Wilton Abbey
Encyclopedia
Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine
convent
in Wiltshire
, England
, three miles from Salisbury
on the site now occupied by Wilton House
. A first foundation was made as a college of secular priests
by Wulfstan, Ealdorman of Wiltshire
, about 773, but after his death (802) was changed into a convent for twelve nuns by his widow, Saint Alburga
, sister of Egbert of Wessex
. Owing to the consent given by this king he is counted as the first founder of this monastery. Saint Alburga herself joined the community, and died at Wilton. King Alfred, after his temporary success against the Danes at Wilton in 871, founded a new convent on the site of the royal palace and united to it the older foundation. The community was to number 26 nuns. It was attached to St Mary's Church
.
In 955 King Eadwig granted the nuns of Wilton Abbey an estate called Chelke (Chalke, Saxon aet Ceolcum) which included land in Broad Chalke
and Bowerchalke
.
Wilton is best known as the home of Saint Edith
, the child of a "handfast
" union between Edgar, King of the English (959-75), and Wulfrid or Wulfthryth, a lady wearing the veil though not a nun, whom he carried off from Wilton, probably in 961. After Edith's birth, Wulfrid refused to enter into a permanent marriage with Edgar and retired with her child to Wilton. Edith, who appears to have been learned, received the veil while a child, at the hands of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester
, and at the age of fifteen refused the abbacy of three houses offered by her father. She built the Church of Saint Denis
at Wilton, which was consecrated by Saint Dunstan
, and died shortly afterwards at the age of twenty-three (984). Her feast is on 16 September.
Saint Edith became the chief patron of Wilton, and is sometimes said to have been abbess. In 1003 Sweyn, King of Denmark
, destroyed the town of Wilton
but we do not know whether the abbey shared its fate. Edith of Wessex
, the wife of Edward the Confessor
, who had been educated at Wilton, rebuilt the abbey in stone; it had formerly been of wood.
In 1143 King Stephen
made it his headquarters, but was put to flight
by Matilda
's forces under Robert, Earl of Gloucester
. The Abbess of Wilton held an entire barony from the king, a privilege shared by only three other English nunneries, Shaftesbury
, Barking
, and St. Mary, Winchester. Cecily Bodenham
, the last abbess, surrendered the convent to the commissioners of King Henry VIII on 25 March 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries
. The site was granted to Sir William Herbert
, afterwards Earl of Pembroke
, who commenced the building of Wilton House
, still the abode of his descendants. There are no remains of the ancient buildings.
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, three miles from Salisbury
Salisbury
Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
on the site now occupied by Wilton House
Wilton House
Wilton House is an English country house situated at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire. It has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years....
. A first foundation was made as a college of secular priests
Secular clergy
The term secular clergy refers to deacons and priests who are not monastics or members of a religious order.-Catholic Church:In the Catholic Church, the secular clergy are ministers, such as deacons and priests, who do not belong to a religious order...
by Wulfstan, Ealdorman of Wiltshire
Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire
Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire or Weohstan, , a leader of Wessex who ruled Wiltshire as Ealdorman under Cynewulf and Beorhtric...
, about 773, but after his death (802) was changed into a convent for twelve nuns by his widow, Saint Alburga
Alburga
Æthelburh or Alburga of Wilton , was a member of the royal house of Wessex, abbess of Wilton and a saint.Alburga was the daughter of Ealhmund of Kent, Subregulus of Kent, half-sister of Egbert, King of Wessex, and wife of Wulfstan, ealdorman of Wiltshire .On her husband's death in 802, she turned...
, sister of Egbert of Wessex
Egbert of Wessex
Egbert was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent...
. Owing to the consent given by this king he is counted as the first founder of this monastery. Saint Alburga herself joined the community, and died at Wilton. King Alfred, after his temporary success against the Danes at Wilton in 871, founded a new convent on the site of the royal palace and united to it the older foundation. The community was to number 26 nuns. It was attached to St Mary's Church
St Mary's Church, Wilton
St Mary's Church in the Market Place of Wilton, Wiltshire, England, was built in the 15th century. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust....
.
In 955 King Eadwig granted the nuns of Wilton Abbey an estate called Chelke (Chalke, Saxon aet Ceolcum) which included land in Broad Chalke
Broad Chalke
Broad Chalke, sometimes spelled Broadchalke , Broad Chalk or Broadchalk, is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about 8 miles west of the city of Salisbury. The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 652 but this has now risen to around 850...
and Bowerchalke
Bowerchalke
Bowerchalke or Bower Chalke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Salisbury. It is in the south of Wiltshire, about from the county boundary with Dorset and from that with Hampshire. It is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding...
.
Wilton is best known as the home of Saint Edith
Edith of Wilton
Saint Edith of Wilton was an English nun, a daughter of the 10th century King Edgar of England, born at Kemsing, Kent, in 961...
