This is a fascinating account of daily life in Westminster Abbey, one of medieval England's most important monastic communities. It is also a broad scholarly exploration of some major themes in the social history of the Middle Ages by one of its most distinguished historians. Barbara Harvey exploits the exceptionally rich archives of the Benedictine foundation of Westminster to the full, offering numerous vivid insights into the lives of the Westminster monks, their pensioners, and their patrons. She examines their charitable practices, their food and drink, illness and death, the abbey...