The background to this is my colleague's excavation of the Priory of
Lihou, off Guernsey, where she had encountered some quite splendid
looking graves (mortared etc.) in what was probably the cemetery, and
some quite humble ones (apparently just shrouded) within the priory
church. I am wondering if these were of substantial lay benefactors,
and monks, respectively.
Dear Darryl,
That would depend to a considerable extent on their dates. In the
12th century and earlier, one would expect only monastic
superiors, founders (and perhaps their family members) and royalty to
be buried within the church. Towards the end of the 13th century,
the privilege of church burial was expanding rapidly, and many noble
families took advantage of this during the 14th century to create
family mausolea (eg. the Despensers at Tewkesbury, Enguerrand de
Marigny at Ecouis in Normandy). And by the 15th century, it would
appear that church burial had been made available to considerable
numbers of middle class families associated with churches. To my
knowledge, this process of expanding access to church burial has
never systematically been investigated.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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