Soundtrack from Simon Schama’s
“A History of Britain”,
which included King Henry II's reign.
Sung by Emma Kirkby (Soprano)
Music by John Harle.
Available on YouTube
Text from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.
It has been the home of the permanent institutions of England’s government, continuously since about 1200 (High Middle Ages’ Plantagenet) and is now the Seat of British government.
Westminster Abbey.
Photo: 26 May 2013.
Source: Own work.
Author: Σπάρτακος.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Westminster Abbey, formally titled “the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster”, is a large, mainly Gothic, Abbey Church in the City of Westminster, London, just to the West of the Palace of Westminster.
It is one of The United Kingdom’s most notable Religious buildings and the Traditional place of Coronation and Burial Site for English, and, later, British, Monarchs.
Between 1540 and 1556, the Abbey had the status of a Cathedral. Since 1560, however, the building is no longer an Abbey, nor a Cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England “Royal Peculiar” — a Church responsible directly to the Sovereign. The building is the original Abbey Church.
According to a Tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a Church was Founded at the site (then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island)) in the 7th-Century A.D. at the time of Mellitus, a Bishop of London. Construction of the present Church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III.
Canterbury Cathedral.
Site of the murder of Thomas à Becket.
Photo: 2006.
Source: http://www.wyrdlight.com
Author: Antony McCallum
Attribution: WyrdLight.com.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Since 1066, when Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror were Crowned, the Coronations of English and British Monarchs have been held there.
There have been at least sixteen Royal Weddings at the Abbey since 1100. Two were of Reigning Monarchs (Henry I and Richard II), although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years.
PART EIGHT FOLLOWS.
