of Prémontré, the headquarters of the Premonstratensian Order. The abbey remained tolerably solvent for most of its existence, however, in common with many religious houses and secular lords it experienced severe financial difficulties in the latter half of the 14th century and the early 15th century due to the economic and social crisis resulting from the effects of the Black Death. The scale of the disaster can be judged by the fact that on the Titchfield estates in the plague years of 1348-1349 close to 60% of the tenants died, together with a vast number of animals, and when the plague returned in 1361-1362 the agricultural population took another massive hit. When John Poole, abbot of the mother house of Halesowen Abbey inspected Titchfield in summer 1420 he found the coffers empty, the abbey's accounts deeply in the red and the barns and storehouses nearly empty of food and fodder. Despite this, in the following years the canons managed to retrieve the situation and in the last years of its existence Titchfield was again prosperous. Inspections by senior abbots of the order from 1478 to 1502 noted that Titchfield was excellently managed, discipline was good and the finances were in order. The abbey's location near Southampton and Portsmouth made it a convenient stopping place for journeys from England to continental Europe and it hence received many important visitors. Richard II and Queen Anne stayed at the abbey in 1393, and Henry V was a guest on his way to Southampton to invade France in 1415. On 23 April 1445, the abbey church was the venue for a royal wedding; the marriage of Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou was celebrated there by William Ayscough, Bishop of Salisbury. Library The Premonstratensians placed great emphasis on scholarship and the canons of Titchfield possessed a very impressive library, the catalogue for which survives. There were 224 volumes, each containing a number of different works bound together, as was common in the period, and some must have been very large to contain all the works recorded for them. The books were systematically organised by subject, shelf and location in the library room (probably the chamber between the chapter house and the church as this was the traditional location). There were books in Latin, English and French covering theology, church history, writings of the Fathers of the Church, medicine, law, philosophy, grammar, travel, legends, romances