Plea for protection by the abbot of Tréport to Margaret of Anjou, queen of England

The Abbey of Saint-Michel in Tréport was founded around 1059 by Robert the First, Count of Eu, one of the members of the 1066 campaign and one of the principal beneficiaries of land redistribution. This meant that the counts owned the land of Hastings, whose church was given to the abbey in 1151. After the end of the Hundred Years War in 1470, abbot André tried to regain ownership of the priory and appealed for the help of the queen of England, Margaret of Anjou, the wife of Henry the Sixth, who had recently been restored to the throne. This was in the midst of the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York. In his plea, the abbot of Tréport asks the queen “that the supplicants have restored to them their church, all the fruits, annuities and income pertaining to it, and that an order be given for the supplicants and their said agent to be received peacefully and given possession, and that they may suffer, enjoy and use the church of Hastings in peace”. It seems unlikely that the monks would have succeeded in asserting their rights, as Henry the Sixth was finally removed from power and murdered less than a year after his return to the throne of England.