'The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster', which is almost always referred to by its original name of 'Westminster Abbey', is a mainly
Gothic church, on the scale of a
cathedral (and served as one from 1546 - 1556), in
Westminster,
London, just to the west of the
Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of
coronation and
burial site for
English monarchs.
History
A layout plan dated 1894.
According to
tradition a shrine was first founded in 616 on the present site, then known as
Thorn Ey (Thorn Island); its tradition of miraculous consecration after a fisherman on the
River Thames saw a vision of
Saint Peter justifying the presents of salmon from the Thames fishermen that the Abbey received. In the 960s or early 970s
Saint Dunstan, assisted by King
Edgar, planted a community of
Benedictine monks here. The stone Abbey was built around 1045–1050 by King
Edward the Confessor, who had selected the site for his burial: it was consecrated on
December 28,
1065, only a week before the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral. It was the site of the last coronation prior to the
Norman Invasion, that of his successor King
Harold.
The only extant depiction of the original
Abbey, in the
Romanesque style that is called
Norman in England, together with the adjacent Palace of Westminster, is in the
Bayeux Tapestry. Increased endowments supported a community increased from Dunstan's dozen to about eighty monks (Harvey 1993 p 2).
The Abbot and learned monks, in close proximity to the royal Palace of Westminster, the seat of government from the later twelfth century, became a powerful force in the centuries after the Norman Conquest: the Abbot was often employed on royal service and in due course took his place in the House of Lords as of right. Released from the burdens of spiritual leadership, which passed to the reformed
Cluniac movement after the mid-tenth century, and occupied with the administration of great landed properties, some of which lay far from Westminster, "the Benedictines achieved a remarkable degree of identification with the secular life of their times, and particularly with upper-class life", Barbara Harvey concluded, to the extent that her depiction of daily life (Harvey 1993) provides a wider view of the concerns of the English gentry in the High and Late Middle Ages. The proximity of the Palace of Westminster did not extend to providing monks or abbots with high royal connections; in social origin the Benedictines of Westminster were as modest as most of the order. The abbot remained lord of the manor of Westminster as a town of two to three thousand persons grew around it: as a consumer and employer on a grand scale the monastery helped fuel the town economy, and relations with the town remained unusually cordial, but no enfranchising charter was issued during the Middle Ages (Harvey 1993 p 6f). The abbey built shops and dwellings on the west side, encroaching upon the sanctuary.
The Abbey became the coronation site of Norman kings, but none were buried there until
Henry III, intensely devoted to the cult of the Confessor, rebuilt the Abbey in
Anglo-French Gothic style as a shrine to honour
Edward the Confessor and as a suitably regal setting for Henry's own
tomb, under the highest Gothic nave in England. The Confessor's
shrine subsequently played a great part in his canonisation. The work continued between 1245-1517 and was largely finished by the architect
Henry Yevele in the reign of King
Richard II.
Henry VII added a
Perpendicular style chapel dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503 (known as the ''
Henry VII Chapel''). Much of the stone came from
Caen, in
France (
Caen stone), the
Isle of Portland (
Portland stone) and the
Loire Valley region of France (
tuffeau limestone).
In 1535, the Abbey's annual income of £2400-2800 during the assessment attendant on the
Dissolution of the Monasteries rendered it second in wealth only to
Glastonbury Abbey.
Henry VIII had assumed direct royal control in 1539 and granted the Abbey cathedral status by charter in 1540, simultaneously issuing letters patent establishing the diocese of Westminster. By granting the Abbey cathedral status Henry VIII gained an excuse to spare it from the destruction or dissolution which he inflicted on most English abbeys during this period. Westminster was a cathedral only until 1550. The expression "robbing Peter to pay Paul" may arise from this period when money meant for the Abbey, which was dedicated to
St Peter, was diverted to the treasury of
St Paul's Cathedral.
The Abbey was restored to the Benedictines under the Catholic
Queen Mary, but they were again ejected under
Queen Elizabeth I in 1559. In 1579, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a "
Royal Peculiar" — a church responsible directly to the
sovereign, rather than to a diocesan bishop — and made it the 'Collegiate Church of St Peter', (that is a church with an attached chapter of canons, headed by a dean). The last Abbot was made the first Dean. It suffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by
Puritan iconoclasts, but was again protected by its close ties to the state during the
Commonwealth period.
Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a nearby gibbet.
The abbey's two western towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by
Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from
Portland stone to an early example of a
Gothic Revival design. Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th century under Sir
George Gilbert Scott. A
narthex for the west front was designed by Sir
Edwin Lutyens in the mid C20 but was not executed.
