Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
is one of the most famous, historic and widely visited churches not only in
Britain but in the whole Christian world. There are other reasons for its fame
apart from its beauty and its vital role as a centre of the Christian faith in
one of the world’s most important capital cities. These include the facts that
since 1066 every sovereign apart from Edward Y and Edward YIII has been crowned
here and that for many centuries it was also the burial place of kings, queens
and princes.
The royal
connections began even earlier than the present Abbey, for it was Edward the
Confessor, sometimes called the last of the English kings(1042-66) and
canonised in 1163, who established an earlier church on this site. His great
Norman Abbey was built close to his palace on Thorney Island. It was completed
in 1065 and stood surrounded by the many ancillary buildings needed by the
community of Benedictine monks who passed their lives of prayer here. Edward’s
death near the time of his Abbey’s consecration made it natural for his burial
place to be by the High Altar.
Only 200 years
later, the Norman east end of the Abbey was demolished and rebuilt on the
orders of Henry III, who had a great devotion to Edward the Confessor and
wanted to honour him. The central focus of the new Abbey was a magnificent
shrine to house St Edward’s body ; the remains of this shrine, dismantled at
the Reformation but later reerected in rather a clumsy and piecemeal way, can
still be seen behind the High Altar today.
The new Abbey
remained incomplete until 1376, when the rebuilding of the Nave began; it was
not finished until 150 years later, but the master masons carried on a similar
thirteenth-century Gothic, French-influenced design, as that of Henry III’s
initial work, over that period, giving the whole a beautiful harmony of style.
In the early
sixteenth century the Lady Chapel was rebuilt as the magnificent Henry YII
Chapel; with its superb fan-vaulting it is one of Westminster’s great
treasures.
In the
mid-eighteenth century the last malor additions - the two western towers
designed by Hawksmoor - were made to the main fabric of the Abbey.
THE NAVE was begun
by Abbot Litlington who financed the work with money left by Cardinal Simon
Langham, his predecessor, for the use of the monastery. The master mason in
charge of the work was almost certainly the great Henry Yevele. His design
depended on the extra strength given to the structure by massive flying
buttresses. These enabled the roof to be raised to a height of 102 feet. The
stonework of the vaulting has been cleaned and the bosses gilded in recent
years.
At the west end of
the Nave is a magnificent window filled with stained glass of 1735, probably
designed by Sir James Thornhill (1676-1734).(He also painted the interior of
the dome in St Paul’s Cathedral} The design shows Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
with fourteen prophets, and underneath are the arms of King Sebert, Elizabeth
I, George II, Dean Wilcocks and the Collegiate Church of St Peter in
Westminster.
Also at the west
end of the Nave is the grave of the Unknown Warrior. The idea for such a
memorial is said to have come from a British chaplain who noticed, in a back
garden at Armeentieeres, a grave with the simple inscription: «An unknown
British soldier». In 1920 the body of another unknown soldier was brought back from
the battlefields to be reburied in the Abbey on 11 November. George Y and Queen
Mary and many other members of the royal family attended the service, 100
holders of the Victoria Cross lining the Nave as a Guard of Honour. On a nearby
pillar hangs the Congressional Medal, the highest award which can be conferred
by the United St ates.
From the Nave roof
hang chandeliers, both giving light and in daylight reflecting it from their
hundreds of pedant crystals. They were a gift to mark the 900th anniversary of
the Abbey and are of Waterford glass.
At the east end of
the Nave is the screen separating it from the Choir. Designed by the then
Surveyor, Edward Blore, in 1834, it is the fourth screen to be placed here; the
wrought-iron gates, however, remain from a previous screen. Within recent years
the screen has been painted and glided.
THE CHOIR was
originally the part of the Abbey in which the monks worshipped, but there is
now no trace of the pre- Reformation fittings, for in the late eighteenth
century Kneene, the then Surveyor, removed the thirteenth-century stalls and
designed a smaller Choir. This was in turn destroyed in the mid-nineteenth
century by Edward Blore, who created the present Choir in Victoria Gothic style
and removed the partitions which until then had blocked off the transepts
It is here that the
choir of about twenty-two boys and twelve Lay Vicars sings the daily services.
The boys are educated at the Choir School attached to the Abbey ;mention of
such a school is made in the fifteenth century and it may be even older in
origin. For some centuries it was linked with Westminster School, but became
independent in the mid-nineteenth century.
The Organ was
originally built by Shrider in 1730. Successive rebuildings in
1849,1884,1909,,and 1937 and extensive work in 1983 have resulted in the
present instrument.
THE SANCTUARY is
the heart of the Abbey, where the High Altar stands The altar and the reredos
behind it, with a mosaic of the Last Supper, were designed by Sir Gilbert Scott
in 1867. Standing on the altar are two candlesticks, bought with money
bequeathed by a serving-maid, Sarah Hughes, in the seventeenth century. In
front of the altar, but protected by carpeting, is another of the Abbey’s
treasures - a now-very-worn pavement dating from the thirteenth century. The
method of its decoration is known as Cosmati work, after the Italian family who
developed the technique of inlaying intricate designs made up of small pieces
of coloured marble into a plain marble ground.
