In Norman times a substantial, new stone abbey was built on the old Anglo-Saxon foundation (c. 1130 to 1140 AD) by Henry Blois, Bishop of Winchester and Abbot of Glastonbury, younger brother of King Stephen.

Though couple had two daughters, the marriage was annulled in 1170 and Marie returned to life as a Benedictine nun at the Abbey of Sainte-Austreberthe at Montreuil, where she died in 1182, aged about 46.

Despite the faithful service in prayer of many of the nuns over many centuries, there are scattered traces of irregularities in the conduct of the house, of which the evidence would merit impartial investigation with modern historiographical methods, rather than stale prejudice.

Although the community of nuns itself was forcibly dispersed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the abbey buildings escaped the general fate of other religious and charitable establishments at this time and were not demolished.

This was because the abbey church had a substantial section dedicated to St Lawrence which served as a place of worship for the townspeople.

This arrangement, found also elsewhere in various forms, was designed to preserve the particular life of the nuns, with its heavy schedule of church services, from encroachment by the needs of the people.

During the English Civil War the building suffered further material damage at the hands of Parliamentarian troops in 1643, including destruction of the organ.

[citation needed] Romsey Abbey has a traditional choir of boy choristers and a back row of adult altos, tenors and basses drawn from the local area.

[26] William Petty (1623-1687), in his day a noted English economist, scientist, philosopher, Fellow of the Royal Society and politician.

John Latham (1740-1837), English physician, naturalist and ornithologist, one of the first to examine scientifically birds discovered in Australia.

On being given his Earldom in 1947, Mountbatten had been granted the lesser title of Baron Romsey and he lived locally at Broadlands House.

On 27 August 1979, Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas, and two others were assassinated by a bomb, set by members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, hidden aboard his fishing boat in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland.

[26] Buried in the churchyard is Major General Sir Richard Harman Luce (1867-1952), an English surgeon, British Army officer and politician, who served for a time as MP for Derby in 1924 and later as Mayor of Romsey.

One of the Titanic's engineering officers, Arthur (Bob) Ward, who died in the sinking, is commemorated in the Abbey with a plaque in one of the chapels.