After great fluctuations in fortune, resulting from changing relations between the rulers of England and France, it was finally dissolved in 1415 and its assets transferred to the collegiate church at Tong, Shropshire.

[3] They stayed at the great cathedral city and monastic centre of Reims, named after St Remigius, apostle of the Franks, who is buried there in a large Romanesque Basilica.

To fulfil his son's desire, and to benefit his soul, Ælfgar gave to St. Rémy five pieces of land: at Lapley, Hamstall Ridware, Meaford, and Marston in Church Eaton, all in Staffordshire, and at Silvington in Shropshire.

Eyton pointed out that there were doubts about precisely when Earl Ælfgar died, with some dating his death as early as 1059, but that later scholarship has tended towards 1063, which is consistent with Lapley's foundation story.

In nomine Domini Jesu Christi, summae et individuae Trinitatis, notum sit cunctis cultoribus Christi, Algarum quondam Anglorum comitem Ingenium, consentiente Edwardo Dei Gratia rege Anglorum, sancto Remigio Remensis ecclesiae quandam villam pro anima sui filii, scilicet nomine Burohardi, dedisse, quae Lappeleye, cum suis appendiciis, Anglico vocitatur sermone; cuius etiam putrili corpori Roma quidem venienti in praescripto polianeso basilice divina praedestinatio sepulturam ordinavit, quatenus pro eo ibi sanctae servientes ecclesiae Deum semper remunatorem omnium bonorum fideliter precarentur precibus assiduis.

[7] So the abbey of St. Rémy at Reims already held these lands in the reign of Edward the Confessor, before William the Conqueror arrived, a fact that was recorded clearly in Domesday Book in 1086.

[28] The papal confirmation omitted the Meaford estate but there is no doubt that St. Rémy continued to hold it, as was recognised by the nearby Stone Priory[29] and reaffirmed in 1367 when the tenant was sued after defaulting on his rent.

[31] However the priory's advowson and appropriation of the church and of the dependent chapel at Wheaton Aston was recognised explicitly in April 1319 by Bishop Walter Langton,[32] after a canonical visitation.

[35] This was established around 1286,when the tenant Thomas, apparently disdaining such a humble service, claimed unsuccessfully that his father Walter had actually been seneschal of the priory lands and he had a socage, not serjeanty, tenure.

The two are tabulated together and the contribution of these churches is termed a donum,[45] an attempt to extend the tax base to ecclesiastical institutions without appearing to make them subject to secular taxation.

In 1367 it did manage to send a bond for 120 marks, a remarkable sum in the troubled circumstances then prevailing:[50] although in a time of peace, the monastery had been much impoverished by its vicissitudes in the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death had devastated the region.

However, the priory generally struggled financially, mainly because, as an "alien house", a monastery belonging to an abbey in a foreign country, it was constantly subject to seizures, impositions and pressure in time of war or international tension.

The prior was able to produce a confirmatory charter from only the previous year, granting him free warren in his demesne lands, as well as the right to hold a weekly fair and annual market at Aston.

Cartwright claimed that the prior and William Bickford, presumably an employee, had illegally seized his horse by armed force at Wheaton Aston just before Christmas the previous year.

Geoffrey, however, maintained that they had actually seized it because they hoped thereby to defray the 5 mark cost of the prior's view of frankpledge in his demesne of Lapley, Wheaton Aston and Marston – a levy the priory had been extracting from its tenants for some time.

The case was long drawn out and a jury at Stafford finally found in Geoffrey's favour, awarding him 5 marks in damages, although he chose not to press this against the priory, instead pursuing Bickford for restitution.

[64] Baldwin complained that the Vicar of Lapley and other men had raided his home, stolen all his documents and driven off 40 oxen, 20 cows, 15 bullocks, 15 heifers, and 40 pigs, livestock valued at a total of 100 marks, as well as felling trees and Edward III responded with a commission of oyer and terminer.

This was to no avail, as there was a second raiding party, this time including Gobert himself and his clerk Gerard, which stole another 100 marks worth of animals and even removed fish from the ponds,[68] leading to a second commission of oyer and terminer.

The king, on campaign at Perth in Scotland, then instituted an inquisition that was clearly calculated to exploit the situation for royal advantage, asking not only what had caused the conflict but also whether there was any justification for claiming advowson of the priory.

The Crown seized Lapley immediately, like the other alien houses, but in this case it was able to play a game of divide and rule with the competing leadership contenders, who were still awaiting a resolution to their dispute.

[76] On 1 May 1338 it was given to Baldwin at greatly reduced farm, on the claim that the previous regime had run the property down, and under guarantees of good conduct from Roger Northburgh, the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.

[82] Baldwin now seems to have found favour elsewhere in the royal family, and this led to a significant shift in his fortunes, bringing short term improvements in the position of Lapley Priory.

[104] It seems likely that Peter had been struggling, perhaps with failing health, as he disappears from the record around this time and on 30 June 1398 a lifetime grant of the priory was made to another esquire of the king, William Walshale.

[107] He warned the prior of Lapley, along with the heads of other alien priories in December 1402 to bring documentation to Westminster to show whether their houses were conventual, presumably meaning whether they were self-governing under a chapter.

[110] The aggrieved William Walshale now requested an exemplification of his position in relation to a petition of the previous parliament, which had sought to protect the incomes of those with continuing interests in alien priories.

Already planning what was to become the Agincourt campaign, and strongly committed to presenting himself both as a distinctively English king and a defender and purifier of the Catholic faith, he determined to suppress all the alien houses in England.

"[119] This was a pious foundation established about five years earlier by Isabel, widow of Sir Fulk Pembrugge (or Pembridge), who was granted a licence to buy the advowson of the church from Shrewsbury Abbey on 25 November 1410.

Tong College itself was not suppressed until the general dissolution of chantries and collegiate churches that began at the end of the reign of Henry VIII and continued under Edward VI.

[126] Vernon had a family interest in both the colleges he had helped seize but Tong had formed part of his mother's dower and a decision was made to sell it to her third husband, Sir Richard Manners for £486 8s.

[130] The subtenants were listed again in May 1548 when a licence was granted to Manners to sell Lapley to Robert Broke,[131] an important judge and London MP whose home was at nearby Claverley.