Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate

The Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate[nb 1] was a monastery of Franciscan women living an enclosed life, established in the late 13th century on a site often said to be of five acres,[1] though it may have been as little as half that,[2] at the spot in the parish of St. Botolph, outside the medieval walls of the City of London at Aldgate that later, by a corruption of the term minoresses, became known as The Minories, a placename found also in other English towns including Birmingham, Colchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Aldgate house was founded at least by 1291, when it is mentioned in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica, compiled in 1291–1292 at the behest of Pope Nicholas IV preparatory to papal taxation to finance a crusade to the Holy Land.

Though never a nun, she had in 1256 founded the Poor Clares' Abbey of Longchamp in part of the Forest of Rouvray (now the Bois de Boulogne), west of Paris.

It speaks volumes for the degree of austerity in the house that by the widowed Eleanor's 1399 will, the daughter received a bed of cloth of gold, precious books and 40 pounds.

Though some secondary literature speak of the nuns brought to launch the new English Abbey being of Spanish origin, in all probability they came from France, and more exactly from Longchamp, founded by Blanche's aunt, Isabella.

Nevertheless, in that same century there came a series of substantial benefactions from influential figures, such as Queen Isabella, widow of Edward II, Margaret, Countess of Norfolk and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

[4] The heavy royal connections of the abbey's beginnings appear to have imparted from the outset a certain cachet to the house[13] and in particular in the early days women aspiring to become professed nuns had to be of noble birth,[14] though by the 14th century the daughters of wealthy merchants were also entering.

More surprisingly still, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, whom we have already seen placing his young daughter Isabel in the Abbey, had a house right next to the conventual church and was allowed to have a private entrance made through.

In 1514 the Bubonic Plague reappeared in London and was severe enough to drive Henry VIII and Erasmus well away from the city, and a new outbreak came the following year by April.

Furthermore, to judge by the more abundant data available from the mother house, the Abbey of Longchamp, it is possible that a nun could serve more than one term of office as abbess, even at a distance of several years.

The seal of the Abbey in 1371 depicted the Virgin Mary standing holding the Christ Child, which is not a particularly common motif in medieval English nunneries.