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 RELIGIOUS HOUSES earl's wife Blanche, queen of Navarre, in all probability from France, since the rule prescribed for their observance by Pope Boniface VIII was that followed in the nunnery of the Humility of the Blessed Mary at Saint Cloud. ^ The original endowment consisted of lands and tenements in the suburbs of London and £2>'~' '^^'^^ '" ^'- Law- rence Lane, Cordwainer Street, and Dowgate ; * but in 1295 the earl made a further grant of land in the field of Hartington, co. Derby, and the advowson of the church there,' and in the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas, Hartington and ' Northburgh ' churches both are said to be ap- propriated to the nuns.' Some more property in London was soon acquired from Henry le Galeys, who endowed a chantry in the chapel of St. Mary built by him in the conventual church where he was buried.' From the earliest foundation the house enjoyed important privileges. The king exempted them in 1294 from summonses before the justices in eyre for common pleas and pleas of the forest.^ The pope, Boniface VIII, ordered that nothing should be exacted from them for the consecration of church and altars, or for sacred oil or sacra- ments, but that the bishop of the diocese should perform these offices free of charge ; that in a general interdict they might celebrate service with closed doors ; that sentences of excommu- nication and interdict promulgated against them by bishops or rectors should be of no effect,^ and he declared them free from all jurisdiction of the archbishop of Canterbury and of the bishop of London,'" and acquitted them of payment of tenths '' to the pope. The house indeed seems to have been at first richer in privileges than in revenue: in 1 31 6 the nuns were exempted by the king from tallage on their land in London on account of their poverty ; ^^ in 1334 they petitioned the king that according to the papal bulls to them they might be quit of all papal impositions on the clergy or grants to the king, saying that otherwise they ' Lond. Epis. Reg. Baldock and Gravesend, fol. 17. See also Arch, xv, 93, n. D. ' The £^^0 was allowed them out of the manor of ' Shapwyk,' CO. Dorset (Cal. of Pat. 1292-1301, p. 87), until this grant was made in Nov. 1294. Dug- dale, op. cit. vi, 1553. ' Cal. of Pat. 1 292-1 301, p. 170. ' Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 247. ' Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 96 ; Chron. of Eilzv. I and Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), i, 128. Galeys was mayor 1273 and 1281-3, ^"'^ 'i'^'^ 1302. ^ Cal. of Pat. 1 292-1 301, p. 86; Plac. de Quo IVmr. (Rcc. Com.), 460. ' Lond. Epis. Reg. Baldock and Gravesend, fol. 17. " Ibid. Bull of Aug. 1294. " Ibid. Bull of June, 1295. They were exempted in 1 3 19 from payments of tenths granted by Pope Clement V to the king on showing these letters of Boniface VIII. Cal. of Close, 1318-23, p. 166. ■' Cal. of Pat. I 313-17, p. 449. could not live;" and in 1338'* and 1345'° they were pardoned from contributing both to tenths and fifteenths out of pity for their strait- ened condition. At length in 1347 ''the king granted that they should henceforth be quit of all tallages, explaining in 1353'^ that the grant exempted them from payment of both lay and clerical subsidies. It is possible that in these exemptions may be seen a sign not only of the nuns' poverty, but also of powerful influence exerted on their be- half, since the house always had a particular attraction for persons of rank.'* Queen Isabella gave the nuns in 1346 the advowsons of the churches of Kessingland and Framsden, co. Suffolk, and Walton-on-Trent, co. Derby, with licence to appropriate them, so that they would pray for the soul of King Edward II," and showed herself their friend in other ways.^" She was not the only patron of the Grey Friars to extend her benefactions to the sisters of the order : Elizabeth de Burgh Lady Clare bequeathed in 1355 ;^20, ornaments, and furni- ture to the house, ^20 to the abbess Katherine de Ingham, and 1 3^. d. to each of the sisters,'' and Margaret countess of Norfolk granted to the convent in 1382 a rent of 20 marks from the Brokenwharf, London, for the term of the life of William de Wydford, a friar.^^ William Ferrers, lord of Groby, left to his daughter Eliza- beth, a nun at the Minories, ;^20, and to the abbess and nuns 10 marks ; ^' John of Gaunt in 1397 bequeathed ;^I00 to be paid among the sisters;^* and Joan Lady Clinton left to them by will in 1457 £,^ to keep her anniversary.^"'^ " Pari. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 86a. '* Cal. of Pat. 1338-40, p. 86. " Ibid. 1 343-5, p. 434. " Ibid. 1 345-8, p. 410. " Inspex. 1377, Cal. of Pat. 1377-81, p. 85. " Those buried in the church included Elizabeth countess of Clare, d. 1360 (Nicolas, Test. Vet. 56) ; Agnes countess of Pembroke, under her will of 1367 (ibid. 72) ; Edmund de la Pole and Margaret his wife, and Elizabeth their daughter (Lansd. MS. 205, fol. 21) ; Elizabeth duchess of Norfolk, by her will of 1506 (Nicolas, op. cit. 483), and Anne her daughter (Lansd. MS. 205, fol. 21). " Cal. of Pat. 1345-8, p. 125. '" It was at her request that Edw. Ill in 1340 gave them licence to acquire In mortmain property of the annual value of ^£30. Ibid. 467. In the last months of her life she gave alms to the nuns twice, the second donation being for pittances on the anniversaries of Edw. II and John of Eltham. Bond, 'Notice of the Last Days of Isabella, Queen of Edward II,' Arch. XXXV, 456, 464. " Nichols, Royal Wills, 30. Among the articles bequeathed were a reliquary of crystal, a large chalice of silver-gilt, and two cruets ' costelcs,' and two vest- ments, one of white the other of black cloth of gold. ''' Cal. of Pat. 1 38 1-5, p. 452. '^ Nicolas, Test. Vet. 76. " Nichols, Royal Wills, I 53. '» Nicolas, Test. Vet. 284. 517