Hyde Abbey was a Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, dissolved and demolished in 1538. ... Winchester is a historic city in southern England, with a population of around 40,000 within a 3 mile radius of its centre. ... Hampshire, sometimes historically Southamptonshire or Hamptonshire, (abbr. ...

At the time Alfred the Great refounded the royal city of Winchester about 880 AD, the Saxon cathedral and the royal palace stood at the heart of the city. As the city grew, land was purchased in the city in the last year of Alfred's reign, and work was begun on the New Minster, beside the Old Minster, under the direction of Edward the Elder; when it was sufficiently complete, about 903, it was consecrated and fully endowed, the abbot Grimbald, a learned monk of St. Bertin at St. Omer in Flanders, was instated and the body of Alfred was reinterred in the new structure. Several further members of the royal house were also interred in the New Minster. The gift in 1041 by Queen Emma, widow of Cnut, of the head of Saint Valentine was cherished as one of the most valuable possessions of the now-reformed Benedictine house. Alfred (also Ælfred from the Old English: Ælfrēd) (c. ... The quintessential medieval European palace: Palais de la Cité, in Paris, the royal palace of France. ... The New Minster, Winchester was a royal Benedictine abbey founded in 901 in Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. ... Edward the Elder or Eadweard I (c. ... Queen Emma of Normandy receiving the Encomium Emmae, with her sons Harthacanute and Edward the Confessor in the background. ... Saint Valentine of Terni and his disciples, from a 14th century manuscript Saint Valentine refers to one or more martyred saints of ancient Rome. ... Munichs city symbol celebrates its founding by Benedictine monks—the origin of its name A Benedictine is a person who follows the Rule of St Benedict. ...

In 1109 Henry I ordered the New Minster to be removed to the suburb of Hyde Mead, to the north of the city walls, just outside the gate; when the new abbey church of Hyde was consecrated in 1110, the bodies of Alfred, his wife Ealhswith, and his son Edward the Elder were carried in state through Winchester to be interred once more before the high altar. Their royal presence made Hyde Abbey a popular pilgrimage destination. Henry I (circa 1068 – 1 December 1135) was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and the first born in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. ... Edward the Elder or Eadweard I (c. ...

In 1141 the church suffered damage when Winchester was burned during The Anarchy between supporters of King Stephen and Matilda, and it had to be substantially rebuilt. Henceforward the abbey prospered and acquired considerable land in the area, until it was dissolved by Henry VIII at the dissolution of the monasteries and the surviving monks pensioned. The buildings were rapidly disassembled for their building materials. Today all that remains is the gatehouse that commanded the entrance between inner and outer precincts of the Abbey and an arch that used to span the abbey millstream. The Anarchy in English history commonly names the period of civil war and unsettled government that occurred during the reign (1135–1154) of King Stephen of England. ... Empress Matilda (February, 1101 — September 10, 1167; Saxon form Maud or Maude) — was the daughter and dispossessed heir of King Henry I of England. ... dissolution see Dissolution. ...

In the nineteenth century John Mellor, a local antiquary, carried out excavations on the site and claimed to have found the remains of King Alfred, which were reburied outside St Bartholomew's church, Winchester, in a simple grave.

Notes

External links

• Britain Express: Hyde Abbey
• 'Houses of Benedictine monks: New Minster, or the Abbey of Hyde', A History of the County of Hampshire Volume 2 (1973), pp. 116-22. Date accessed: 17 March 2007.