Home And Away: The Networks of Cistercian Abbots of the Whitland Family, Wales,c. 1480 toc. 1520

Abstract

This article analyses evidence for the networks of Cistercian abbots of the family of Whitland in south-west Wales, head of an affiliation of abbeys founded by native Welsh rulers. These houses were, on the one hand, members of an international order with its own demands and expectations, and, on the other, deeply enmeshed in their local societies. Drawing both on the records of the Cistercian General Chapter and on letters concerning Welsh abbeys and their heads sent to and from the abbot of Cîteaux and the Chapter, and on the poetry of the Welsh bards, the article examines how abbots negotiated their different roles and accommodated their responsibilities as members of the Cistercian Order and as leaders of local society.