Westminster Abbey There has been a place of worship on this site for well over a thousand years, and every monarch since William the Conqueror in 1066, bar two, have been crowned under it's roof in an elaborate ceremony that is steeped in history and tradition. Westminster Abbey, or to call it by its correct name, The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, is unusual amongst churches in England in being a 'Royal Peculiar'. This means it is under the jurisdiction of the crown and not within any diocese. This was an extremely important privilege in the Middle Ages as it gave the Abbey full control over its finances and day to day running and it soon grew into one of the wealthiest religious houses in the country. Westminster Abbey has survived them all. It's an architectural masterpiece of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries and contains countless memorials and effigies to the famous and great of this nation. Over three thousand people are either buried or memorialised in Westminster Abbey from Medieval Kings and their Queens, to the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which in recent times has become a place of pilgrimage. It is said that a church was founded on the site of Westminster Abbey by Serbert, King of the East Saxons who died in AD616, and this was overseen by Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, but there is no evidence of this building. The earliest foundations that are known are those of St Dunstan, c. 909-88. He was Abbot of Glastonbury and archbishop of Canterbury and a leading player in the church. He was educated at Glastonbury abbey before entering the household of his uncle Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury and he later joined the court of King Athelstan, whom he was also related to. He set up a Benedictine abbey around AD 960 on an Island in the Thames, although very little is known about the building except it was sited not far from where the west door now stands. Less than one hundred years later this abbey was succeeded by an even greater monastery created by Edward the Confessor, King of England 1042 -66. The focal point of the newabbey was the Church which was dedicated to St Peter and similar in area to the present building. It was built in the Norman-French style and would have been similar to Durham Cathedral, which is one of our finest surviving examples. Edward also built a new royal palace nearby. Edward the Confessor was born in 1003, son of King Ethelred II, The Unready and Emma, daughter of Duke Richard I of Normandy. He spent his youth in exile in Normandy and later married Edith, daughter of the Earl Godwin of Wessex. He was recalled to England in 1041, and suceeded his half brother Harthecnut to the throne in the following year. Edward had been accompanied back to England with several influential Normans who were later given important posts in office and he remained in close contact with the Duchy during his reign. This was a period of great political turbulence in England, although Edward kept his kingdom in relative peace. This was helped to a large extent by the military capacity of the Earl Godwin of Wessex and his Sons, most notably Harold, who later succeeded Edward to the throne. Edward the Confessor died on 5th January 1066 and on his deathbed is said to have acknowledged Harold as his successor. At dawn on the next day he was buried in the new abbey at Westminster, which had been consecrated only eight days before. By the end of the morning Harold had been elected by the Witan and they celebrated with High Mass in the Abbey. Harold's reign was to be a short one and by the end of the year a new king was to be crowned at the Abbey. The Burial of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey from the Bayeux Tapestry One of the most important events in the history of Westminster Abbey took place on Christmas Day in 1066. This was the coronation of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, who had on the 14th October of that year defeated King Harold on the field of Hastings. William had spent the previous 2 months consolidating his victory and stamping his authority on the south , but the rest of the country was still not entirely under his control. It was a dramatic ceremony. When the shouts of acclamation rang out from the abbey, the Norman guards thought that their Duke was in danger inside and, being trained soldiers, they quickly started a diversion by setting fire to nearby buildings. The final rituals inside were hurriedly completed and the startled congregation fled into the chaos of the surrounding streets. The Coronation ceremony used by William in 1066 was almost certainly very similar to the one still used today, although latin ceased to be used from 1603 onwards. It takes place in the sanctuary, before the high altar, with the sovereign seated on the ancient Coronation Chair. The ceremony has almost always been conducted by the archbishop of Canterbury. The next Coronation at the Abbey was on 26th September 1087. This was conducted by Archbishop Lanfranc when he crowned the son of the Conqueror, William Rufus. This effectively meant that the elective monarchy of England had become hereditary, and the recognition of the king's chosen heir had passed from his council to his archbishop. After this, every monarch of England ( apart from Edward V, one of the princes in the Tower, and Edward VIII, who abdicated. ) has been crowned in Westminster Abbey. By the 12th century the Abbey at Westminster was flourishing and would have held between thirty and sixty monks, with up to 300 other people also being involved in the running of the Benedictine Monastry. The Abbey was by now the wealthiest religious house in Britain, helped without doubt by its Royal Patronage and the Tomb of St Edward the Confessor, which was by now attracting large numbers of Pilgrims. The