Completed (or abandoned) in about 1175, The Chronicle of Battle Abbey is the work of an anonymous monk who tells the story of the abbey from its foundation a hundred years earlier until his own time. Moving on from the (implausible) traditions of the abbey's origins, he gives character portraits of the early abbots of the community, before moving on to his own experiences and areas of interest, probably as a legal expert. A large section of the work concerns the abbey's walk-on part in the tensions between Crown and Church which eventually led to the murder of Thomas Becket. It concludes with the somewhat farcical appointment of the man who came to be remembered as the holiest of all the abbots who governed Battle. The talk will give an overview of the document, discuss some of the controversies around it, and recount some of the stories it contains.

This tour has been graded as easy access with step free access to the discovery room.