In AD 1066, most English monasteries were Benedictine, following rules of living established by St Benedict in the 6th century. From the 10th century, reformers set up many new monastic orders such as the Cistercians. The Cistercians believed in living far from the distractions of towns and in the 12th century, they built great abbeys in the countryside, like Rievaulx, in Yorkshire. Their large landholdings were ideal for sheep, however, and the wool trade made them very wealthy.

Besides being among the largest landowners in England, many monasteries received valuable gifts from kings and nobles. Monasteries could also make money from owning holy relics or shrines. The shrine to the Virgin Mary at Walsingham in Norfolk, and the nearby Augustinian priory, gained fame and wealth from the many pilgrims who visited them.

The Abbey of St Edmund at Bury in Suffolk, which housed the shrine of the East Anglian martyr-king Edmund (died 870), owned 170 manors and was one of the most important abbeys in England. Relations with the people of Bury, who resented the domineering rule of the Abbey, were stormy. In 1326, during the troubled reign of Edward II (1307-27), crowds attacked and pillaged the Abbey, destroying the main gateway and burning other buildings.