cromwell turned to the friaries in 1537,
and thereafter to the rest of the religious
houses. By 1540 they had all gone, the last
to fall being Waltham Abbey in Essex. Their
lands, properties and incomes went to the Crown.
Some of the monastic buildings remained in
religious use – Henry allowed some monasteries
to be refounded as secular cathedrals served
by dean and chapter instead of priors and monks,
and in rare cases the church buildings, or
parts of them, were bought by locals to act
as the parish church. Generally however the
properties and lands were simply sold off to
wealthy lay people, with the Court of Augmentations
set up to deal with the spoils.
Forest of 'Wyndesore' / Windsor
Windsor Forest. Although
today the word 'forest' conjures up an image
of trees, in law a forest was an area of land,
usually belonging to the monarch, which was
set apart for the hunting of wild animals and
game. This land could be wooded in part, but
would have also consisted of heathland and
pasture.
Windsor Forest was created by William the
Conqueror (1066-1087) as a deer park. It consisted
of land stretching from the fence of the Great
Park of Windsor Castle to the Loddon River,
approximately 18 miles (c. 29 km). Within these
bounds forest law prevailed. Killing a deer
without permission invoked severe punishments.
The keeper of Windsor Forest was the constable
of Windsor Castle. The land was sold off by
Parliament during the Civil War. By the time
of Charles II, the remains of Windsor Forest
consisted of nine separated areas of woodland.
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Grey, William
1495[?]-1551. William Grey, a citizen of London,
purchased several parcels of land in Berkshire
following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
He became Member of Parliament for Reading
in 1547. He was also known as a writer of ballads,
including 'The Fantasy of Idolatry', an attack
on monastic shrines and pilgrimages, in support
of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Henry VIII
Henry VIII was born at Greenwich on 28 June
1491. He was the second son of Henry VII and
Elizabeth of York. His elder brother Prince
Arthur died in 1502, making Henry heir to the
throne, to which he succeeded on 21 April 1509.
Desperate for a male heir to secure the Tudor
succession, Henry VIII had six wives. During
the English Reformation Henry became head of
the Church in England, repudiating papal supremacy,
and closed down the monasteries. The monastic
lands were sold off and the revenues went to
the Crown. Henry died at Whitehall in London
on 28 January 1547, and was buried in St George's
Chapel in Windsor Castle.
'Kinges majesties house of Redying'
/ Reading [Abbey]
Henry VIII made part of the monastic buildings
of Reading Abbey into a royal residence. It
was known as Abbey House, and still belonged
to the Crown in the reign of Elizabeth I 1558-1603.
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Particular
A statement, or a detailed account or description.
Reading Abbey
Reading Abbey was founded by Henry I in June
1121, on the site of an earlier religious house.
The abbey was Cluniac at its foundation but
by the 13th century it was described as Benedictine.
The abbey was dedicated to the Virgin Mary
and St John the Evangelist. It was richly endowed
by Henry I (1100-1135) and given the possessions
of the abolished abbeys of Leominster and Chelsea.
Henry also presented Reading Abbey with its
prized relic, the hand of St James the Apostle.
Henry I was buried there in 1135. In 1164 the
abbey was consecrated by Thomas a Becket, and
it hosted the wedding of John of Gaunt and
Blanche of Lancaster in 1359.
At the time of Dissolution of the Monasteries
the abbey's revenues were valued at £2116 3s
9 1/4 d. Its last abbot, Hugh Cook of Faringdon,
was executed as a traitor outside the abbey
gateway in 1539, and the abbey fell to the
king. Part of the monastic buildings were retained
as a royal residence for a while, but the church
buildings were gradually stripped.
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Reading
The county town of Berkshire. A settlement
has existed there from Saxon times. The town
was given to the newly-founded Reading Abbey
by Henry I (1100-1135). When the abbey was
dissolved, Reading reverted to the Crown after
over four centuries of monastic rule. Thomas
Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief minister during
the Reformation, was initially appointed steward
of the borough.
Sonning
A village in Berkshire, on the River Thames.
Sonning was formerly the site of the palace
of the bishops of Salisbury.
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Southwell, Sir Richard
1504-1564. Richard Southwell was made a receiver
to the Court of Augmentations in April 1538.
He had taken an active part in the dissolving
of the monasteries since 1535. He was sheriff
of Norfolk from 1534 to 1536, and it is also
known that he received a pardon for his involvement
in a murder in 1531, for which he was fined
£1000. Southwell's brother Robert also held
a position in the Court of Augmentations, and
both brothers were friends of Thomas Cromwell,
Henry VIII's chief minister.
During the reign of Mary I, Southwell was
one of the men who escorted Princess Elizabeth
to court when she was under suspicion of involvement
in Wyatt's Rebellion (see Glossary: Document
1).
Whitley
A district of Reading in Berkshire. At the
time of the Dissolution Whitley was a hamlet
belonging to Reading Abbey. The manor and park
of Whitley was granted to Protector Somerset
(see Glossary: Document 1) in 1548.
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