page_title: Richard de Belmeis II
section_title: Founding of Lilleshall Abbey
hierarchical_section_title: Richard de Belmeis II / Career / Founding of Lilleshall Abbey
caption_attribution_description: English: Stephen of England Čeština: Štěpán z Blois
context_page_description: Richard de Belmeis was a medieval cleric, administrator and politician. His career culminated in election as Bishop of London in 1152. He was one of the founders of Lilleshall Abbey in Shropshire.
context_section_description: Richard, and his brother, Philip, lord of Tong, Shropshire, were instrumental in establishing Lilleshall Abbey, an important Augustinian house in Shropshire.
  Richard was granted substantial estates in Shropshire by a charter of confirmation. This was issued by the king at Portsmouth in August 1127, probably while he was waiting to embark for Normandy. It covered four prebends of St Alkmund's collegiate church in Shrewsbury: Lilleshall, Atcham, Uckington and Preston Gubbals. The Domesday survey had found that these were in the hands of a cleric called Godebold, who seems, like Richard de Belmeis I, to have been close to Roger Mortimer, and who gave his name to Preston Gubbals. He was succeeded by his son, Robert, who probably sided with the revolt of Robert of Bellême, 3rd Earl of Shrewsbury, as the estates were granted by Henry I to the elder Richard. They were within the king's gift, as St Alkmund's was a royal foundation. However, they remained ecclesiastical estates, held in mortmain, and could not be alienated to an individual. The king's charter, addressed to the Bishop of Chester and to the barons of Shropshire, simultaneously honoured the memory of the faithful, deceased bishop; recognised his nephew as his spiritual heir; and reasserted the inalienability of the prebends as Church property in the gift of the king. It reaffirmed that these were lands which the Bishop of London “held from the king and which formerly belonged to Godebald and his son Robert.” Richard became a canon of St Alkmund's and was later recognised as dean.
  Richard's brother, Philip, already had a record as a benefactor of religious houses, particularly Buildwas Abbey, which was affiliated to the Congregation of Savigny (and later absorbed into the Cistercian Order). He was admitted to the Savignac lay fraternity. However, in the early 1140s he gave land at Lizard, Staffordshire, “to found a Church in honour of St. Mary for Canons of the Order of Arrouaise, who had come from the Church of St. Peter at Dorchester, and are serving God and St Mary there.” He also gave the canons the right to collect wood for fuel and for building and also donated two Leicestershire churches – at Blackfordby and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. These were Canons Regular who followed the rigorous practice of Arrouaise Abbey in northern France. Like all such canons, they were integrated into the Augustinian Order by a decree of the Second Council of the Lateran in 1139. They had been brought from their first house in England, at Dorchester on Thames, to attempt to establish a colony in Shropshire. This proved a struggle. As Lizard proved unviable, they moved first into Donnington Wood, near Wrockwardine, and then by 1148 to Lilleshall, where a substantial community was established. This was made possible by Richard, who carried through the dissolution of St Alkmund's college to invest its property in the new community.
  The dissolution of St Alkmund's, a chapel royal, was only possible with royal assent. A charter was obtained from King Stephen, granted in 1145 at Bury St Edmunds. This not only confirmed Richard's donation of all his holdings to the canons but also promised the remaining prebends as they fell vacant. It was countersigned by Imar of Tusculum, the papal legate. Pope Eugenius III ordered Roger de Clinton, the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, to issue a charter confirming Richard's gift to the canons and Theobald of Bec, the Archbishop of Canterbury, subsequently also issued a confirmatory charter. The prevalence of the Anarchy made it essential to win the approval also of Stephen's opponents, initially Empress Matilda. She issued a confirmatory charter to the canons, now at Lilleshall, in 1148 - probably while she was at Falaise. Henry, Duke of Normandy, her son and heir, also gave his consent  and repeated it when he became King Henry II.
caption: King Stephen.
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