, the child of a "handfast
Handfasting
Handfasting is a traditional European ceremony of betrothal or wedding. It usually involved the tying or binding of the right hands of the bride and groom with a cord or ribbon for the duration of the wedding ceremony.-Etymology:...
" union between Edgar, King of the English (959-75), and Wulfrid or Wulfthryth, a lady wearing the veil though not a nun, whom he carried off from Wilton, probably in 961. After Edith's birth, Wulfrid refused to enter into a permanent marriage with Edgar and retired with her child to Wilton. Edith, who appears to have been learned, received the veil while a child, at the hands of Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester
Æthelwold of Winchester
Æthelwold of Winchester , was Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984 and one of the leaders of the tenth century monastic reform movement in Anglo-Saxon England....
, and at the age of fifteen refused the abbacy of three houses offered by her father. She built the Church of Saint Denis
Denis
Saint Denis is a Christian martyr and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred in connection with the Decian persecution of Christians, shortly after A.D. 250...
at Wilton, which was consecrated by Saint Dunstan
Dunstan
Dunstan was an Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, a Bishop of Worcester, a Bishop of London, and an Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restored monastic life in England and reformed the English Church...
, and died shortly afterwards at the age of twenty-three (984). Her feast is on 16 September.
Saint Edith became the chief patron of Wilton, and is sometimes said to have been abbess. In 1003 Sweyn, King of Denmark
Sweyn I of Denmark
Sweyn I Forkbeard was king of Denmark and England, as well as parts of Norway. His name appears as Swegen in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and he is also known in English as Svein, Swein, Sven the Dane, and Tuck.He was a Viking leader and the father of Cnut the Great...
, destroyed the town of Wilton
Wilton, Wiltshire
Wilton is a town in Wiltshire, , England, with a rich heritage dating back to the Anglo-Saxons. Today it is dwarfed by its larger and more famous neighbour, Salisbury, but still has a range of notable shops and attractions, including Wilton House.The confluence of the rivers Wylye and Nadder is at...
but we do not know whether the abbey shared its fate. Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex
Edith of Wessex married King Edward the Confessor of England on 23 January 1045. Unlike most wives of kings of England in the tenth and eleventh centuries, she was crowned queen, but the marriage produced no children...
, the wife of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
, who had been educated at Wilton, rebuilt the abbey in stone; it had formerly been of wood.
In 1143 King Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
made it his headquarters, but was put to flight
Battle of Wilton (1143)
The Battle of Wilton was a battle of the civil war in England known as The Anarchy. It was fought on 1 July 1143 The date is from Gervase of Canterbury , but Gervase only began writing his chronicle around 1188...
by Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
's forces under Robert, Earl of Gloucester
Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester
Robert Fitzroy, 1st Earl of Gloucester was an illegitimate son of King Henry I of England. He was called "Rufus" and occasionally "de Caen", he is also known as Robert "the Consul"...
. The Abbess of Wilton held an entire barony from the king, a privilege shared by only three other English nunneries, Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is a town in Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 miles west of Salisbury. The town is built 718 feet above sea level on the side of a chalk and greensand hill, which is part of Cranborne Chase, the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset...
, Barking
Barking Abbey
The ruined remains of Barking Abbey are situated in Barking in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham in east London, England, and now form a public open space.- History :...
, and St. Mary, Winchester. Cecily Bodenham
Cecily Bodenham
Cecily Bodenham , was the last Abbess of Wilton Abbey. Her tenure as Abbess was from 1534 to 25 March 1539, when she surrendered the abbey to the commissioners of King Henry VIII of England during the Dissolution of the Monasteries...
, the last abbess, surrendered the convent to the commissioners of King Henry VIII on 25 March 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
. The site was granted to Sir William Herbert
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1506-1570)
William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, 1st Baron Herbert of Cardiff, KG was a Tudor period noble and courtier.Herbert was the son of Sir Richard Herbert and Margaret Cradock...
, afterwards Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke
Earl of Pembroke is a title created ten times, all in the Peerage of England. It was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, which is the site of Earldom's original seat Pembroke Castle...
, who commenced the building of Wilton House
Wilton House
Wilton House is an English country house situated at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire. It has been the country seat of the Earls of Pembroke for over 400 years....
, still the abode of his descendants. There are no remains of the ancient buildings.
Burials
- Edith of WiltonEdith of WiltonSaint Edith of Wilton was an English nun, a daughter of the 10th century King Edgar of England, born at Kemsing, Kent, in 961...
- Saint Iwig (d. ca. 690 AD), whose Feast Day is October 8th (AKA Iwi).
- Saint Wulfthryth (d. 988 AD), mother of St. Edith of Wilton, her Feast Day is September 13th.