Editing Croxden Abbey (section)

===Decline and dissolution===
By the 14th century, Croxden's financial situation had worsened. The strains of royal taxation, the repayment of loans and the imposition of a [[corrodian]] combined with bad harvests and plague were a drain on the abbey's resources.

With the death of [[Theobald de Verdun, 2nd Baron Verdun|Theobald II de Verdun]], the last of the senior direct male line of the family in 1316, leaving four daughters as his heirs, the patronage of the abbey became the inheritance of the eldest heiress Joan de Verdun, who married secondly Thomas de Furnivall, 2nd [[Baron Furnivall]] of Hallamshire,<ref>George E. Cokayne: ''The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and The United Kingdom. Extant, Extinct, or Dormant'', 1st Edition, Volume III, page 406 (1890)</ref> into whose family Alton and Croxden passed. There was a number{{Clarify|reason=vague|date=December 2015}} of serious disputes between the monks and de Furnivall concerning his use of abbey lands and property, culminating in the monks barricading themselves within the abbey for 16 weeks in 1319. It wasn't until July 1319, with the help of other local landowners, that the monks received an [[assize of novel disseisin]] and their property usage was returned to them.<ref name="Houses of Cistercian monks"/>

With an income of less than £200 per year<ref name="Houses of Cistercian monks" /> the abbey should have been suppressed under the [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535]], which dictated all religious houses with a low annual income should be dissolved.<ref name="Griffiths">{{cite journal|title=The Monthly Review or, Literary Journal|volume=21|location=London|year=1759|pages=275}}</ref> The monks paid a fine of £100 for a royal licence to continue, until 1537 when the abbey was surrendered and the land and property sold off. The king granted the monks pensions, with the last abbot receiving an annual sum of  £26 13s. 4d.<ref name="Houses of Cistercian monks"/>

Two 16th-century deeds relating to the abbey's property, just prior to its dissolution, are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UoB Calmview5: Search results|url=https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XMS489|access-date=2021-04-16|website=calmview.bham.ac.uk}}</ref>