Monks lived a demanding life, attending services during the day and night with reading and writing taking place in between. They even had time to tend the Abbey garden, probably the oldest in England, which has been looked after continuously for over 900 years. The Abbey also owned another 216 manors in England and much time would have been spent by the Abbot and Monks travelling to and from, to ensure they were being correctly managed and supervising any work which needed to be carried out. The Monks also spent time in other places of learning and some of the younger ones would have travelled to Oxford to study. The Abbot of Westminster would also have been responsible for holding courts and hearing the cases of local wrong-doers, and would even, on occasion, travel overseas on diplomatic missions for the King. A copy of the Domesday Book is almost certain to have been held in the Abbey for safe keeping by the King along with other important relics. The Abbey was gaining importance in the affairs of the crown and in the reign of King Henry II, the whole of the royal treasury moved to London. This was at first held in the Temple and then the Tower, before being moved again, towards the end of his reign, to Westminster Abbey. The treasury was held along with other royal regalia in the Chapel of the Pyx until at least the 15th century, guarded securely by six locks and a huge door, which still stand today. The Exchequer also gained a more permanent home in Westminster. The future of the abbey looked very secure, as well it may, for the royals continued to pour money into the Abbey. This reached a height in the reign of King Henry III, whose excessive expenditure on Westminster Abbey became, in his own time, notorious. Henry III was determined to place the Abbey on a much grander scale, the old abbey of Edward the confessor was slowly replaced from the east end, bit by bit and nothing of Edward's Church remains apart from some of the Monastic buildings around the cloister. The new abbey although covering a similar area to that of Edward's was to be taller, lighter and more spacious. The Master mason chosen for this task was Henry de Reyns and his new gothic style owed much to the design of the French cathedrals. The soaring height of the roof and the narrowness of the nave are typical features from France, but the long nave and broad trancepts are thoroughly English, as are the mouldings of the arches and sculptured stone of polished Purbeck stone. From 1245, when his work on the abbey started, until his death in 1272, Henry III spent well in excess of £40.000 on the Abbey rebuilding. This was the approximate equivalent of the state's annual income for two full years of his reign. It was very much a personal exercise and Henry added a lot of personal touches to the building, such as the new magnificent shrine for Edward the Confessor, covered in gold and precious jewels and a new lecturn for the Chapter House, the like of which had never been seen before. Henry was in a hurry to see the work completed and encouraged work throughout the winter months. In 1252 he directed his master of works at Westminster to; ' Have all the marble work raised this winter that can be done without danger and the works of the Church be greatly speeded up ' In the event, the completion of the nave at Westminster, which came to a halt on his death, was to take a further 250 years. This was a prime case of a son of a founder taking no interest in his fathers works, and the same happened to this very son, Edward I whose own pious foundation at Vale Royal Abbey in Cheshire suffered when his attentions turned to castle building in North Wales. His son, Edward II turned his attention away from Vale Royal and built his own friary church at King's Langley. The Chapter House at Westminster is the second largest in the country after Lincoln, but Westminster's was by far the most important. After its completion in 1253 until 1547 it was one of the regular meeting places of Parliament. It was also positioned next to the vaults of the Pyx Chamber which held all the Kings important documents, and the King himself would often hold council in the Chapter House. After Henry III died, rebuilding continued at a very erratic rate, and work slowly continued westwards on the nave. This work was also slowed by the ravages of the Black death and the Monks at Westminster suffered greatly. They lost half their numbers in two years and it took a long time for them to get back to their pre-plague numbers. The Hundred years War between England and France also took it's toll with money being diverted by the Kings of England towards military matters, although they all contributed towards their own personal Chapels in the Abbey to house their bodies after death. TThe Nave was completed in 1517 and in 1540 the Abbot of Westminster surrendered the monastery to dissolution. The Confessors Shrine was torn down and it's valuables stolen. Tombs were robbed and relics destroyed. From 1540 to 1550 the Abbey became a Cathedral in the newly created diocese of Westminster and the Chapter House passed into possession of the Crown. When Queen Mary was crowned in 1556 the Abbey saw a community of Monks re-established, but this wasn't to last for long. In 1560 their brief existence was disbanded by Elizabeth I's Royal Charter which designated the Abbey as a collegiate church with a Dean and chapter of twelve canons. Reconstruction of Westminster in 1585 by Peter Jackson Westminster Abbey was to retain its unfinished look for a further 200 years. In 1745 the building as we know it today was finished when the west towers were completed to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor. Wren died in 1723, and Hawksmoor became Surveyor of the Abbey in Wren's place and oversaw the completion of the Towers. The Abbey today still plays an important role to the people of this Nation as well