Syon Abbey

Syon Abbey , also called simply Syon, was a dual monastery of men and women of the Bridgettine Order, although it only ever had abbesses during its existence. It was founded in 1415 and stood, until its demolition in the 16th century, on the left (northern) bank of the River Thames within the parish of Isleworth, in the county of Middlesex, on or near the site of the present Georgian mansion of Syon House, today in the London Borough of Hounslow. It was named after the biblical holy "City of David which is Zion" (1 Kings 8:1), built on the eponymous Mount Zion (or Sion, Syon, etc.). At the time of the dissolution, the abbey was the wealthiest religious house in England. Syon Abbey maintained a substantial library, with a collection for the monks and another for the nuns. Religious texts were also copied and produced at Syon Abbey. One of these texts was A ryght profytable treatise, which was written by Syon librarian Thomas Betson. When Catherine of Siena's Dialogue of Divine Revelation was translated into English for the abbey, it was given a new title, The Orchard of Syon, and included a separate prologue written to the nuns.

Background

Syon Abbey was built as part of King Henry V's "The King's Great Work" centred on Sheen Palace (renamed Richmond Palace in 1501). The royal manor of Sheen lay on the right (south), Surrey, bank of the River Thames, opposite the parish of Twickenham and the royal manor of Isleworth on the left, Middlesex, bank. Sheen had been a favourite residence of the last Plantagenet king Richard II (1377–1399) and his beloved wife Anne of Bohemia. When Anne died there of plague in 1394, Richard cursed the place where they had found great happiness and razed the palace to the ground. His throne was usurped by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, who ruled as Henry IV (1399–1413), who was involved in the murder of Richard in 1400 – and in that of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York – and made a vow to expiate his guilt by founding 3 monasteries, which vow he died before fulfilling. The derelict palace was unfavoured by Henry IV but his son Henry V (1413–1422) saw its reconstruction as a means of emphasising the dynastic link between his own House of Lancaster and that of Plantagenet, of unquestioned legitimacy, and decided at the same time to found the three monasteries pledged by his father in one great, multi-campus building scheme, known as "The King's Great Work". Thus the "Great Work" commenced in the winter of 1413–14, comprising a new Sheen Palace, and nearby the following three monasteries:

A monastery of the Celestine Order. Established probably in Isleworth Manor. This monastery was of French monks, who refused to pray for Henry V following his warring with France, probably at Agincourt in 1415, and was therefore dissolved by the King almost immediately after its foundation. This monastery probably occupied the site in Isleworth to which Syon Monastery moved in 1431. The House of Jesus of Bethlehem of Sheen, of the Order of Carthusians (1414) Sheen Priory. Built within Sheen Manor, to the north of the new palace. The Monastery of St Saviour and St Bridget of Syon, of the Order of St Augustine (1415), or Syon Monastery. The first and original site of this monastery was probably almost due west of Sheen Palace, across the river, on the left bank of the Thames in Twickenham Parish.

Foundation The first stone of Syon Abbey was laid by King Henry V himself on 22 February 1415, in the presence of Richard Clifford, Bishop of London. It was not until 9 days later on 3 March 1415 that the King's founding charter was signed at Westminster. The exact location of this original plot is unknown, but it was certainly in the parish of Twickenham, the most northerly river frontage of which lies directly west across the Thames from Sheen Palace. Aungier states it is said to have been in the meadows which at the time of his publication in 1840 were the property of the Marquis of Ailsa, "formerly called Isleworth Park or Twickenham Park". The dimensions of the plot were specified in the charter, and seem to comprise a trapezoid, the longest side of which fronted the river:

... in a certain parcel of land of our demesne of our manor of Isleworth within the parish of Twickenham in the county of Middlesex, containing namely in length near the field towards Twickenham from a stone placed on the north side unto another stone placed on the south side 1938 ft. [591 m] and in breadth towards the south from that stone placed on the south side unto the water of Thames, 960 ft. [290 m] And in length by the bank of the Thames, from a stone likewise placed by the aforesaid bank at the north side to another like stone placed on the south side by the bank aforesaid, 2820 ft. [860 m] And in breadth from the north side from the aforesaid stone placed on the north side from the aforesaid stone placed on the north side unto the water of the Thames, 980 ft. [300 m]

Nomenclature The foundation charter states: "We will and decree that it shall be called 'The Monastery of St Saviour and St Bridget of Syon, of the Order of St Augustine' through all successive ages." (Monasterium in the original Latin.) This name was quoted slightly differently by the Abbess and Convent in their petition of 1431 as "The Monastery of St Saviour and the Saints Mary the Virgin and Bridget of Syon of the Order of St Augustine and of St Saviour". The funerary brass of Agnes Jordan, Syon's last pre-reformation abbess, describes her as "Sometyme abbesse of the monasterye of Syon".

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