Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mare, Thomas de la
MARE, THOMAS de la (1309–1396), abbot of St. Albans, was son of Sir John de la Mare, by Johanna, daughter of Sir John de Harpesfeld, and was born in the earlier part of 1309. His family was an honourable one of Hertfordshire, and connected with William Montacute, earl of Salisbury, John Grandison [q. v.], bishop of Exeter, and probably with Sir Peter De la Mare [q. v.], the speaker of the Good parliament. He had three brothers and a sister, who all adopted a religious life at his persuasion. William, the eldest, was abbot of Missenden 1339-40 (Dugdale, Monasticon, vi. 547).
As a child Thomas was of a studious disposition, and of his own accord entered St. Albans when seventeen years old, under Abbot Hugh de Eversden (d. 7 Sept. 1326). His regular profession was made shortly afterwards before Abbot Richard of Wallingford. He was first sent to Wyniondham, a cell of St. Albans, where he was chaplain to John de Hurlee, the prior. Abbot Michael (1335-49) recalled him to St. Albans, and after making him successively kitchener and cellarer, sent him to be prior of Tynemouth, another cell of the abbey, about the end of 1340. This house Thomas ruled with much popularity for nine years. In 1346 he fortified the priory against the Scots. On 12 April 1349 Abbot Michael died, and Thomas was chosen in his place. While on his visit to the papal court at Avignon to procure his confirmation he fell ill, but was miraculously restored by drinking putrid water. The election was confirmed by the king on 22 Nov. 1350.
In September 1351 Thomas presided at a general chapter of the order, and again in 1352, 1355, 1363, performing the duties of his office with lavish profusion of expenditure (Gesta, iii. 418; Hist. Angl. i. 300). His constitutions are printed in the 'Gesta Abbatum,' ii. 418-49. Thomas's skilful administration won the favour of Edward III, who made him a member of his council, and employed him to visit the abbeys of Eynsham, Abingdon, Battle, Reading, and Chester, where he corrected a variety of abuses. Edward, prince of Wales, was also a friend of the abbot, and King John of France during his captivity often stayed at St. Albans. John persuaded Thomas to relinquish an intention to resign the abbacy, because it would be ruinous to the abbey.
Thomas was a strenuous defender of the rights of his office and abbey; a characteristic which involved him in perpetual trouble and litigation. He sought to protect the monastery against papal exaction, by negotiating for a remission of the customary attendance of a new abbot for confirmation by the pope. But after wasting much money on dishonest agents, nothing came of it (Gesta, iii. 145-84). When Henry Despenser [q. v.] attempted to make the prior of Wymondham collector of tithes in his diocese, Thomas defeated him by withdrawing the prior, and obtained a royal decision supporting the privileges of his abbey (ib. iii. 122-134, 281-4, 395; Chron. Anglia, 1328-88, pp. 258-61). Lesser quarrels were with Sir Philip de Lymbury, who put the cellarer, John Moote, in the pillory; John de Chilterne, a recalcitrant tenant, who vexed him six-and- twenty years (Gesta, iii. 3-9, 27); Sir Richard Perrers, and the notorious Alice Perrers [q. v.], whose character has no doubt suffered in consequence at the hands of the St. Albans chroniclers (ib. iii. 200-38; for a list of Thomas's opponents see ib. iii. 379, and cf. Amundesham, Annales, i. 673).
The most serious trouble was, however, with the immediate tenants and villeins of the abbey. There were old-standing grievances, which had been somewhat sternly suppressed by Abbot Richard, but were revived under pressure of the Black Death, the Statute of Labourers, and the strict rule of Abbot Thomas. There had been some disputes as early as 1353 and 1355, when the abbot had successfully maintained a plea of villeinage (Gesta, iii. 39-41). During the peasant rising in 1381 St. Albans was one of the places that suffered most. On 13 June, the day that Wat Tyler entered London, the tenants and townsfolk of St. Albans rose under William Grindcobbe, a burgess. Two days after they broke open the gaol, broke down the fences, and threatened to burn the abbey unless the abbot would surrender the charters extorted by his predecessors, and give up his rights over wood, meadow, and mill. Thomas refused at first, though at last he yielded to the alarm of his monks, and promised all that was demanded. But Tyler's rebellion had in the meantime been suppressed, and within a month the abbey tenants and burgesses were brought to terms, the privileges extorted given up once more, and Grindcobbe and his chief supporters executed.
Thomas's remaining years were troubled only by constant illness, the result of an attack of the plague. For the last ten years of his life he was unable to attend in parliament through old age and sickness, while the rule of the abbey was chiefly left to John Moote, the prior. Thomas died on 15 Sept. 1396, aged 87, and was buried in the presbytery under a marble tomb, on which there was a fine brass of Flemish workmanship with an effigy. This brass has now been removed for safety to the chantry of Abbot William Wallingford close by. The tomb bore the following inscription:
Est Abbas Thomas tumulo præsente reclusus,
Qui vitæ tempus sanctos expendit in usus.
Walsingham describes Thomas as a man of piety, humility, and patience, homely in dress, austere to himself but kindly to others, and especially to his monks; a learned divine, well acquainted with English, French, and Latin, a good speaker, a bad but rapid writer. In his youth he had delighted in sports, but afterwards, out of his love for animals, came to abhor hunting and hawking. He was withal of a strong and masterful spirit, which, if ill suited to meet the social troubles of his time, enabled him to raise St. Albans to a high pitch of wealth and prosperity. Despite the great sums which he spent on litigation, he increased the resources of the abbey, which he had found much impoverished. He adorned the church with many vestments, ornaments, and pictures, especially with one over the high altar, which he procured in Italy. Various parts of the abbey were rebuilt or repaired by him, and in particular the great gate, which is now the only important building left besides the church. He also spent much on charity, and especially on the maintenance of scholars at Oxford. His chief fault was a rash and credulous temperament, which made him too ready to trust unworthy subordinates. But against Thomas himself even the rebels of 1381 had no complaint (Gesta, iii. 307), and he may justly be regarded as the greatest of the abbots of St. Albans, and a not unworthy type of the mediæval monastic prelate.
[Walsingham's Gesta Abbatum, ii. 371-449, iii. 1-423, in the Rolls Series, but especially ii. 361-97, and iii. 375-423; Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. 197-8; Froude's Annals of an English Abbey, in Short Studies on Great Subjects, 3rd ser., is not always quite fair to Thomas.]