Near Chelmsford, in Essex, Leez Priory raises its elegant Tudor brick gate-towers on the site of a former priory. Its transformation is a textbook case of the Reformation — and the name of the man who accomplished it remains one of the darkest of Henry VIII's reign: Richard Rich, the man whose false testimony sent Thomas More to the scaffold.
From priory to manor
Leez was an Augustinian priory founded around 1220. It was dissolved as early as 1536, at the very beginnings of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The estate then passed to Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich — the very man the king had charged with taking part in the closure of the monasteries. Rich transformed the monastic complex into a great Tudor brick house, raising his house on the very foundations of the cloister. It is the perfect illustration of the rise of the Tudor 'new men': servants of the state who built their fortune and their houses on the spoils of the Church.
The man who betrayed More and Fisher
Richard Rich has remained in history as one of the most devious figures of the reign. Become Lord Chancellor, he is infamous for his false testimony against Thomas More and John Fisher at their trials of 1535: it was partly on his word that the two men were condemned to death. The contrast is striking between the beauty of Leez and the darkness of its builder. The estate then passed to the Earls of Warwick and received royal visits, including that of Elizabeth I. To see: the Tudor brick gate-towers, the remains of the priory in the park (underground drains), the historic garden walls and fishponds.
Did you know?
Richard Rich, who built Leez on the ruins of a priory, embodies on his own the cynicism of part of the Reformation: charged with closing the monasteries, he enriched himself from them; summoned to testify, he lied to send Thomas More to death. The play and film A Man for All Seasons immortalised his betrayal with a famous line of More on learning that Rich, promoted in Wales, had borne false witness: 'It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world… but for Wales?'
Notes
Leez Priory lies at Hartford End, near Chelmsford, Essex; an estate (Grade I) today a reception/wedding venue. Access according to events. Hours to check.
Quiz
- Who transformed the priory of Leez into a Tudor manor?
- Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich
- Thomas More
- Cardinal Wolsey
- What is Richard Rich infamous for?
- False testimony against Thomas More and John Fisher
- A naval victory
- A herbal
- On what did Rich build his house?
- On the foundations of the dissolved priory's cloister
- On a Roman villa
- On a battlefield