My chapter ‘A Provocative Presence: The Franciscan Friars of Babwell and Conflict with the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1265-1538’ has been published in Instances of Franciscanism in England (XIIIth-XVIth Centuries, a special issue of the journal Studi Francescani edited by Andreea Chiricheș. Publication of the volume coincides with the celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Franciscan friars in England in 2024.

While the conflicts between the Franciscans and the monks of St Edmunds Abbey before 1265 are well known, this chapter deals with the less explored subject of the relationship between the Abbey and the friary of Babwell, just outside the town boundaries, during the later period when friars and monks uneasily co-existed up to the dissolution. The Franciscan friars in Bury St Edmunds were the subject of my recent book The Franciscans in Medieval Bury St Edmunds.