Document 2/0/0 (Duncan, May Docs., no. 56)
- Description
- To Alexander by the Grace of God King of Scotland the Abbots, by the same Grace, of St Albans, St Peter of Westminster, and St Mary of Thame, greeting with all honour and due reverence. Since the care is committed to us by the apostolic see, of defending from the attacks of evil men and protecting as much in spiritualities as in temporalities, the liberties, rights, and possessions in the realms of England Scotland and Wales, of the church of Reading, and also of the abbot and convent of the same place; lest we seem sons of disobedience, we cannot pretend otherwise than that we are proceeding by apostolic mandates in this matter; wherefore we have led the petitioning of your excellence in the Lord, respectfully warning, that if at the instance of anyone you have ordered the extending of a hand against the priory of May which is known to belong to the monastery of Reading, and the monks of the same place, or against any goods or possessions belonging to the said priory, against the privileges of the apostolic see granted to them, you shall take care to recall them with royal clemency, and as far as we can, forbidding that hurt or damage shall be done by you or anyone of your [subjects] to the same monks of Reading in the aforesaid priory or in any right or possession belonging to it. If you act in this way you shall find from God worthy reward, and Holy Mother Church of Rome shall rejoice in future that she has reborn to herself such a son for the defence of her members. May your royal power nourish long in the Lord.
- Firm date
- X April 1286
- Dating Notes
- x April 1286, when the news of the death of Alexander III must have reached England. This may be dated to the unwillingness of that king to admit prior William, 1269 x 73, and his subsequent attempt to buy the priory with the aid of bishop William Wishart, 1273 x 9, or to an early stage of the negotiations which were completed March-May 1288. But there may have been other occasions on which the king interfered with this '' alien'' priory.
- Source for Data Entry
- Duncan, ‘Documents relating to the Priory of the Isle of May, c. 1140- 1313’, PSAS 90, no. 56
- Trad. ID
- Duncan, May Docs., no. 56
- Calendar number
- 2/None/None
- Charter type
- Letter (correspondence)
- Language
- Latin
- Original (contemporary)
- yes
- Notes
- British Museum, Additional Charter 19630.