Folcard, a Fleming by birth, was a monk of
St. Bertin's in Flanders (now Northern France), and is supposed to have come over to England in the reign of
Edward the Confessor. He entered the monastery of
Christ Church, Canterbury, and was renowned for his learning, and especially for his knowledge of grammar and music; his manners were affable and his temper cheerful. Soon after the
Norman Conquest the king set him over
Thorney Abbey in
Cambridgeshire; but he was never strictly
abbot, for he did not receive the benediction. After holding the abbey about sixteen years Folcard retired, after a dispute with the
Bishop of Lincoln,
Remigius de Fécamp; and returned, as may be inferred from
Ordericus Vitalis, to his own country. Either while he was a monk at Canterbury, or during his residence at Thorney, which seems more probable, he and his monastery were in some trouble, and were helped by
Aldred,
Archbishop of York, who persuaded the queen either of the Confessor or of the
Conqueror to interest herself in their cause. In return Folcard wrote the
Life of Archbishop John of Beverley for Aldred. Folcard is one of two writers proposed as the author of the
Vita Ædwardi Regis, the life of
Edward the Confessor, commissioned by his wife
Edith. The historian
Tom Licence defends Folcard's authorship, but other scholars favour
Goscelin. ==Works==