By the Medway, near Maidstone, Aylesford Priory — 'The Friars' — is a former Carmelite convent founded in 1242. Dissolved by Henry VIII, it was given to one of the most fascinating families of the English Renaissance, the Wyatts: that of a great poet and that of a rebel who nearly overthrew a queen.
From dissolution to the Wyatts
A prosperous Carmelite priory, Aylesford surrendered to Henry VIII before 13 December 1538, in the wave of dissolution of the monasteries. The estate was then entrusted, and granted in 1542, to the Wyatt family, of the nearby castle of Allington. This family is of the first order: Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542), one of the greatest poets of Henry VIII's court, introducer of the sonnet into English and (it is said) in love with Anne Boleyn, had his roots there. After the dissolution, the Wyatts had the church, the chapter house and the friars' lodging pulled down to recover their materials — a banal and brutal act of the age.
The rebel and the Elizabethan reconversion
The poet's son, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, entered history in a quite different way: in 1554, he led 'Wyatt's rebellion' against Mary I, in protest at the queen's planned marriage to Philip of Spain. The revolt failed, and Wyatt the Younger was executed; the family then lost the estate. Under Elizabeth I, Aylesford passed to Sir John Sedley, who transformed the conventual buildings into a residence, remodelling them strongly in the 1590s. The Carmelites would return only in 1949, four centuries after their departure. To see: the conventual buildings remodelled in the Renaissance, the cloister, the restored Carmelite site (today a retreat and pilgrimage centre).
Did you know?
From one and the same family owning Aylesford came a poet and a rebel: Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder introduced the sonnet into English and shone at Henry VIII's court; his son, Thomas Wyatt the Younger, rose against Mary I in 1554 and ended beheaded. The verse and the scaffold: two destinies of one Kent house, a generation apart.
Notes
Aylesford Priory (The Friars) lies at Aylesford, Kent, near Maidstone; a restored Carmelite convent, a retreat and pilgrimage centre open to visitors. GPS to reconfirm.
Quiz
- Which order occupied Aylesford?
- The Carmelites
- The Benedictines
- The Templars
- Which poet of the Wyatt family introduced the sonnet into English?
- Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder
- Edmund Spenser
- John Donne
- What did Thomas Wyatt the Younger do in 1554?
- He led a rebellion against Mary I
- He discovered America
- He translated the Bible