Priory of Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell Priory was a priory of the Monastic Order of the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, located in Clerkenwell, London. Run according to the Augustinian rule, it was the residence of the Hospitallers' Grand Prior in England, and was thus their English headquarters.

Jordan Briset, a Norman baron, founded the Priory in the reign of Henry II (along with a Benedictine nunnery alongside), and its church was consecrated by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius, in 1185. Henry held an aulic council at the Priory, at which Heraclius convinced the king to send English troops to a new crusade but was unable to persuade the barons to allow Henry to lead them personally (even when Henry was offered the crown of Jerusalem in return, and even after Heraclius shouted in a rage "Here is my head, here is my head; treat me, if you like, as you did my brother Thomas. It is a matter of indifference to me whether I die by your orders or in Syria by the hands of the infidels; for you are worse than a Saracen.") Thomas Malory was one of those later buried in this church.

Matthew Paris recounts a party of Hospitallers setting out from the Priory in 1237 for Crusade thus:

This was the only Hospitaller priory in England not to be able to pay its own way, due to its having to support and entertain the Grand Prior and large number of pensioners and guests from the court - in 1337 alone it spent more than its entire revenue (its whole revenue was at least £8,000). Royal guests at the Priory included King John in 1212, Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward I) and his wife Eleanor of Castile in 1265.,Henry IV in 1399 and Henry V in 1413.

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