A SHORT HISTORY
The Princess That Longshanks Forced To Become A Nun
About this story
Mary of Woodstock
Born in 1278 or 1279, she was the daughter of King Edward I and Eleanor of Castile. At the urging of her grandmother, the dowager Queen Eleanor of Provence, she was dedicated to the religious life at Amesbury Priory in Wiltshire in 1285 at just six years old. Although her mother initially resisted the plan, Mary of Woodstock was formally veiled as a Benedictine nun in December 1291 alongside thirteen daughters of the English nobility.
Her cloistered status did not curtail her royal privileges. Her father granted her an annual allowance of £100, which doubled to £200 after Eleanor of Provence died, later supplemented by timber rights from royal forests and generous shipments of imported wine from Southampton. Residing in comfortable private quarters within the priory, Mary oversaw noble girls entrusted to the convent and frequently returned to court for extended stays, travelling with a retinue requiring up to twenty-four horses.
Mary regularly disregarded monastic seclusion. In 1303, the papal constitution Periculoso was pronounced at Amesbury, ordering all enclosed nuns to remain permanently within their houses. Mary largely ignored the restriction, continuing to embark on pilgrimages across England and attending royal festivities. Her secular habits created substantial financial strain, prompting King Edward I to provide £200 in 1305 to pay off her accumulated dice gambling debts.
While Mary never attained the highest offices within the Fontevraud order, she acted as a visitor and used her royal status to influence ecclesiastical affairs, successfully lobbying her brother, King Edward II, regarding priory appointments. She was also a patron of learning; Dominican friar Nicholas Trevet dedicated his Anglo-Norman Cronicles to her around 1328, preserving accounts of her Plantagenet ancestors that later influenced medieval literature. Mary died before July 1332 and was buried at Amesbury Priory, having spent nearly five decades balancing religious vows with royal autonomy.