Alfred the Great founded the convent in about 888 and installed his daughter Æthelgifu as the first abbess.[2]Ælfgifu, the wife of Alfred's grandson, King Edmund I, was buried at Shaftesbury and soon venerated as a saint,[3] and she came to be regarded by the house as its true founder.[4]
The bones of St Edward the Martyr were translated from Wareham and received at the abbey with great ceremony. The translation of the relics was overseen by St Dunstan and Ælfhere, Ealdorman of Mercia.[5] This occurred in a great procession beginning on 13 February 981; the relics arrived at Shaftesbury seven days later. The relics were received by the nuns of the abbey and were buried with full royal honours on the north side of the altar. The account of the translation reports that on the way from Wareham to Shaftesbury, a miracle had taken place: when two crippled men were brought close to the bier and those carrying it lowered the body to their level, the cripples were immediately restored to full health. This procession and events were re-enacted 1000 years later in 1981. Reports from Shaftesbury of many other miracles said to have been obtained through Edward's intercession helped establish the abbey as a place of pilgrimage.
In 1001, it was recorded that the tomb in which St Edward lay was observed regularly to rise from the ground. King Æthelred instructed the bishops to raise his brother's tomb from the ground and place it into a more fitting place. The bishops moved the relics to a casket, placed in the holy place of the saints together with other holy relics. This elevation of the relics of Edward took place on 20 June 1001.
Shaftesbury Abbey was rededicated to the Mother of God and St Edward. Many miracles were claimed at the tomb of St Edward, including the healing of lepers and the blind. The abbey became the wealthiest Benedictinenunnery in England, a major pilgrimage site, and the town's central focus. A large grange, Place Farm was established at Tisbury to administer the abbey’s Wiltshire estates.[6]William of Malmesbury, in his Gesta regum Anglorum, praised the abbey residents' "steadfast preservation of their purity"[7] and the fervency and effectiveness of their prayers. In 1093, shortly before his election as archbishop, Anselm of Canterbury wrote a letter to Eulalia, who was abbess at the time, requesting their prayers for him; medieval scholar and historian Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis states that it demonstrates his "confidence in the promptness and solicitude" of their prayers.[8] Anselm wrote another letter to Shaftesbury ten years later, which suggests that Eulalia had responded to him and told him that the community had granted his request for prayer; he also thanked them for their prayers for him during his exile from England and asked for their continued intercession as he returned.[8]
At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a common saying quoted by Bishop Thomas Fuller[9] conjectured "if the abbess of Shaftesbury and the abbot of Glastonbury Abbey had been able to wed, their son would have been richer than the King of England" because of the lands which it had been bequeathed. It was too rich a prize for Thomas Cromwell to pass up on behalf of King Henry VIII.
Vague imaginings of its castle, its three mints, its magnificent apsidal Abbey, the chief glory of south Wessex, its twelve churches, its shrines, chantries, hospitals, its gabled freestone mansions—all now ruthlessly swept away—throw the visitor, even against his will, into a pensive melancholy which the stimulating atmosphere and limitless landscape around him can scarcely dispel.[10]
A novel based on the dissolution of the Abbey, The Butcher's Daughter, by Victoria Glendinning was published in 2018.[11]
Margaret Stourton (elected 1423; died 1441).[15] She was the sister of John Stourton (died 1438) of Preston Plucknett in Somerset, 7 times MP for Somerset, in 1419, 1420, December 1421, 1423, 1426, 1429 and 1435.[16]
Elizabeth Zouche or Zuche, elected 1529 and forced to surrender the abbey in 1539
Shaftesbury Abbey Museum
Shaftesbury Abbey Museum features stonework pieces excavated from the abbey's ruins, including Anglo-Saxon carvings and medieval floor tiles. Exhibits tell the story of the Benedictineconvent and its inhabitants. The museum is open from April through October, and the site also features a medieval period garden and orchard.[17]
The Abbey site today
The site of Shaftesbury Abbey is used to host events including open air viewings of films, drama workshops and performances, as well as historical lectures. It is also the home of the music showcase that takes place during the town's "Gold Hill Fair" in early July and provides a platform for local music.[18]
^Bugyis, Katie Ann-Marie (2019). The Care of Nuns: The Ministries of Benedictine Women in England During the Central Middle Ages. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 225. ISBN978-0-19-085128-6.
