The origins of Westminster Abbey
The Romanesque undercroft of the monks’ dormitory is one of the oldest surviving parts of Westminster Abbey, built in around 1070. Part of it was walled off in the 12th century as a separate secure chamber and was used by the kings’ Exchequer for storing the Crown Jewels. From 1281 wooden chests were kept there awaiting the Trial of the Pyx, when samples of coins were melted to test their silver purity, and the room became known as the Pyx Chamber.
There were fundamental changes occurring in the western Christian Church during Edward’s life. Monastic reforms had been taking place from the 10th century, with their centres in Lorraine, Burgundy and England. The new doctrines were publicly demonstrated by Pope Leo IX in 1049, during Edward’s reign. The clergy was being increasingly housed in monastic institutions, separated from the people, and laws of celibacy were enforced. Over a hundred parish churches had been established in the City of London, but the close intimacy with their local parishioners was at that same time passing out of fashion. This was the backdrop to Edward’s decision to create his great new abbey at Westminster, away from London.
The new abbey was to be based on the contemporary monastic fashions that Edward would have observed earlier in Normandy, particularly that of Jumiége. Work began in 1045 under the control of the King’s churchwright Teinfrith and the mason and benefactor Godwin Greatsyd, and built of Reigate stone. It was to be the first in England in the new Romanesque-style, which, unlike other pre-Conquest churches such as Winchester and Canterbury, consisted of one long vista rather than a number of chapels. It was intended from the beginning as the burial church of kings. At almost a hundred metres it was the largest in England or Normandy at the time and the first cruciform church in England. Rising up beside the river next to Cnut’s old palace, surrounded by countryside, it would have been a wonderous sight. It was described in Vita Ædwardi as a wonder of the world. St. Peter’s Abbey, to the west of London, became known as the ‘west minster’, called that since at least 1066.
London was on its way to becoming the main English city and one would expect the king to have a palace there. Yet, for Edward, to be within the city walls was to be too close to the London mob. He therefore kept his palace beside the new monastery at Westminster. It was beside the Thames, which was a main means of transport and communication, and close, but not too close, to London. Westminster became the place of monarchs and government, and London that of commerce.
The vast work on the abbey took almost 40 years and was not completed until around 1080 but by the end of 1065 Edward was in ill health. Spending Christmas at Westminster, where his condition worsened, he ordered that the minster be consecrated while he was still alive. It took place on 28th December, Holy Innocents Day, in the presence of the King, two archbishops, eight bishops and eight abbots. Edward died on 5th January 1066 and was buried in a stone sarcophagus below the pavement in front of the high altar of the abbey.
Despite having no hereditary claim to the throne, Harold II was crowned king in the abbey on the day following Edward’s burial. His was the first coronation in Westminster Abbey. Since then, every king or queen of England has been crowned in the abbey, except Edward V and Edward VIII neither of whom had coronations.
Following his defeat of Harold in October of that year, William of Normandy arrived at Westminster in December and was crowned King of England on Christmas Day, emulating Charlemagne, who had been crowned at St. Peter’s, Rome on Christmas Day 800. The ceremony was conducted by both the Bishop of Coutances in French and Aldred, Bishop of York in English. Coronations have evolved over the centuries but some of the ritual used in that of William, which mixes Anglo-Saxon, French, Roman and Biblical traditions, has been integrated into coronations since then. Aldred addressed the congregation and asked whether it was their wish to accept William as the king. They proclaimed their assent with loud voices. Unfortunately, the guards outside the abbey took this to be a sign of treachery and began setting fire to surrounding buildings.
St. Peter’s, Westminster became the place of choice for the burial of medieval monarchs and many state occasions into modern times. It was important for monarchs who followed Edward to claim the throne as his legitimate heirs. Harold and William both had a doubtful claim on the title and it probably served to strengthen their legitimacy by being crowned in the abbey of their predecessors. In doing so, it was also necessary to create an image of Edward’s respectability and of his good laws they could conserve.
It was important for great abbeys to have prestige, which brought pilgrims, endowments, and royal favour. There was a great rivalry for superiority between the monasteries of Westminster and Glastonbury. Each jostled for the most prestigious provenance, with forged documents put forward as evidence. Glastonbury was thought to have been founded by King Ina in the 8th century so Westminster made a claim of having been founded by King Sebert in 604. Glastonbury then countered with a news of a visit from missionaries of Pope Eleutherus in 166. And so it went on, with Westminster trumping Glastonbury by declaring that Peter himself had left the gate of Heaven to consecrate his new church. To which Glastonbury stated that St. David had brought seven bishops to consecrate their church after a vision from the Lord Jesus.
Sources include: John Field ‘Kingdom Power & Glory’; Richard Jenkyns ‘Westminster Abbey’; Christopher Brooke ‘London 800-1216: The Shaping of a City’; Edward Walford ‘Old and New London’ (1897); Thomas Cussans ‘Kings and Queens of the British Isles’.
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