Until the 19th century, Westminster was the third seat of learning in England, after
Oxford and
Cambridge. It was here that the first third of the
King James Bible Old Testament and the last half of the New Testament were translated. The
New English Bible was also put together here in the 20th century.
Coronations
King Edward's Chair
Since the coronations in 1066 of both
King Harold and
William the Conqueror, all English and British monarchs, except
Lady Jane Grey,
Edward V and
Edward VIII, who did not have coronations and
Henry III because
Prince Louis of
France had taken control of London, have been crowned in the Abbey. The
Archbishop of Canterbury is the traditional
cleric in the
coronation ceremony.
St Edward's Chair, the throne on which
British sovereigns are seated at the moment of coronation, is housed within the Abbey; from 1296 to 1996 the chair also housed the
Stone of Scone upon which the kings of Scotland are crowned, but pending another coronation the Stone is now kept in Scotland.
Burials and memorials
Henry III rebuilt the Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint
Edward the Confessor whose relics were placed in a
shrine in the sanctuary. Henry III was interred nearby in a superb
chest tomb with
effigial monument, as were many of the
Plantagenet kings of England, their wives and other relatives. Subsequently, most Kings and Queens of England were buried here, although
Henry VIII and
Charles I are buried at
St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle, as are all monarchs and royals after
George II.
In 2005 the original ancient
burial vault of
Edward the Confessor was discovered, beneath the 1268
Cosmati mosaic pavement, in front of the High Altar. A series of royal vaults dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries was also discovered using
ground-penetrating radar.
Aristocrats were buried inside chapels and monks and people associated with the
Abbey were buried in the Cloisters and other areas. One of these was
Geoffrey Chaucer, who was buried here as he had apartments in the Abbey where he was employed as master of the Kings Works. Other poets were buried around Chaucer in what became known as
Poets' Corner. Abbey musicians such as
Henry Purcell were also buried in their place of work. Subsequently it became an honour to be buried or memorialised here. The practice spread from aristocrats and poets to generals, admirals, politicians, scientists, doctors, etc. These include:
Buried
★ See also:
English Monarchs and their
Consorts
★
Edward the Confessor and wife
Edith of Wessex
★
Henry III of England
★
Edward I of England and wife
Eleanor of Castile
★
Edward III of England and wife
Philippa of Hainault
★
Richard II of England and wife
Anne of Bohemia
★
Henry V of England and wife
Catherine of Valois
★
Edward V of England
★
Henry VII of England and wife
Elizabeth of York
★
Edward VI of England
★
Mary I of England
★
Elizabeth I of England
★
James I of England and wife
Anne of Denmark
★
Charles II of England
★
Mary II of England
★
William III of England
★
Anne of Great Britain and husband
Prince George of Denmark
★
George II of England and wife
Caroline of Ansbach
Other Monarchs
★
Anne Neville
★
Anne of Cleves
★
Mary Queen of Scots
★
Elizabeth of Bohemia
Nave
★
Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee
★
Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts
★
Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald
★
Charles Darwin
★
Saint Edward the Confessor
★
George Graham
★
Ben Jonson
★
David Livingstone
★
James Clerk Maxwell
★
Sir Isaac Newton
★
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford
★
Robert Stephenson
★
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox
★
George Edmund Street
★
J.J. Thomson
★
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
★
Thomas Tompion
★
The Unknown Warrior
★
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
★
Charles Lyell
North
Transept
★
William Ewart Gladstone
★
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
★
William Pitt the Younger
★
William Wilberforce
★
Sir John Malcolm
South Transept
The North entrance of Westminster Abbey
''
Poets' Corner''
★
Major John Andre
★
Dame Peggy Ashcroft
★
Robert Adam
★
Robert Browning
★
William Camden
★
Thomas Campbell
★
Geoffrey Chaucer
★
William Congreve
★
Abraham Cowley
★
William Davenant
★
Charles Dickens
★
John Dryden
★
Adam Fox
★
David Garrick
★
John Gay
★
George Frederick Handel
★
Thomas Hardy
★
Sir Henry Irving
★
Dr Samuel Johnson
★
Rudyard Kipling
★
Thomas Macaulay
★
John Masefield
★
Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier
★
Thomas Parr
★
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
★
Edmund Spenser
★
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Cloisters
The choir in 1848.
