This 1999 book explores the dramatic growth of the monastic order in Yorkshire from the foundation of the first post-Conquest abbey at Selby in 1069 to 1215. The first half examines the dynamics of monastic expansion, discussing the influences on both its chronological development and its geographical pattern. It demonstrates that the monastic expansion owed much to the particular political and tenurial conditions which existed in the century after 1069: the establishment of Norman political ascendancy, the extension of central government under Henry I, and the civil war of the reign of King Stephen. The second part of the book explores recruitment, patronage, economy and cultural life. Particular attention is paid to the role of women in the religious life. Nunneries, so often regarded as second-class or failed monasteries, are here shown to have had a distinctive function in society, in terms both of recruitment and of interaction with the local community.

"...it has proved to be one of those useful, of not invaluable, works which,...is taken down regularly for a reference to be checked or a half-formed memory made more substantial. And most useful of all, because of its easy prose style it can be given to students to read." The Catholic Historical Review

"Burton has brought to the history of monasticism the careful scholarship of a well-trained professional historian. This is a fine study that makes the case for looking beyond boundaries of religious orders to study all religious men and women within a single region. It is the great strength of this work that its evidentiary base is so well presented that one can push its interpretations." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"...one of the more comprehensive studies of early medieval English monasticism available." Marilyn Oliva, American Historical Review

"meticulously produced...entirely convincing...a scholarly and impressive book which deserves to be widely used." Medieval Review

"Burton's monastic world is, by contrast, essentially, though no exclusively, rooted in the rural landscape and inextricably linked to the patrons and benefactors who dominated it. Its mapping here is a model of clarity and scholarship." Journal of Religion