In dealing with the history of the exempt religious orders in later medieval England, one is all too painfully aware of the frequent dearth of information among the primary sources, for they invariably limit the attainment of a high level of understanding or detailed knowledge about the internal history of many of their individual monasteries. Thankfully a number of the obstacles frequently presented by apparently inadequate primary source material have been overcome, to some extent, because of the many encouraging endeavours that have been undertaken in the field of historical investigation in recent years. Great strides have been made in bringing to light new source material for the evaluation of monastic historians. The publication of the surviving letters of the English Cistercian abbots to their motherhouse of Cîteaux, the investigation of manuscripts from individual abbeys such as Hailes in Gloucestershire, and the more recent ongoing publication of the Cartae of the Carthusian general chapter, provide invaluable insights into monastic life within the cloisters of the exempt orders, taking us beyond their often glorious, and yet ruined monasteries.

From the perspective of the latter half of the fifteenth century, we are fortunate with the degree of detail apparent in the visitation records of the English Premonstratensians. In fact one can say that the extant visitation documents of the other exempt orders bear no comparison with the detail or extensiveness of the Premonstratensian visitation records for the period of English history under consideration here.