 n the 1040s King Edward (later St Edward the Confessor), last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, established his royal palace by the banks of the river Thames on land known as Thorney Island. Close by was a small Benedictine monastery founded under the patronage of King Edgar and St Dunstan around 960 AD. This monastery Edward chose to re-endow and greatly enlarge, building a large stone church in honour of St Peter the Apostle. This church became known as the 'west minster' to distinguish it from St Paul's Cathedral (the east minster) in the City of London. Unfortunately, when the new church was consecrated on 28 December 1065 the King was too ill to attend and died a few days later. His mortal remains were entombed in front of the High Altar.
The only traces of this Norman monastery are to be found in the round arches and massive supporting columns of the Undercroft in the Cloisters. This now houses the Abbey Museum but was originally part of the domestic quarters of the monks. The Abbey also possesses an eleventh-century door - the oldest in England - which now hangs in the vestibule to the Chapter House. Among the most significant ceremonies that occurred in the Norman Abbey were the coronation of William the Conqueror on Christmas day 1066, and the 'translation' or moving of King Edward's body to a new tomb a few years after his canonisation in 1161.
Edward's Abbey survived for two centuries until the middle of the 13th century when King Henry III decided to rebuild it in the new Gothic style of architecture. It was a great age for cathedrals: in France it saw the construction of Amiens, Evreux and Chartres and in England Canterbury, Winchester and Salisbury, to mention a few. Under the decree of the King of England, Westminster Abbey was designed to be not only a great monastery and place of worship, but also a place for the coronation and burial of monarchs.
Every monarch since William the Conqueror, with the exception of Edward V and Edward VIII who were never crowned, has been 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. This shrine survives and around it are buried a cluster of medieval kings and their consorts including Henry III, Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, Richard II and Anne of Bohemia and Henry V. The Abbey contains some 600 monuments and wall tablets - the most important collection of monumental sculpture anywhere in the country - and over three thousand people are buried here. Notable among these is the Unknown Warrior, whose grave, close to the west door, has become a place of pilgrimage. |
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