Reading Abbey

The Abbey Site: Middle Ages

It was his youngest son Henry I who commissioned a new monastery and chose Reading as the site. Henry laid the foundation stone on 18 June 1121 and after the noise and bustle of the building operations were over the peace and seclusion of the cloister settled where once the martial sounds of the Viking camp resounded. But war soon penetrated into the heart of the Abbey as a castle was erected within its bounds during the troubled times after Henry's death when his daughter Matilda and nephew Stephen fought for the crown of England. The mound in the Forbury Gardens today may be the remains of this castle.

With the coronation of Matilda's son as Henry II four centuries of peace and stability settled on the Abbey with no outside influence to disturb the orderly life of prayer and worship of the monks. But this life of prayer was itself viewed in mediaeval times as a war in its own way, with battle waged by the monks against the forces of spiritual evil that threatened the kingdom.

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