Original Documents Charter of Henry VII. To the Franciscan Friars at Greenwich, and an Inedited Seal of the Warden

THE History of the Convent of Franciscan Friars at Greenwich, a liouse of royal foundation which seems to have been situated closely adjacent to the palace, long a favorite resort of the court and demolished by Charles II., has remained in much obscurity.Our attention has recently been called to the charter granted by Henry VII., not many months after his accession, and hitherto it is believed unpublished, having, so far as we are aware, been only cited briefly by Hasted, Lysons, and some other writers. 1 It has been thought desirable to give at length a document that may be an acceptable contribution to the history of Kentish monasteries, It appears that a religious house had been founded at Greenwich by Edward III. in 1376, for Friars Minorites, or Dominicans, according to Philipot ; it was a cell to St. Peter's Abbey at Ghent, 2 to which the manor of Greenwich appertained as part of the endowment of their cell at Lewisham ; the manor of the place last-named had been given to the Abbey near Ghent by Eltrude, niece of King Alfred. 3 Lysons has observed, however, that he had found no record of the foundation of a priory at Greenwich by Edward III., by the persuasion, as it had been alleged, of Sir John Norbury, his treasurer ; and he remarks that there is great reason to believe that no such house existed, but that it has been confounded with the Benedictine priory of Lewisham. 4 Henry V., in the second year of his reign, suppressed the alien priories throughout England. 5 It has been asserted by Weever and other writers, that the friars were at that time expelled from their house at Greenwich, and their possessions bestowed by the king on the Carthusian priory which he had recently founded at Shene."In 1480, as stated in the Annals of the Order, Edward IV. conferred with the Vicar-general, William Bertholdi, being desirous to bring the Friars Observants, or Franciscans, into England.Edward granted them their first establishment at Greenwich, of which Sixtus IV., in the year

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