Ashridge Priory

In 1283 Edmund, son of Richard, Earl of Cornwall holders of Berkhamsted Castle (two and half miles away) founded a monastery at Ashridge, Hertfordshire. The monastery was built for a rector and twenty canons who formed, according to the sixteenth-century historian Polydore Vergil, "a new order not before seen in England, and called the Boni homines". One such visitor was King Edward I. In 1290 he held parliament at the abbey while he spent Christmas in Pitstone. The last rector was Thomas Waterhouse, who surrendered the house to Henry VIII. The building ceased to be used for religious purposes shortly afterwards. Eventually he bequeathed the property to his daughter Elizabeth. It was here that she was arrested on 15 March 1554, under suspicion of treason during Wyatt's rebellion. In 1604 the priory was acquired by Sir Thomas Egerton. A descendant of his, the Duke of Bridgewater, demolished the old buildings in the 1760s. ==Albigensian connection==

There has been speculation that the order was in some way associated with the Albigensian heresy of southern France whose perfecti called themselves bonhommes. Edmund's mother had been married by proxy to Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, a protector of the heretical sect. Wall paintings in the college cloisters, now lost, were described in the eighteenth century as favouring the Albigensians. Wall paintings in a cottage at Piccotts End, near Ashridge, have been similarly described. These paintings were discovered in the 1950s and have been preserved. ==See also==