RIEVAULX AND FOUNTAINS

Although Cîteaux was in existence before either Tiron or Savigny, the latter were the first to increase. Both were situated on territory subject to Henry I, and Vitalis, the founder of Savigny, and Geoffrey, his immediate successor, both Normans by birth, were known to the king. It is not surprising, therefore, that the brown monks and the grey should have been the first harbingers of the great invasion. The first to come were the monks of Tiron. Robert fitz Martin, c. 1113–15, approached Bernard of Tiron and received from him a group of twelve under an abbot, Fulchard; these he settled in west Wales on the banks of the Teifi near Cardigan, and constructed for them the abbey that became known as St Dogmael's. This, together with its two cells of Caldey and Pill, founded later, was the sole offspring of Tiron in England and Wales, and its remote situation effectually prevented it from attracting attention or securing influence. Fifty years later, St Dogmael's had a close bond with the Cistercians of the neighbourhood, and thus entered into the life, and incurred the hostility, of Gerald of Wales.

Almost equally remote was the first plantation from Savigny. This was at Tulket, near Preston in Lancashire, on the land of Stephen of Blois, count of Boulogne and later king of England. Negotiations had apparently been begun with Vitalis, but the settlement was made under his successor, Geoffrey, in July 1124.