Hailes Abbey Hailes Abbey Hailes Abbey is two miles northeast of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England. Originally built in 1246 little remains of the abbey. The abbey is owned by the National Trust but financed and managed by English Heritage. The abbey was founded in 1246 by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, called "King of the Romans" and the younger brother of King Henry III of England. Richard founded the abbey to thank God after he had survived a shipwreck. Richard had been granted the manor of Hailes by King Henry, and settled it with Cistercian monks from Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. The great Cistercian
Berkeley Castle (as they themselues confessed) praied heartilie to God to receiue his soule, when they vnderstood by his crie what the matter ment.Christopher Marlowe's tragedy "Edward II" ("The troublesome raigne and lamentable death of Edward the second, King of England", first published 1594) depicts the murder at Berkeley Castle, using props mentioned in Holinshed, and popular stories of a red hot poker or suffocation continue to circulate. The cell where Edward is supposed to have been imprisoned and murdered can still be seen, along with the adjacent 11 m (36 ft) deep dungeon, which supposedly echoes the events of the murder