Black Friars, in the history of London, a name given to the mendicant monks of the Dominican order. These monks were so called from the color of their garb. They settled in Holborn, London, about 1221. In 1285 an old tower was given them for a monastery. When the older city walls were torn down, a large space thus cleared was given to the Black Friars. The monastery grew to be an extensive affair and played no small part in London affairs. It had the privilege of asylum; culprits who sought shelter within its precincts were secure from pursuit, unless handed over to the officers by authority of the monks. Henry VIII's suit for divorce against Catharine of Aragon was heard by Cardinal Wolsey and his colleague at Blackfriars. The old monastery disappeared long ago, but the name has been retained by the locality in which it formerly stood and by Blackfriars Bridge.