THE NORTH TRANSEPT,
to the left of the Sanctuary, has a beautiful rose window designed by Sir James
Thornhill, showing eleven Apostles. The Transept once led to Solomon’s Porch
and now leads to the nineteenth-century North Front.
THE HENRY YII
CHAPEL, beyond the apse, was begun in 1503 as a burial place for Henry YI, on
the orders of Henry YII, but it was Henry.YII himself who was finally buried
here, in an elaborate tomb. The master mason, who designed the chapel was
probably Robert Vertue his brother William constructed the vault at St George’s
Chapel, Windsor, in 1505 and this experience may have helped in the creation of
the magnificent vaulting erected here a few years later.
The chapel has an
apse and side aisles which are fan-vaulted, and the central section is roofed
with extraordinarily intricate and finely-detailed circular vaulting
,embellished with more Tudor badges and with carved pendants, which is
literally breath-taking in the perfection of its beauty and artistry.
Beneath the
windows, once filled with glass painted by Bernard Flower of which only
fragments now remain, are ninety-four of the original 107 statues of saints,
placed in richly embellished niches. Beneath these, in turn, hang the banners
of the living Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, whose chapel this
is. When the Order was founded in 1725, extra stalls and seats were added to
those originally provided. To the stalls are attached plates recording the
names and arms of past Knights of the Order, while under the seats can be seen
finely carved misericords.
The altar, a copy
of the sixteenth-century altar incorporates two of the original pillars and
under its canopy hangs a fifteenth-century Madonna and Child by Vivarini.
In the centre of
the apse, behind the altar, stand the tomb of Henry YII and Elizabeth of York,
protected by a bronze screen. The tomb was the work of Torrigiani and the
effigies of the king and queen are finely executed in gilt bronze.
In later years many
more royal burials took place in the chapel. Mary I, her half-sister Elizabeth
I and half-brother Edward YI all lie here The Latin inscription on thetomb - on
which only Elizabeth Ist effigy rests - reads: «Consorts both in throne and
grave, here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of one
Resurrection».
In the south asle
lies Mary Queen of Scots, mother of James Yi and I, who brought her body from
Peterborough and gave her a tomb even more magnificent than that which he had
erected for his cousin Elizabeth.I.
In the same aisle
lies Henry YII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. Her effigy, a
bronze by Torrigiani, shows her in old age. She was known for her charitable
works and for her intellect - she founded Christ’s and St John’s Colleges at
Cambridge - and these activities are recorded in the inscription composed by
Erasmus. Also in this aisle is the tomb of Margaret, Countess of Lennox.
THE CHAPEL OF ST
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, containing his shrine, lies east of the Sanctuary at the
heart of the Abbey. It is closed off from the west by a stone screen, probably
of fifteenth-century date, carved with scenes from the life of Edward the
Confessor; it is approached from the east via a bridge from the Henry YII
Chapel.
The shrine seen
today within the chapel is only a ghost of its former self. It originally had
three parts: a stone base decorated with Cosmati work, a gold feretory
containing the saint’s coffin, a canopy above which could be raised to reveal
the feretory or lowered to protect it. Votive offerings of gold and jewels were
given to enrich the feretory over the centuries. To this shrine came many
pilgrims, and the sick were frequently left beside it overnight in the hope of
a cure. All this ceased at the Reformation The shrine was dismantled and stored
by the monks; the gold feretory was taken away from them, but they were allowed
to rebury the saint elsewhere in the Abbey.
It was during the
reign of Mary I that a partial restoration of the shrine took place. The stone
base was re-assembled, the coffin was placed, in the absence of a feretory, in
the top part of the stone base and the canopy positioned on top. The Chapel has
a Cosmati floor, similar to that before the High Altar, and a blank space in
the design shows where the shrine once stood; it also indicates that the shrine
was originally raised up on a platform, making the canopy visible beyond the
western screen. The canopy of the shrine has recently been restored, and
hopefully one day the rest of the shrine will also be restored.
And within the
chapel can be seen the Coronation Chair and the tombs of five kings and four
queens. At the eastern end is the tomb and Chantey Chapel of Henry Y,
embellished with carvings including scenes of Henry Y’s coronation. The effigy
of the king once had a silver head and silver regalia, and was covered in
silver regalia, and was covered in silver gilt, but this precious metal was stolen
in 1546.
Eleanor of Castle,
first wife of Edward I, lies beside the Chapel. Her body was carried to
Westminster from Lincoln, a memorial cross being erected at each place where
the funeral procession rested.
Beside her lies
Henry III, responsible for the rebuilding of the Abbey, in a tomb of Purbeck
marble. Next to his tomb is that of Edward I. Richard II and Anne of Bohemia,
Edward III and Philippa of Hainnault, and Catherine de Valois, Henry Y’s Queen,
also lie in this chapel.
THE SOUTH TRANSEPT
is lit by a large rose window, with glass dating from 1902. Beneath it, in the
angles above the right and left arches, are two of the finest carvings in the
Abbey, depicting sensing angels. In addition to the many monuments there are
two fine late thirteen-century wall-paintings, uncovered in 1936, to be seen by
the door leading into St Faith’s Chapel. They depict Christ showing his wounds
to Doubting Thomas, and St Christopher. Beside the south wall rises the dormer
staircase, once used by the monks going from their dormitory to the Choir for
their night offices.
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