Westminster Abbey (Part Two).

Buried in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920,

The Unknown Warrior symbolises all those who died

for their Country in The First World War, particularly

those who have no known grave.

The body, herewith, is that of an unidentified Serviceman disinterred from France. Present at the burial ceremony were leading politicians, senior military figures and members of The Royal Family, led by King George V.

The artist Frank O. Salisbury attended the burial and

made a sketch of the event. He used the sketch as the basis

for this large painting, which hangs in Committee Room 10

in The Houses of Parliament.

Date: 1920.

Source: https://www.parliament.uk/about/art-in-parliament/online-exhibitions/historic-events/first-world-war/burial-of-the-unknown-warrior/

Artist: Frank O. Salisbury

(Wikimedia Commons)

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless otherwise stated.

Construction of the present Church began in 1245 by King Henry III[15], who selected the site for his burial.[16]

The first building stage included the entire East End, the Transepts, and the Easternmost Bay of the Nave.

The Lady Chapel, built around 1220 at the East End, was incorporated into the Chevet of the new building, but was later replaced. This work must have been largely completed by 1258 – 1260, when the second stage was begun.

Westminster Abbey.

The Ceiling in The Nave.

Photo: 20 September 2010.

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20161023171713/

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/67358452

Author: renato agostini

(Wikimedia Commons)

This carried the Nave on an additional five Bays, bringing it to one Bay beyond the Choir. Here, construction stopped about 1269, a Consecration ceremony being held on 13 October,[17] and, because of King Henry’s death, did not resume.

The old Romanesque Nave remained attached to the new building for over a Century, until it was pulled down in the Late-14th-Century and rebuilt from 1376, closely following the original (and by now outdated) design.[18]

Construction was largely finished by the architect Henry Yevele in the reign of King Richard II.[19]

The Coronation of Queen Victoria.

Date: 1839.

Artist: John Martin (1789–1854).

Collection: Tate Britain

Source/Photographer: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

King Henry III also commissioned the unique Cosmati Pavement in front of the High Altar; the Pavement was re-Dedicated by the Dean at a Service on 21 May 2010 after undergoing a major cleaning and conservation programme.[20]

Henry VII added a Perpendicular Style Chapel Dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary in 1503 (known as the Henry VII Chapel, or, “The Lady Chapel”). Much of the Stone came from Caen, in France (Caen Stone), the Isle of Portland (Portland Stone) and the Loire Valley region of France (Tuffeau Limestone).[21] The Chapel was finished circa 1519.[18]

In 1535, during the assessment attendant on The Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Abbey’s annual income was £3,000 (equivalent to £1,950,000 as of 2021).[22][23]

Westminster Abbey Pulpit.

Photo: Circa 1865 - 1885.

Source: Pulpit, Westminster Abbey

Author: Cornell University Library

Permission: Cornell University Library @ Flickr Commons

(Wikimedia Commons)

Henry VIII assumed direct Royal control in 1539 and granted the Abbey the status of a Cathedral, by Charter, in 1540, simultaneously issuing Letters Patent, establishing the Diocese of Westminster. By granting the Abbey Cathedral status, Henry VIII gained an excuse to spare it from the destruction or dissolution which he inflicted on most English Abbeys during this period.[24]

The Abbot, William Benson, became Dean of the Cathedral, while the Prior and five of the Monks were among the twelve Canons.[25]

Westminster Diocese was dissolved in 1550, but the Abbey was recognised (in 1552, retroactively to 1550) as a second Cathedral of the Diocese of London until 1556.[26][27][28]

Westminster Abbey Choir.

Available on YouTube at

YOU TUBE

The already-old expression “robbing Peter to pay Paul” may have been given a new lease of life when money meant for the Abbey, which is Dedicated to Saint Peter, was diverted to the Treasury of Saint Paul’s Cathedral.[29]

The Abbey was restored to The Benedictines under the Catholic Mary I of England, but they were again ejected under Elizabeth I in 1559.

In 1560, Elizabeth re-established Westminster as a “Royal Peculiar” – a Church of The Church of England responsible directly to the Sovereign, rather than to a Diocesan Bishop – and made it the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter (that is, a non-Cathedral Church with an attached Chapter of Canons, headed by a Dean).[30]

Westminster Abbey.

Outside is a Procession of Knights of the Bath.

This painting of Westminster Abbey by Canaletto was

created shortly after the completion of The West Towers.

Date: 1749.

Collection: Westminster Abbey.

Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art:

(Wikimedia Commons)

In the Early-17th-Century, the Abbey hosted two of the six Companies of Churchmen, led by Lancelot Andrewes, Dean of Westminster, who translated the King James Version of the Bible.[31]

The Abbey suffered damage during the turbulent 1640s, when it was attacked by Puritan iconoclasts, but was again protected by its close ties to the State during the Commonwealth period.

Oliver Cromwell was given an elaborate funeral there in 1658, only to be disinterred in January 1661 and posthumously hanged from a gibbet at Tyburn.[32]

The illuminated façade of Westminster Abbey at night.

Photo: 11 August 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diego Delso

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Abbey’s two West Towers were built between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, constructed from Portland Stone to an early example of a Gothic Revival design. Purbeck Marble was used for the walls and the floors of Westminster Abbey, although the various tombstones are made of different types of Marble. Further rebuilding and restoration occurred in the 19th-Century under Sir George Gilbert Scott.[33]

A Narthex (a Portico or Entrance Hall) for The Great West Front was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the Mid-20th-Century, but was not built. A temporary Annexe was constructed outside The Great West Door for the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.

The Apse, Westminster Abbey.

Photo: 11 March 2016.

Source: All the Fiddly Bits

Author: Garry Knight London, England.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Images of the Abbey, prior to the construction of the Towers, are scarce, though the Abbey’s official Web-Site states that the building had “Towers which had been left unfinished in the Mediæval period”.[34]

In 1750, the top of one of the Piers on the North Side of the Abbey fell down, by earthquake, with the iron and lead that had fastened it.

PART THREE FOLLOWS.