The principal benefactor in this period was Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, Count of Meulan, a major figure close to Kings Henry I and Stephen.

This was a period when Lyre’s scriptorium was very active, bearing witness to the abbey’s vitality and prestige by the quality of the illuminated manuscripts it produced and which are now conserved in libraries throughout Europe.

When in 1449, the forces of Charles VII of France retook the territory, Guillaume le Bas submitted to the new regime but the opposition of his monks continued.

In the first half of the 16th century the commendatory abbot of Lyre was the Cardinal, Bishop of Lisieux, who occupied more or less simultaneously the same post at six other abbeys including Mont-Saint-Michel and Bec.

In 1646 an important change came about when the then commendatory abbot, the Bishop of Évreux, Jacques Le Noël du Perron brought to the abbey the Maurist reform.

[9] The arrival of the Maurists did not mean that the appointment of commendatory abbots had ceased and in the 18th century Lyre was in the hands of two prelates of the House of Rohan, both Prince Bishops of Strasbourg.

Consequent upon the decision taken on 13 February 1790 by the National Assembly to dissolve all religious orders, the ten monks of Lyre were thrown into crisis.

In the second phase, the abbey buildings, having been like all similar properties throughout France declared possessions of the state, started to be leased out from September 1790 and were then eventually sold off in lots.