Mount Grace Priory
Mount Grace Priory
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| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Order | Carthusian |
| Established | 1398 |
| Disestablished | 1539 |
| Dedicated to | House of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin and of St Nicholas |
| Diocese | York |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Thomas de Holand, Earl of Kent and Duke of Surrey |
| Site | |
| Location | East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England |
| Coordinates | 54°22′48″N 1°18′40″W / 54.380120°N 1.311077°WCoordinates: 54°22′48″N 1°18′40″W / 54.380120°N 1.311077°W |
| Grid reference | SE449985 |
| Visible remains | church, cloister, inner court and earthworks |
| Public access | yes (English Heritage) |
Mount Grace Priory, in the parish of East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England, within the North York Moors National Park, is today the best preserved and most accessible of the ten medieval Carthusian houses (charterhouses) in England. Set in woodlands, it was founded in 1398 by Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, the son of King Richard II's half-brother Thomas, Earl of Kent, it was the last monastery established in Yorkshire, and one of the few founded anywhere in Britain in the period between the Black Death (1349–50) and the Reformation. It was a fairly small establishment, with space for a prior and twenty-three monks.
Mount Grace Priory consisted of a church and two cloisters. The northern cloister had sixteen cells whilst the southern had five cells, Frater and Prior's house and the Chapter House. To the west stood the lay brothers' quarters and the guest house.
Upon the abdication of King Richard, Holland and others of the king's supporters attempted to assassinate his recently crowned successor, Henry IV, at New Year's, 1400, but were captured and executed. Holland's body was eventually recovered and, in 1412, re-buried in the charterhouse that he had founded. The orphaned priory of Mount Grace, bereft of its founder and the income that had been granted to it by Holland and King Richard, depended upon royal largesse for its income for more than a decade.
On its founding, Thomas Holland ordered that the monks were to pray for the king, queen and several members of the royal family, and for himself and his heirs, and many others including John and Eleanor Ingelby. The prior of the Grande Chartreuse allowed him to nominate Robert Tredwye as the first rector (although the charter refers to him as the first prior) and to dedicate the priory to "the Blessed Virgin and Saint Nicholas". The second part of the dedication lapsed and the priory became known as the House of the Assumption of the most Blessed Virgin in Mount Grace.Nicholas Love, prior of Mount Grace, succeeded in creating a link between the priory and the Lancastrian administration, in part by submitting his "Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ" to Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, Henry IV's chancellor, in support of the archbishop's campaign against Wycliffism, and by granting Arundel confraternity in the spiritual benefits of Mount Grace in exchange for his provision of material benefits. In 1410 the house was formally incorporated into the order, and Love named as fourth rector and first prior. (But note the disparity with the original charter.)
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