Fry's Island

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Fry's Island, also known as De Montfort Island, is an island in the River Thames in England. The island is on the reach above Caversham Lock at Reading, Berkshire. The centre of Reading is to the south and the suburb of Caversham to the immediate north.

It is a natural island, the only access to it being by boat. It is home to a private house, two boatyards and, since the 1950s, a private club known as the Island Bohemian Club, perhaps the only bowling club in the world which runs its own ferry service.

[edit] History

Fry's Island is famous as the location of the duel between Robert de Montfort and Henry of Essex, the standard bearer to King Henry II. while the court was in residence at Reading Abbey in 1163, Robert had accused Henry of Essex of cowardice and treason, because he dropped the standard and called out the King was dead during a previous battle with the Welsh, charges Henry of Essex denied.

King Henry decreed that this dispute must be resolved in a trial by combat, to be undertaken on what is now Fry's Island. At the height of the combat, Henry of Essex fell wounded and, in the belief he was dead, the King ordered the monks to carry him away and bury him. However he was not dead, and the monks nursed him back to health. Because he had lost the combat he was adjudged guilty and stripped of his lands; however he was permitted to become a monk at the abbey where he remained for the rest of his life.