as remaining a place of worship. Our Kings and Queens continue to be Crowned here and have their funerals here, although they are now buried at St Georges Chapel in Windsor. Royal weddings held at the Abbey are are recent introduction. The wedding of Princess Mary to Viscount lascelles in 1922 set the trend and was followed the next year by Albert, Duke of York, later King George VI, when he married the Queen Mother, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. It was the Queen Mother who began the tradition of laying a bridal bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, all royal brides since have followed this act and it has become something of a tradition. Westminster Abbey is also closely associated with the Order of the Bath, which uses Henry VII's Chapel as its own. The Dean of the Abbey is a member of the Order and the Banners of the Prince of Wales, the Great Master of the Order and the Sovereign, the Queen, hang in the Chapel. The Queen is the only member to have an embroidered banner. An architectural masterpiece of the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, Westminster Abbey also presents a unique pageant of British history - the Confessor’s Shrine, the tombs of Kings and Queens, and countless memorials to the famous and the great. It has been the setting for every Coronation since 1066 and for numerous other Royal occasions. Today it is still a church dedicated to regular worship and to the celebration of great events in the life of the nation. Neither a cathedral nor a parish church, Westminster Abbey is a “royal peculiar” under the jurisdiction of a Dean and Chapter, subject only to the Sovereign. Westminster Abbey, a work of architectural genius, a locus of daily worship, deploying the resources of high musical expertise, a burial place of kings, statesmen, warriors, scientists, musicians and poets is the result of a process of development across the centuries, which represents the response of a monastery and later a post-Reformation church to the stimulus and challenge of its environment. Edward the Confessor, a curious and in some ways a remote English monarch, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings sought to re-endow and greatly enlarge a Benedictine monastery on Thorney Island close to his palace of Westminster. Unfortunately, when the church was consecrated on 28 December 1065 he was not present, and died a few days later. His mortal remains were entombed behind the High Altar. The only traces of this Norman monastery is to be found in the round arches and massive supporting columns of the Undercroft in the Cloisters. This now houses the exhibition of treasures but was originally part of the domestic quarters of the monks. Among the most famous ceremonies that occurred in the Norman Abbey were the coronation of William the Conqueror on Christmas day, 1066, a grim proceeding which taxed all his resources of nerve and endurance and the canonisation of Edward the Confessor in 1161. The Norman Abbey was destined to survive for only two centuries. In the middle of the 13th century, Henry III decided to pull down the Norman Abbey and rebuild it in a new architectural design. It was a great age for cathedrals: in France it saw the construction of Amiens, Evreux, Chartres, and in England Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury, to mention a few. King Henry III briefed his architect, Henry de Reyns and sent him abroad to study the contemporary developments in architecture. Under the decree of the King of England, Westminster Abbey was designed to be not only a great abbey and a place of worship, but also a place for the coronation and burials of monarchs. Every monarch, since William the Conqueror with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII was crowned in the Abbey. It was natural that Henry III should wish to translate the body of the saintly Edward the Confessor into a more magnificent tomb behind the High Altar. Where Edward is buried, kings and their consorts cluster around Henry III, the second founder of the Abbey; Edward I; Richard II; Henry V under his Chantry Chapel, and a galaxy of others. Thus began a process which has continued to this day. Over three thousand people are either buried or memorialised in Westminster Abbey. Notable among these is the Unknown Warrior, whose grave, close to the west door, has become a place of pilgrimage. A creative new addition to the Abbey was the glorious Lady chapel built by Henry VII which now bears his name. The banners of the Knights of the Order of the Bath which surrounds its walls, together with the Battle of Britain Window by Hugh Easton at the east, give colour to this chapel. The craftsmanship of Italian sculptor Torrigiano is shown in the tomb of Henry, first of the Tudor monarchs. It was not until two centuries later that a further addition was made in the western towers, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. Little remains of the original medieval stained glass, once one of the Abbey's chief glories. The great west window and the rose window in the north transept date from the early eighteenth century but the remainder of the glass is nineteenth and twentieth century. History did not cease with the passing of the medieval monastery at the Reformation. Queen Elizabeth I, buried in one of the apsidal chapels of Henry VII, refounded the Abbey as a Collegiate Church, a Royal Peculiar not subject to the rule of any bishop with the Sovereign as Visitor, and laid down its constitution in a charter granted in 1560. Thus the Abbey was reshaped and newly patterned to discharge a distinctive yet worshipful role in a modern age. The monastic Community had now gone, and was replaced by a Dean and twelve prebendaries, minor canons and a large lay staff. Part of the staff, under the High Steward, was responsible for the civil government of the City of Westminster.