The medieval Westminster Abbey

At the coronation of Richard I in 1189 officials, misunderstanding their motives, barred Jews from entering to present their gifts and had them stripped and flogged. The violence spread from Westminster to London and rioting took place in which thirty Jews were killed and their homes burnt. It was described by Richard of Devizes Richard as a “holocaust”.

England was in the midst of civil war when King John died suddenly in October 1216. The country was divided by different factions and London held by the rebels. John was therefore buried at Worcester Cathedral and a coronation for his infant son hastily arranged at Gloucester Cathedral. The royal crown had been lost, so the ceremony took place without it. By May 1220 London had been regained and the twelve-year old Henry III laid the foundation stone of a new Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey, created in response to the cult of the Virgin that was sweeping across Europe. The following day a second coronation ceremony took place in the abbey, officiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry remains the only English monarch to have had two coronations.

Another of Osbert de Clare’s objectives was achieved almost a century after his efforts. In 1222 Westminster gained the rare privilege of exemption from the authority of the Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury. It was from then subject directly to the popes, requiring each abbot to travel to Rome to receive his commission. In 1534, during the reign of Henry VIII, the Abbey was transferred to the jurisdiction of the monarch, which still remains the case today.

Henry III, who reigned for 56 years from 1216 until 1272, the longest of any medieval English king, was an extremely pious man who was devoted to Edward the Confessor. Many people were making pilgrimages to the shrine of Saint Thomas á Becket at Canterbury, the dedication of which the young king had witnessed. However, it was important for Henry to underline the importance of St. Edward, from whom he himself was descended. He therefore ordered a magnificent new tomb in his ancestor’s great abbey, to be made of the purest gold and precious stones, created by Italian workman led by Pietro di Oderisi. The monk Matthew Paris reported Henry as saying it cost more than 100,000 marks.

Henry kept abreast with affairs in France and had a French wife, Eleanor of Provence. There had been a golden period of Gothic architecture there, with rivalry between various towns. It began in the mid-12^th century with the Basilica of St. Denis near Paris, followed by Paris’s Notre-Dame, Reims, Troyes, Auxerre, and Amiens, ever larger and structurally more ambitious. Rheims, Bourges and Amiens are French High Gothic.

Some of those great buildings are located in what was the Angevin Empire, ruled over by Henry’s predecessors and of which England was one part. Yet much of the Anglo-French territories in France had been lost during the reign of Henry’s father, King John. In 1243, upon his return from the unsuccessful campaign to recapture the lost lands in France, Henry decided to transform Westminster, the shrine of the royal saint, into the greatest Gothic church in England. According to Matthew Paris, a chronicler from St. Albans who frequently visited Westminster:

The king [in 1245] commanded that the Church of St. Peter, at Westminster, should be enlarged, and the tower with the eastern part overthrown, to be built anew and more handsome, at his own charge, and fitted to the residue or western part.

It was to be more French than English, without certain characteristics that marked other great English cathedrals of the time such as Salisbury, Wells, Canterbury, or the medieval St. Paul’s Cathedral. Henry’s Westminster, for example, lacked their high towers yet had a very tall nave in comparison with its breadth, a series of chapels radiating from the ambulatory, and does not extend a long way east of the crossing. Gothic had by then modulated into what is called ‘Rayonnant’. The new building was to be closer in style to the cathedral at Rheims than those in England but with elements of other French cathedrals of the time, as well as its own peculiarities. For the rebuilding Henry appointed Henry de Reynes, who had previously undertaken work at Windsor Castle. It is likely that de Reynes had visited Rheims and observed that building.

The demolition of much of the old abbey began in 1245, including the Lady Chapel of just 25 years previous. The rebuilding started with the east end and transepts. Kentish ragstone, Caen and Reigate freestone, Purbeck ‘marble’ (which is actually a polished limestone), timber from nearby counties, and lead from Derbyshire were brought to Westminster. Up to 400 craftsmen and labourers were employed, initially overseen by Henry of Reyes until 1253, and thereafter by a succession of others, most notably Robert of Beverley for 24 years until 1284. Abbot Richard travelled to Rome and brought an Italian craftsman and materials to create a pavement before the high altar.

Westminster is a cruciform church, that is laid out in the form of a cross. Coronations take place in the crossing where the transepts meet the nave. Of particular importance is the octagonal Chapter House, one of the most magnificent works of Gothic architecture in medieval England, including a fine tiled pavement. As in all monasteries, it was the meeting place for the monks. It was unusual, however, in that it also it had a secular use, where Henry met with his Great Court, the predecessor of Parliament. The first such meeting was held in March 1257. The principle and ceremonial entrance of the church was into the north transept (the modern visitor entrance) rather than the west front, probably because that was closer to the royal palace and spared monarchs the long walk around the exterior. A bell tower was built in the Westminster sanctuary, separate from the main building. Its bells, two of which were said by a contemporary observer to be “the first in the world for size”, had individual names.

The cost was huge, the greatest extravagance of Henry’s reign, and funded by any method he could employ. Fines were levied and royal charters granted. There was much persecution of English Jews during the 13^th century. When David of Oxford, the wealthiest Jew in England, died in 1244 Henry imprisoned his widow in the Tower of London until her inheritance was handed over, to be used for the rebuilding.