ClaireFromClare OP , 12 hours ago

#MarieDeStPol in 1336 granted the manor of Denny to the Minoress nuns of flood-prone Waterbeach. She later moved the community to Denny Abbey, from which the Templars had been evicted some decades earlier:
https://production.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/denny-abbey-and-the-farmland-museum/history/
She rebuilt, with handsome new buildings, & a lovely upper-floor room for her own use.
10 miles north of #Cambridge & well worth visiting:
https://www.dennyfarmlandmuseum.org.uk/content/category/about 🧵 2/

Artist's impression of the refectory with nuns dining, and other women serving, c.1350. The tables are on platforms around the edge of the building, which has a tiled floor and painted walls; the seated nuns face into the centre of the room. One nun reads from a balcony above. Detail of drawing by T Ball, J930289 © Historic England Archive. The refectory building survives, used for centuries as a barn, & the tiled floor was rediscovered in the 1980s.

ClaireFromClare OP , 6 hours ago

Marie's friend Elizabeth de Burgh, #LadyOfClare had a similar arrangement with Augustinian canons at nearby Anglesey: patronage, retreats, & comfortable accommodation. The ladies could visit each other while near Cambridge, where Elizabeth rescued #ClareCollege & Marie founded #PembrokeCollege. 🧵 3/
🗺️ of the fens before draining: William Dugdale 1662, 'The history of imbanking" p.375, https://archive.org/details/bim_early-english-books-1641-1700_the-history-of-imbanking_dugdale-sir-william_1662/page/382/mode/2up
🎨 Marie de St Pol praying to St Clare, in her breviary: Cambridge UL, MS Dd.5.5, f.274r

In this manuscript illumination, a kneeling woman prays to a grey-robed nun with black veil and a halo: St Clare. The lay woman has a long blue robe, red sleeves, and uncovered golden hair. She is assumed to be Marie de St Pol, who is clearly identified elsewhere in her sumptuous breviary. That is now held at Cambridge University Library, with a digitised version online.

ClaireFromClare OP , 5 hours ago

In later life the #LadyOfClare built a townhouse next to the Minoresses outside Aldgate in London, & provided lavishly for her burial there. The 5-acre Minoress convent was a major institution until the Dissolution, but the only current traces are the streetnames of Minories & St Clare St. 🧵 4/

ClaireFromClare OP , 4 hours ago

Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law Maud of Lancaster had joined an Augustinian nunnery after being widowed, & then started a chantry college at #Bruisyard in Suffolk with Bishop Bateman of Norwich (founder of #TrinityHall Cambridge). Her newly-rediscovered statutes for that are minutely detailed, but a few years later she closed the chantry & founded a third Minoress community, where she stayed & was eventually buried. 🧵 5/

ClaireFromClare OP , 2 hours ago

The Minoress order (sorores minores) was in royal & aristocratic favour for generations, in both France & England. While Marie always supported the order, Elizabeth & Maud engaged after disappointments elsewhere. These three women were notably independent & effective, so their endorsement is noteworthy. 🧵 6/6
🎨 C17th view of the Abbey of Longchamp in France, whence nuns came to Waterbeach. It had been founded in 1255 by St Isabelle, sister of the saintly king Louis IX.
@medievodons