Anglican in Burgundy

  The beginnings of Clairvaux and Britain British Library Yates Thompson 32 f. 9v. A Bruges miniature of Bernard  de Fontaines (Bernard of Clairvaux) taking possession of the Abbey of Clairvaux. From the Chroniques abrégées des Anciens Rois et Ducs de Bourgogne. According to the British Library the church in the background is based on St. Servatius in Maastricht.      Clairvaux is just a few kilometres outside today's Burgundy, being just over the border in the Aube département, but in the Middle Ages it was a key location in the Burgundian monastic revival, and had a great influence upon England. Indeed, it was the English Abbot of Cîteaux, St Stephen Harding, who chose St Bernard to lead a group of monks from Cîteaux, which was growing rapidly, to found the Abbey of Clairvaux in 1115 as the third daughter of Cîteaux (after La Ferté and Pontigny). The growth of the monastery was phenomenal: at St Bernard's death in 1153, it contained about 700 religious, including 100 novices,

  La Ferté      The abbaye de La Ferté at Saint-Ambreuil (Saône-et-Loire) provides a link between Burgundy, Hampshire and Carlisle.       Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire was founded by King John in 1204, as Cîteaux's first daughter house in England, with some 30 founding monks sent out direct from Burgundy. The Abbot of La Ferté, first daughter of Cîteaux, had been sent himself with the founding monks the previous year by the Abbot of Cîteaux, with the idea of originally starting the house at Faringdon in Berkshire, but it was decided instead to set up the monastery at Beaulieu. Beaulieu Abbey went on to establish daughter houses of its own at Netley (1239), then later Hayles, Newenham, and St Mary Graces, London.      The picture below shows what is now the church at Beaulieu, but which was the Cistercian monastic refectory: the steps in the wall led up to the pulpitum from which the readings at mealtimes took place.      The first Abbot of Beaulieu, chosen from among those Burgundian

Bede at Cluny     Etant donné qu'il y a plein de choses à dire autour de l'influence de l'Abbaye de Cluny sur l'Angleterre, on peut constater qu'il y avait au moins un peu d'influence venant dans l'autre sens. Parmi les manuscrits clunisiens sauvés de la révolution française, il y en a un qui montre que les oeuvres du moine anglais Bede (672-735) étaient lues à Cluny pendant le XIe siècle. Cette version des homélies de Bede, copiée à Cluny entre 1067 et 1100, se trouve maintenant dans la Bibliothèque Nationale de France. /  While there is very much that could be said about the influence of Cluny Abbey upon England, there is evidence that the influence went, at least to some extent, in the other direction as well. One of the manuscripts saved at the abbey's destruction following the French Revolution, and preserved now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, shows that the works of the Englishman the Venerable Bede ("Doctor Anglorum") were bein

  Saulieu      The basilica of St Andoche at Saulieu (Côte d'Or) has some English mediaeval connections. Though sacked by the Saracens in the 8th century, the basilica was subsequently rebuilt and added to, and took the form seen today substantially in the 12th c. In his  Description générale et particulière du duché de Bourgogne , the great 18th c historian of Burgundy, the Abbé Claude Courtépée, himself a native of Saulieu, describes the visit of the French Pope Callixtus II to Saulieu in December 1119, when he apparently presided over the translation of the relics of St Andoche. Courtépée says that the pope was accompanied by an "archevêque anglais." Curious to find out which archbishop exactly, I discover a whole story lies behind Courtépée's comment.     The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time was Ralph d'Escures, originally from Normandy. He spent his archiepiscopal career asserting the rights of the see of Canterbury both against Rome and over the other En

  Saint-Eusèbe      The English production designer Christopher Hobbs worked with Derek Jarman on films such as Sebastiane, Caravaggio and Edward II (the photo above shows one of the props Hobbs designed for Caravaggio, a shield, now in the V&A in London). He also designed for the 1999 film of Mansfield Park, and Gormenghast in 2000. As his obituary in today's Times outlines, he led a colourful life, the last two decades of which were spent in Burgundy, at Saint-Eusèbe (Saône-et-Loire).       Hobbs oversaw the restoration of Gervase Jackson-Stops' saloon at his house The Menagerie (which actually necessitated mostly new work in the shell of a building), and also designed a celebrated chimneypiece for Malplaquet House in Stepney Green in London, which was being restored by Tim Knox and Todd Longstaffe-Gowan.

  Château de Montjeu      Recent political history links a very private Burgundian château with Britain. Sir James Goldsmith (1933-97) was the son of a British former Conservative MP, but his mother was Burgundian, and so it was no surprise that Sir James chose to buy a château in Burgundy, Montjeu at Broye, near Autun (Saône-et-Loire), and to make it his main French home. Indeed, it was there that he spent most of his final illness.      The château is situated within a very large wooded park, and remains private, but there are some old postcard photographs of it, as well as recent drone images. It was built in the early 17th century, and is known to have hosted both Mme de Sévigné and Voltaire (though not at the same time, for obvious reasons!). Having fallen into some disrepair, it was restored by its mid-20th century owner, Roger Demon, who also sheltered a Jewish family there during the Nazi Occupation, for which he was declared Righteous among the Nations after the war.      Acco