William of Newburgh, born in 1136 near Bridlington in Yorkshire, received his early education at Newburgh Priory, one of the numerous houses established by the Augustinian Canons in twelfth-century England. Though one scholar has argued that he married in his twenties and became a landowner in Oxfordshire before returning to Newburgh after 1180, this speculative thesis has gained little support. More probably, he entered religious life at Newburgh directly after his early education. The Augustinian Canons followed the Rule of St Augustine, which allowed considerable flexibility to individual houses in their monastic routine, and gave ample scope for scholarly activity.1