16 May 2026 Hailes Abbey, Evesham, and Gloucester Cathedral

 It was a busy day today. I decided to head out to the remains of Hailes Abbey, my first English Heritage location for this trip, to see where the abbey used to stand before it was torn down after the Dissolutions of the Monasteries in 1539. What Oliver Cromwell did for English castles, Henry the 8th did for Cathedrals, Priories, and Abbeys. 

At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, there were over 800 of them in England. I don't know if I explained this in an earlier post, but the Church had become so rich by henry's time, that their influence rivaled that of the King. When King Henry the 8th decided to let Protestantism into England, it not only had a lot to do with divorcing Catherine of Aragon, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, but it gave him a way to recapture the Church's wealth, By destroying the Cathedrals, Abbeys and Priories, he could take their land, take their money, and sell the wood and stone from those buildings, making himself richer.

Four of my ancestors were buried at Hailes Abbey. Richard of Cornwall (son of King John), his son Richard of Cornwall (Grandson of King John), Joan FitzAlan (wife of the second Richard of Cornwall), and her sister Margery FitzAlan. The FitzAlan girls were from the line of FitzAlan's that lived in Arundel Castle. That line eventually became the Dukes of Norfolk, but at this time, their ancestors were marcher lords who also held Clun Castle in the county of Shropshire. That will be another destination of mine later on in the trip.

It was my luck that Hailes Abbey was closed today. I wasn't the only one there, so several of us were fooled, but I did get some pictures from a nearby hiking trail, just to say I tried.

There was an old church across the street from Hailes Abbey, called Hailes Church. I did go inside and look around. It was in need of some repairs, but at list the locals had somewhere to worship after the Abbey was torn down. It is very possible that some of the building materials from the Abbey were used to build this church, too.

Something else to add. The pews in the church only had about a foot of sitting space on them. I don't know how old they were, but I hope that the church services were rather quick. I don't think the parishioners would have been very comfortable sitting there.

The next stop was the town of Evesham. For those unfamilar with Evesham, it was the location of a Battle that took place in 1265, during the Second Baron's War. What makes this Battle so interesting, is that I am related to the leaders of each opposing Army. On the Royalist side, King Henry III  was dealing with a revolt by some of his barons, led my Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. De Montfort had defeated Henry III previously at the Battle of Lewes in 1264. Following the victory, de Montfort basically got a big head, and started pissing off his fellow barons. By the time the Battle of Evesham rolled around, about half of the baron's had left de Montfort, and were now safely in King Henry's good graces. 

De Montfort was taken by surprise at Evesham, lost the battle, his Earldom, his son, and his life. Some of his Knights and fellow Baron's took refuge in the Abbey at Evesham, and asked for mercy, but Henry III had little stomach for that, and almost all of them were executed several days later. I had 25 ancestors who were involved in the Battle of Evesham. besides De Montfort, Hugh Despenser, the 1st Lord Despenser, was killed. His son and grandson, Hugh the Elder and Hugh the Lesser, both had a role to play in English history, and both were also executed in 1326, ending up buried in Tewkesbury Abbey, where I was yesterday.

Hugh Despeser's Tomb at Tewkesbury Abbey

Today, Evesham Abbey is gone, and all that is left is the Clock Tower that was a part of the Abbey. Simon de Montfort was buried in the Abbey. but all that is left of his tomb is a plaque memorializing his death. Every Fall, they have a re-enactment of the battle of Evesham in this town, and today, they had their annual Medieval market, so I went to check it out and pay my respects to Simon de Montfort, a Champion of representative government who was killed by my 21st, 22nd, and 27th  Great Grandfather Henry the III (don't ask...just because I'm from Alabama doesn't mean my family tree resembles a telephone pole).

One last interesting tidbit of information regarding the Battle of Evesham. Henry the III's son proved himself brave and worthy that day, leading a cavalry against de Montfort's knights, and helping to secure the victory. back then he was just known as Prince Edward. After Henry dies, he became King Edward the First, also known as Longshanks, and the Hammer of the Scots.

I left around noon from Evesham because I wanted to try and see Gloucester Cathedral. I spent too much time at Tewkesbury Abbey yesterday, and didn't have time to see it, so I wanted to make sure I fit it in for today. I am on a tight schedule, and thanks to the reduced time at Hailes Abbey today, I could make it work. 

The cool thing about Gloucester Cathedral, was that it easily survived the Dissolutions of the Monasteries, because Henry the 8th had a Great Grandfather, Edward the 2nd, buried in there. Edward the Second was the son of Longshanks, remember Edward the First from the battle of Evesham? 

I made it to Gloucester cathedral just in time to jump in a tour group to familiarize myself with the Cathedral. My plan was to go exploring on my own afterwards, but I saw just about everything I needed to see on the tour. However, I still had lingering questions, and needed expert help. I have 9 ancestors buried in the cathedral, but could only find the tomb of the most important one, that being Edward the II. What about those other 9 ancestors? here's a list of those ancestors:

After the first tour, I found a volunteer who was very knowledgeable about the cathedral. Now please understand, there are several hundred people buried in the cathedral, not to mention hundreds of memorials to people who were never buried there at all. Then you have all the Bishops, who needed to have huge tombs of themselves in the church since they actually thought they were important or something, not leaving behind any legitimate children thanks to their vows of celibacy. I digress. Ishbel, the volunteer, had access to the cathedral database of burials, and looked for the ones I had. Unfortunately, she couldn't find any, but she did hook me up with the cathedral archivist, who will hopefully reach out to me, and I can get some answers to my questions. Below is a picture of her.

As we were talking, she mentioned that she had to give a tour of the crypts beneath the cathedral in a few minutes, so I paid my 6 pounds, and had a chance to see the crypts. I thought that maybe I could find some of my ancestors down there. Sadly, it was pretty clean and no bodies or burials were evident, but it was a cool tour filled with lots of interesting tidbits that I didn't know. 

The door to the crypts beneath Gloucester Cathedral

One question that has been nagging me for years, was what ever happened to the bodies of those nobles buried in Cathedrals, Priories, and Abbeys that were destroyed by Henry the 8th in the dissolution of the monasteries? The answer is varied, because many things were done to the bodies, and not all of them alike. Here is an engraving of what the crypts looked like in 1829, when it was used for "Bone" storage. 

Now:

Another interesting fact. The cloisters from where the monks worked were featured in a lot of different movies, including the Harry Potter films. I did get some good contacts with the archivist for Llanthony Secunda Priory as well. Ishbel told me that after the priory had been destroyed, the city of Gloucester was digging canals next to the River Severn which runs in between Gloucester and the Priory. Some of the workers uncovered stone tombs when digging, and instead of  trying to rescue them, just dumped them and the bodies into the river. I don't know how realistic that is, but it's possible. 

As mentioned earlier, Edward the II is buried here, so I'll post some of the stuff about him that I saw. The story of his death or pretty sordid, but we do know that he was killed at Berkeley Castle, which is about 25 miles South of the cathedral, and that the Lords of the castle delivered his body, fully embalmed and prepared for burial, to the cathedral 3 months after his death. I am also related to the Berkeley Lords, and will visit that castle tomorrow. I wonder what they'll saw when I tell them that I'm related to both sides of that story?