and his successors, all the aforementioned manors, lands, tenements, rents, services, and other possessions, spiritual and temporal, together with liberties, franchises, privileges, and customs which they and their predecessors were accustomed as of right and use to enjoy". There appears to have been a fire that destroyed all previous muniments, so not much else is known. As was common for religious houses at the time, the Priory often lodged visitors and deputies from the king. In 1488, Sir Richard Edgecomb stayed at the priory in his efforts to secure oaths of allegiance to Henry VII in the face of Lambert Simnel’s claim to the English throne. In the Priory he conducted interviews with the Earl of Kildare. In 1489 an Act of Parliament exempted the Priory of All Hallows from any subsidies and taxes, and confirmed the land grants made to All Hallows by Edward IV earlier in the century. As part of the Reformation in Ireland, the Crown dissolved the priory. The chapter, under Walter Hancocke, met for the last time on 16 November 1538, and sent the seal of the house to the Crown. The inmates were expelled from the cloisters, and the prior and other officials granted an annuity of £40 on which to live. On 4 February 1539, the buildings and lands were granted, for a Crown head rent of 4 pounds, 3 shillings and a halfpenny, to the mayor and corporation of Dublin on behalf of the citizens. On 7 August 1539, the priory was leased to Nicholas Stanyhurst and Walter Forester for £100 sterling. The demolition of the old buildings of the priory, which had begun in 1539, were finally completed around 1593, with the spire being the only remaining structure from the original Priory of All Hallows. Trinity College Archbishop Loftus asked the mayor to grant the All Hallows lands, then generating a rent of only 20 pounds a year for the city, for the use of a college and when this was done, he employed Henry Ussher to appeal to Elizabeth I of England for a charter for a college and a licence for the land, which was granted in December 1591. This new foundation became Trinity College, Dublin of which Archbishop Loftus became first Provost. Natural features Two natural features made the site an important space in both the Viking and Hiberno-Norse periods: the River Steyne and the landing stage of