The Abbey's western façade
The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always
referred to as Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the
scale of a cathedral, 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
According to tradition a shrine was first founded in 616 on the present
site, then known as Thorney Island; it was said to have been
miraculously consecrated after a fisherman on the River Thames saw a
vision of Saint Peter, and for many centuries the monks received
presents of salmon from the Thames fishermen. While the existence of
this shrine is uncertain, there was certainly a community of Benedictine
monks before the first historic Abbey was built by King Edward the
Confessor around 1045–1050. Its construction originated in King Edward's
failure to keep a vow to go on a pilgrimage; the Pope agreed that he
redeem himself by building a church to St. Peter. It was consecrated on
December 28, 1065, immediately before the Confessor's funeral and the
last Saxon coronation of his successor King Harold.
A plan dated 1894.
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. The Confessor's shrine
subsequently played a great part in his canonisation.
The Abbot and learned monks, in close proximity to the royal Palace of
Westminster, 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. Henry III
ordered the rebuilding of the Abbey in the 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 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 Virgin Mary in 1503 (known as the Henry VII
Chapel).
Although the Abbey was seized by Henry VIII in 1534 during the Dissolution
of the Monasteries, and closed in 1540, becoming a cathedral until 1550,
its royal connections saved it from the destruction wrought on most
other English abbeys. 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. 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 choir in 1848.
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.
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.
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
Since the coronations in 1066 of both King Harold and William the
Conqueror, all English monarchs (except Lady Jane Grey, Edward V and
Edward VIII, who did not have coronations) 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
The Abbey at night, from Dean's Yard. Artificial light reveals the
exoskeleton formed by flying buttresses
Henry III rebuilt the Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint Edward the
Confessor whose memorial and relics were placed in the Sanctuary. Henry
III was buried nearby as were the Plantagenet kings of England, their
wives and 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 since George II.
In 2005 the original ancient burial tomb of Edward the Confessor was
discovered, beneath the 1268 Cosmati mosaic pavement, in front of the
High Altar. A series of royal tombs dating back to the 13th and 14th
centuries was also discovered using ground-penetrating radar.
Aristocrats were buried in side 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., etc. These include:
Buried
Westminster Abbey with a procession of Knights of the Bath, by Canaletto,
1749
Nave
Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee
Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts
Charles Darwin
James Clerk Maxwell
J.J. Thomson
Saint Edward the Confessor
Ben Jonson
David Livingstone
Sir Isaac Newton
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
The Unknown Warrior
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox
Thomas Tompion
George Graham
North Transept
William Ewart Gladstone
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
William Pitt the Younger
South Transept
The North entrance of Westminster Abbey
Poets' Corner
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
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
Aphra Behn
North Choir Aisle
Henry Purcell
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Commemorated
Standard of Westminster Abbey
William Shakespeare, buried at Stratford-upon-Avon
Sir Winston Churchill, buried at Bladon, Oxfordshire
Sir Roland Hill (in the Chapel of St. Paul), buried in Highgate Cemetery,
London
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, buried at Hughenden Manor,
Buckinghamshire
Adam Lindsay Gordon, buried in Australia
Paul Dirac, buried in Florida
Oscar Wilde (in a stained glass window unveiled in 1995), buried in Paris
[1]
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, buried at Cambridge, Massachusetts
Ten 20th-century Christian martyrs from across the world are depicted in
statues above the Great West Door. Unveiled in 1998, these are, from
left to right:
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Manche Masemola
Janani Luwum
Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Óscar Romero
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Esther John
Lucian Tapiedi
Wang Zhiming
The North entrance of Westminster
Abbey
Removed
The following were buried in the abbey but later removed on the orders of
Charles II:
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
Admiral Robert Blake
Schools
Westminster School and Westminster Abbey Choir School are also on the
grounds of the Abbey. Westminster School was originally founded by the
Benedictine monks in 1179.
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.
List of Abbots, Deans, and the Bishop of Westminster
Westminster Abbey, as seen from the west
Westminster Abbey's West Door in sunshine
Abbots
Edwin 1049 – c. 1071
Geoffrey of Jumièges c. 1071 – c. 1075
Vitalis of Bernay c. 1076 – 1085
Gilbert Crispin 1085 – 1117
Herbert 1121 – c. 1136
Gervase de Blois 1138 – c. 1157
Laurence of Durham c. 1158 – 1173
Walter of Winchester 1175 – 1190
William Postard 1191 – 1200
Ralph de Arundel (alias Papillon) 1200 – 1214
William de Humez 1214 – 1222
Richard de Berkying 1222 – 1246
Richard de Crokesley 1246 – 1258
Phillip de Lewisham 1258
Richard de Ware 1258 – 1283
Walter de Wenlok 1283 – 1307
Richard de Kedyngton (alias Sudbury) 1308 – 1315
William de Curtlyngton 1315 – 1333
Thomas de Henley 1333 – 1344
Simon de Bircheston 1344 – 1349
Simon de Langham 1349 – 1362
Nicholas de Litlyngton 1362 – 1386
William de Colchester 1386 – 1420
Edmund Kyrton 1440 – 1462
George Norwich 1463 – 1469
Thomas Millyng 1469 – 1474
John Esteney 1474 – 1498
George Fascet 1498 – 1500
John Islip 1500 – 1532
William Boston 1533 – 1540
Bishop
intra-Reformation
Thomas Thirlby 1540 – 1550
Deans
intra-Reformation
William Benson (Abbot Boston) 1540 – 1549
Richard Cox 1549 – 1553
Hugh Weston 1553 – 1556
Abbot
restored by Mary I of England
John Feckenham 1556 – 1559
Deans
post-Reformation
William Bill 1560 – 1561
Gabriel Goodman 1561 – 1601
Lancelot Andrewes 1601 – 1605
Richard Neile 1605 – 1610
George Montaigne 1610 – 1617
Robert Tounson 1617 – 1620
Ben Williams 1620 – 1644
Richard Steward (never installed) 1644 – 1651 (Commonwealth period)
John Earle 1660 – 1662
John Dolben * 1662 – 1683 *For a time it was customary for the Deanery of
Westminster to go along with the Bishopric of Rochester. Deans marked
with an asterisk held both offices concurrently.
Thomas Sprat * 1683 – 1713
Francis Atterbury * 1713 – 1723
Samuel Bradford * 1723 – 1731
Joseph Wilcocks * 1731 – 1756
Zachary Pearce * 1756 – 1768
John Thomas * 1768 – 1793
Samuel Horsley * 1793 – 1802
William Vincent 1802 – 1815
John Ireland 1816 – 1842
Thomas Turton 1842 – 1845
Samuel Wilberforce 1845
William Buckland 1845 – 1856
Richard Chenevix Trench 1856 – 1864
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley 1864 – 1881
George Granville Bradley 1881 – 1902
Joseph Armitage Robinson 1902 – 1911
Herbert Edward Ryle 1911 – 1925
William Foxley Norris 1925 – 1937
Paul de Labilliere 1938 – 1946
Alan Don 1946 – 1959
Eric Symes Abbott 1959 – 1974
Edward Carpenter, KCVO 1974 – 1985
Michael Mayne, KCVO 1986 – 1996
(Arthur) Wesley Carr, KCVO 1997 – 2006
The west front
The tomb of King Henry III in the Abbey. Henry was crowned king at the age
of nine, reigning from 1216 to 1272.
Further reading
Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England - London 6:
Westminster pp. 105–207. Yale University Press 2003. ISBN
0-300-09595-3.
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