Folcard


Folcard or Foulcard was a Flemish hagiographer.

Life

Folcard, a Fleming by birth, was a monk of St. Bertin's in Flanders, and is supposed to have come over to England in the reign of Edward the Confessor. He entered the monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, and was renowned for his learning, and especially for his knowledge of grammar and music; his manners were affable and his temper cheerful. Soon after the Norman Conquest the king set him over Thorney Abbey in Cambridgeshire; but he was never strictly abbot, for he did not receive the benediction.
After holding the abbey about sixteen years Folcard retired, after a dispute with the Bishop of Lincoln, Remigius de Fécamp; and returned, as may be inferred from Ordericus Vitalis, to his own country. Either while he was a monk at Canterbury, or during his residence at Thorney, which seems more probable, he and his monastery were in some trouble, and were helped by Aldred, Archbishop of York, who persuaded the queen either of the Confessor or of the Conqueror to interest herself in their cause. In return Folcard wrote the Life of Archbishop John of Beverley for Aldred.

Works