Editing Rievaulx Abbey (section)

==Foundation==

Rievaulx Abbey was the first Cistercian monastery in the north of England,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Horsfield |title=Rievaulx Abbey : update on a long-term landscape conversation |journal=Bulletin |date=2015–2016 |issue=20 |page=22 |publisher=Teesside Archaeological Society. |location=Hartlepool |issn=2058-5144}}</ref> founded in 1132 by twelve [[monk]]s from [[Clairvaux Abbey]].<ref name=Coppack>{{cite book
|last = Coppack
|first = Glyn
|title = Fountains Abbey
|publisher = Amberley
|date = 2009
|isbn = 978-1-84868-418-8
| page=19
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jamroziak |first1=Emilia |title=Rievaulx Abbey As a Wool Producer in the Late Thirteenth Century: Cistercians, Sheep, and Debts |journal=Northern History |date=September 2003 |volume=40 |issue=2 |page=197 |doi=10.1179/nhi.2003.40.2.197|s2cid=162222660 }}</ref>

Its remote location was well suited to the order's ideal of a strict life of prayer and self-sufficiency with little contact with the outside world. The abbey's patron, [[Walter Espec]], also founded another Cistercian community, that of [[Wardon Abbey]] in [[Bedfordshire]], on unprofitable wasteland on one of his inherited estates.<ref>{{cite ODNB|first=Paul|last=Dalton|title=Walter Espec|id=8885|date=23 September 2004}}</ref>

William I, the first [[abbot of Rievaulx]], started construction in the 1130s. The second abbot, Saint [[Aelred of Rievaulx]], expanded the buildings and otherwise consolidated the existence of what in time became one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire,  with [[Fountains Abbey]] the second only Cistercian house to be built in Yorkshire.<ref>{{cite news |title=Retracing the steps of Fountains Abbey founders |url=https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/17320446.retracing-steps-fountains-abbey-founders/ |access-date=29 October 2021 |work=The Northern Echo |date=26 December 2018}}</ref> Under Aelred the abbey is said to have grown to some 140 monks and 500 [[lay brothers]].<ref>Walteri Danielis Vita Ailredi Abbatis Rievall, ed. FM Powicke, (London, 1959), ca. 30.</ref> By the end of his tenure Rievaulx had five daughter houses in England and Scotland.<ref>cf. Walter Daniel records a visitation that Aelred made to [[Dundrennan Abbey|Dundrennan]]. Aelred Squire, OP, ''Aelred of Rievaulx: A Study'' (London: SPCK, 1969), p. 65</ref>