Westminster Abbey

The iconic Westminster Abbey is the site of more than 1,000 years of worship. The first “West Minster” was built on what was then known as Thorney Island for Edward the Confessor (and consecrated in 1065). The present Gothic church, with its spectacular nave, dates from the 13th century reign of Henry III. Henry VII commissioned the Lady Chapel, with its glorious fan-vaulted ceiling, at the turn of the sixteenth century, and its centrepiece is the magnificent tomb for him and his wife, Elizabeth of York. Over the centuries Westminster Abbey has been a royal mausoleum and the stage for momentous national events. All monarchs since William the Conqueror have been crowned at the Abbey and seventeen are buried here, along with 3,300 other royals, nobles and national figures! The coronations of five Tudor monarchs were held here, as were those of the consorts Elizabeth of York, Katharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I are interred in the Lady Chapel too, as are Lady Margaret Beaufort and Mary, Queen of Scots. (Henry VIII is at St George’s Chapel, Windsor). Anne of Cleves, the only one of Henry VIII’s wives to be buried at the Abbey, lies on the south side of the High Altar. The roll call of Tudor nobles buried in the Abbey is long, and includes Frances Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk and her daughter, Lady Mary Grey; Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox; Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon; the wife (Mildred, Lady Burghley), son (Thomas, Earl of Exeter) and daughter (Anne, Countess of Oxford) of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley, along with the Elizabethan explorer, Sir Francis Drake, and the playwright, Ben Jonson. The Abbey has become a visible symbol of the nation’s heritage and a treasure house of irreplaceable items associated with that heritage. A fraction of these are on display in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, in the thirteenth century triforium, including Mary I’s funeral effigy, and the head of Henry VII’s, the corset from Elizabeth I’s funeral effigy and her “Essex” ring, and a prayer book belonging to Lady Margaret Beaufort. We have several in-depth articles on the Lady Chapel and the tombs within it by Dr Emma J. Wells: Issue 6 - The Tomb of Henry VII: 'Dampnable pompe and oterageous superfluities' Issue 10 - The Burial Sites of the Tudor Heirs Issue 13 - The Tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots: Her End was the Beginning