★
Aphra Behn
★
Percy Dearmer
★
General John Burgoyne
★
Muzio Clementi
North Choir Aisle
★
Henry Purcell
★
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Chapel of St Paul
★
Sir Rowland Hill
Commemorated
Christian
martyrs from across the world are depicted in statues above the Great West Door
★
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, buried in
Nyeri, Kenya
★
Sir Winston Churchill, buried at
Bladon,
Oxfordshire
★
Paul Dirac, buried in
Florida
★
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, buried at
Hughenden Manor,
Buckinghamshire
★
Adam Lindsay Gordon, buried in
Australia
★
Jane Austen
★
Charlotte Bronte,
Emily Jane Bronte,
Anne Bronte
★
John Harrison, buried in St. John's Church in
Hampstead
★
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, buried at
Cambridge, Massachusetts
★
William Shakespeare, buried at
Stratford-upon-Avon
★
Oscar Wilde (in a stained glass window unveiled in 1995), buried in Paris
★
General James Wolfe
★ Ten 20th century Christian
martyrs from across the world are depicted in statues above the Great West Door. Unveiled in 1998 by Her Majesty The Queen, these are, from left to right:
★
★ St.
Maximilian Kolbe
★
★
Manche Masemola
★
★
Janani Luwum
★
★ St
Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, Russian Grand Duchess
★
★
Martin Luther King, Jr.
★
★
Óscar Romero
★
★
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
★
★
Esther John
★
★
Lucian Tapiedi
★
★
Wang Zhiming
Removed
The following were buried in the abbey but later removed on the orders of
Charles II:
★
Oliver Cromwell,
Lord Protector
★
Admiral Robert Blake
★
John Pym
Schools
Westminster School and
Westminster Abbey Choir School are also in the precincts of the Abbey. It was natural for the learned and literate monks to be entrusted with education, and
Benedictine monks were required by the Pope to maintain a charity school in 1179; Westminster School may have been founded even earlier for children or novices, and the legendary
Croyland Chronicle relates a story of 11th century king
Edward the Confessor's Queen
Editha chatting to a schoolboy in the cloisters, and sending him off to the Palace larder for a treat.
Organ
The organ was built by
Harrison & Harrison in 1937, with four manuals and 84 speaking stops, and was used for the first time at the Coronation of
King George VI. Some pipework from the previous five-manual Hill organ was revoiced and incorporated in the new scheme. The two organ cases, designed in the late nineteenth century by
John Loughborough Pearson, were re-instated and coloured in 1959.
Link to details of the organ on the National Pipe Organ Register.
Organists
Transport
★ Nearest
London Underground stations:
★
★
St. James's Park (District, Circle lines)
★
★
Westminster (Jubilee, District, Circle lines)
Chapter
The Abbey is a collegiate church organised into the College of St Peter, which comprises the Dean and four residentiary Canons (one of whom is also
Rector of
St Margaret's Church, Westminster, and Speaker's Chaplain), and seventeen other persons who are members ex officio, as well as twelve
lay vicars and ten choristers. The seventeen are the
Receiver-General and
Chapter Clerk, the
Registrar, the
Auditor, the Legal Secretary and the
Clerk of the Works (the administrative officers). Those more directly concerned with liturgical and ceremonial operations include the
Precentor, the Chaplain and
Sacrist, the Organist, and the (honorary)
High Steward and
High Bailiff. The Abbey and its property is in the care of the Librarian, the Keeper of the Muniments, and the Surveyor of the Fabric. Lastly, the educational role of the Abbey is reflected in the presence of the Headmaster of the Choir School, the Headmaster and Under Master of
Westminster School, and the Master of The Queen's Scholars.
The Abbey is governed by the Dean and Chapter established under the Elizabethan statute of 1560. This consists of the Dean and the four residentiary Canons.
Gallery
See also
★
List of Abbots of Westminster
★
List of Deans of Westminster
★
List of churches and cathedrals of London
★
List of other famous burial sites
★
The Unknown Warrior
★ ''
The Abbey'', a 1995 BBC TV documentary film
Notes
References
★ Simon Bradley and
Nikolaus Pevsner: ''The Buildings of England - London 6: Westminster'' pp. 105–207. Yale University Press 2003. ISBN 0-300-09595-3.
★ Barbara Harvey, 1993. ''Living and Dying in England 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press). Daily life in Westminster Abbey.
★
H.V. Morton, 1951. ''In Search of London'' (London: Methuen).
★
''Musical Times'' article on Westminster Abbey organists (subscription access)
External links
★
Satellite view of Westminster Abbey at WikiMapia
★
Westminster Abbey
★
Keith Short - Sculptor Images of stone carving for Westminster Abbey
★
★
Mystery Worshipper Report at the
Ship of Fools website
★
Carved Crests for the Knights of the Bath
★
A history of the choristers and choir school of Westminster Abbbey
★
Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace Westminster Abbey Pages — Photos
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