Henry I was buried in the abbey, as were parts of Empress Maud, Prince William the Count of Poitiers, Princess Constance of York, and Princess Isabella of Cornwall, among others. The abbey was one of the pilgrimage centres of medieval England. It held over 230 relics including the hand of St. James. The abbey was largely destroyed in 1538 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and Henry VIII had the abbot, Hugh Cook Faringdon, hanged.
The abbey school, Reading School (fnd 1125) survives as a state grammar school.
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