Takes an unprecedented look at one of the great rivalries of the Middle Ages and offers it as a revealing lens through which to view the intertwined histories of medieval England and France. This book compares Westminster Abbey and the abbey of Saint-Denis - two of the most important ecclesiastical institutions of the thirteenth century. "Meticulous in historical detail, A Tale of Two Monasteries tells a remarkable and rather captivating narrative. . . . Jordan's research is based on a thorough reading of a huge array of documents. . . . The bibliography is impressive, and the citations and discursive footnotes are immensely valuable to medieval scholarship. But Jordan is also a storyteller; he captures something of the spirit of daily life. . . . The reader has a sense of being there and is guided through the poignancies, the portent, and the bearing these royal successions will have for the abbeys and their abbots."---Rosemary Drage Hale, Journal of British Studies