From Black Death to Dissolution: the making, breaking and re-shaping of monks at St Albans

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The institutional history of the Abbey of St Albans and the lives of its abbots have been thoroughly explored, not least by the monks themselves in their historical writing. Intellectual, legal, economic and archaeological studies of the community have added further perspectives. But who were the monks from 1349 and where did they come from? How were they recruited and trained? How did their careers prosper or falter? Who left and why? What was the nature of their common and spiritual life? Which wider networks did they belong to? How did they cope with the Dissolution of 1539? By analysing information about these individuals from England’s premier Benedictine house and placing it in context, a fuller, more nuanced picture of their lives emerges.  

Image:  Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 007: Chronicle and Register of Benefactors of the Monastery of St Albans, fol. 121r.

Please note that this event is being held online and in-person and will be livestreamed and recorded. 

About Norman James | Norman James was an Assistant Keeper at the Historical Manuscripts Commission and later Head of the Private Archives Team at The National Archives and is currently a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He led a recent project, ‘Who were the monks?’ at St Albans Cathedral, compiling and publishing a list and biographical details of late medieval St Albans monks on the Cathedral website with assistance from Peter Godwin and Valerie James.