ABSTRACT
The first houses in northern England were Rievaulx and Fountains, both dating from 1132, and all but one of the northern monasteries were in existence by 1152. If there is a connection between the founding of Cistercian houses and the undeveloped condition of the North in the early twelfth century, it is indirect rather than direct and worked through the medium of ordinary landowners who invited the monks in the first place and provided endowments. The Cistercian estates, which comprised land of every kind and condition, grew by gifts and, under some disguise, by purchase. For nearly two centuries the monks' aim was to consolidate their holdings by assarting, exchanges, and purchases and to work them directly, avoiding so far as possible the complications of the manorial system and contact with peasant agriculture generally. The Cistercian policy of consolidation, where vigorously pursued in areas already occupied, was bound to disrupt existing tenurial and field arrangements.
