When Lanercost was pillaged
Among the green fields and leafy woods of the Cumbrian countryside are the romantic ruins of medieval Lanercost Priory.
Founded in 1169 for Augustinian canons by local nobleman Robert de Vallibus, the solemn sanctuary echoed for centuries to the Gregorian chants and penitential prayers of the devout black-robed canons whose daily routine started with matins just after midnight and ended with compline between six and nine o’clock the following evening.
Apart from daily devotions, the main activity of the Black Canons was study, copying manuscripts and administering the monastic estates which expanded rapidly during the 13th and 14th centuries.
But not everyone who visited Lanercost’s hallowed cloisters was attracted by its Augustinian calm and tranquil lifestyle.
During the Scottish Wars of Independence, the peaceful priory was profanely pillaged and plundered by invading Scots who were led by William Wallace.
Derek Parker knew many of Paisley’s secrets – the grimy and the good.
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In a chapter of history which most Scots choose to ignore – or are not told about – the Knight of Elderslie and his ‘freedom fighters’ drove the Augustinian canons and choristers at sword point from the choirs, naves, chancels and transepts and ruthlessly robbed the place of prayer of its monastic treasures.
“No sooner had the Canons repaired the damage than it was again destroyed, this time by William Wallace in 1297,” writes priory historian Dr John
Moorman, MA, DD, referring to an earlier raid by the Scots.
The rebuilding which had to be done following Wallace’s raid used up so much money, the Canons were plunged into heavy debts.
Much of the monastic land had to be sold so that – by the 16th century – the priory’s income fell below making it easy prey for the tyrannical King Henry VIII during his infamous Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Although hard to imagine, the devastation of Lanercost Priory at the hands of Wallace and his men paled into insignificance compared to the fate of Hexham Abbey just along Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.
“There the priory was set on fire and gutted, leaving only the walls standing,” writes historian Colin Dallinson, author of the Hexham Abbey guidebook.
“The shrines, books and even the relics of the saints were destroyed. The following year (1297), William Wallace led another force of Scots into Hexham and destroyed anything that had been left.”
In one of the most shameful acts of genocide in history, the “Scots set the church at Hexham on fire and, having locked 200 hundred boys into the Grammar School, burnt them alive,” claims Dr Moorman.
There is no historical evidence to show that William Wallace was present at the holocaust in Hexham.
But the atrocities committed there in the name of freedom are grim reminders of French revolutionary Madame Roland’s poignant plea as she climbed the scaffold to be guillotined: “O liberty! How many crimes are committed in your name?”