The greatest church in the English-speaking world, Westminster Abbey is where England’s kings and queens have been crowned and buried since 1066. Like a stony refugee camp huddled outside St. Peter’s Pearly Gates, Westminster Abbey has many stories to tell.
Our journey to Westminster started today with a bit of a glitch. All subway service was shut down due to a one-day strike. So Jackie and I hopped onto a double-decker bus and found our way to the church.
Our 10:30 ticket found us standing in a que to enter. It did not take more than 15 minutes to get in.
Once inside, you really have no choice but to follow the steady flow of tourists through the church. Most are following the route laid out by the audio guide. You enter thru the North Transept. Once inside, you are funneled to the back of the church. As you walk down the hall, you note that Westminster Abbey has become a place where the nation comes to remember its own. We passed by statues on tombs, stained glass on walls, and plaques in the floor, all honoring illustrious Brits, both famous and not so famous.
We now find our selves near the back of the abbey, in the Nave. Looking down the long and narrow center aisle of the church, we see it is lined with praying hands of the Gothic arches, glowing with light from the stained glass. It is much more than a church… it is a museum. With saints in stained glass, heroes in carved stone, and the bodies of England’s greatest citizens under the floor stones, Westminster Abbey is the religious heart of England.
The king who built the Abbey was Edward the Confessor. We can find him in the stained glass window (above). He’s in the third bay from the end… dressed in white and blue, with his crown, scepter and ring. The Abbey’s 10-story nave is the tallest in England. The sleek chandeliers, 10 feet tall, look small in comparison (16 were given to the Abbey by the Guinness family).
On the floor near the west entrance of the Abbey is the flower-lined Grave of the Unknown Warrior, one ordinary WWI soldier buried in soil from France with lettering made from melted-down weapons from that war. It makes one take a moment to contemplate the 800,000 men from the British Empire who gave their lives. The memory is so revered that, when Kate Middleton walked up the aisle on her wedding day, by tradition she had to step around the tomb.
We now walk straight up the nave toward the altar. This is the same route every future monarch walks on the way to being crowned. King Charles III will do the same in just a bit of time (writing this September 18, 2022). Midway up the nave, we pass through the colorful screen of an enclosure known as the choir.
On the floor and in the screen leading into the choir are more monuments and plaques. This geek found a couple of favorites:
Inside the choir… these elaborately carved wood and gilded seats are where monks once chanted their services in the “quire” – as it’s known in British churchspeak. Today, it’s where the Abbey’s boys choir sings the evensong.
Up ahead, the “high” (main) altar – which usually has a cross and candlesticks atop it – sits on the platform up the five stairs. The area immediately before the high altar is where every English coronation since 1066 has taken place. Royalty are also given funerals here, and it’s where most of the last century’s royal weddings have taken place, including the unions of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (1947) and Prince William and Kate Middleton (2011)
Following to the left of the altar, we move down the long hall, filled with tombs of the men and women that made this all happen. There is a small staircase on the right – we were not allowed to climb up it… but this is the royal tomb that started it all:
This is the shrine to Edward the Confessor (Edward I). He was the man who built Westminster Abbey. It was finished just in time to bury Edward and to crown his foreign successor, William the Conqueror, in 1066. After Edward’s death, people prayed at his tomb, and, after getting good results, he was made a saint. His personal renown began the tradition of burying royalty in this church. Edwards tall, central tomb (which unfortunately lost some of its luster when Henry VIII melted down the gold coffin case) is surrounded by the tombs of either other kings and queens.
Above is the tomb of Queens Elizabeth I and Mary I. Although only one effigy is on the tomb (that’s Elizabeth’s), there are actually two queens buried beneath it, both daughters of Henry VIII (by different mothers). Bloody Mary – meek, pious, sickly, and Catholic – enforced Catholicism during her short reign (1553 – 1558) by burning “heretics” at the stake.
Elizabeth – strong, clever, and Protestant – steered England on an Anglican course. She holds a royal orb symbolizing that she’s queen of the whole globe.
When 26-year-old Elizabeth was crowned in the Abbey, her right to rule was questioned (especially by her Catholic subjects) because she was considered the bastard seed of Henry VIII’s unsanctioned marriage to Anne Boleyn. But Elizabeth’s long reign (1559-1603) was one of the greatest in English history, a time when England ruled the seas and Shakespeare explored human emotions. When she died, thousands turned out for her funeral in the Abbey. Elizabeth’s face on the tomb, modeled after her death mask, is considered a very accurate take on this hook-nosed, imperious “Virgin Queen” (she never married).
Directly behind the main altar, the Chapel of King Henry VII (the Lady Chapel) is beautiful with the light from the stained glass windows and the colorful banners overhead.
The elaborate tracery in stone, wood, and glass give this room the festive air of a medieval tournament. The prestigious Knights of the Bath met here, under the magnificent ceiling studded with gold pendants.
The ceiling – of carved stone – not plaster (1519) – is the finest English Perpendicular Gothic and fan vaulting you’ll see. The ceiling was sculpted on the floor in pieces, then jigsaw-puzzled into place. It capped the Gothic period and signaled the vitality of the coming Renaissance.
At the far end of the chapel, there is a gorgeous stained glass window. This is the Royal Air Force Chapel. Saints in robes and halos mingle with pilots in parachutes and bomber jackets. This tribute to WWII flyers is for those who earned their angle wings in the Battle of Britain (July-Oct 1940). A bit of bomb damage has been preserved – the little glassed-over hole in the wall below the windows in the lower left-hand corner.
Upon leaving the Chapel of Henry VII, there is a side chapel on the left with the tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The beautiful, French-educated queen (1542-1587) was held under house arrest for 19 years by Queen Elizabeth I, who considered her a threat to her sovereignty. Elizabeth got wind of an assassination plot, suspected Mary was behind it, and had her first cousin (once removed) beheaded. When Elizabeth died childless, Mary’s son – James VI, King of Scots – also became King James I of England and Ireland. James buried his mum here (with her head sewn back on) in the Abbey’s most sumptuous tomb.
England’s greatest artistic contributions are in the written word. Many writers (including Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, T.S. Eliot, and Charles Dickens) are honored with plaques and monuments; relatively few are actually buried here. Shakespeare is commemorated by a fine statue that stands near the end of the transept, overlooking the others.
We now exit the church for a few minutes out the south door, which leads to the Great Cloister. This is the inner sanctum of the Abbey’s monastery. The buildings that adjoin the church housed the monks. Cloistered courtyards like this gave them a place to stroll in peace while meditating on God’s creations.
After our wanders… we return one last time to the abbey. We stop to light a couple of candles, as is our custom, to remember our lost family members on both sides of our families.
Our last stop takes on new significance with the happenings of the past month… the Coronation Chair. A gold-painted oak chair waits here under a regal canopy for the next coronation. For every English coronation since 1308 (except two), it’s been moved to its spot before the high altar to receive the royal buttocks. The chair’s legs rest on lions, England’s symbol. Charles will soon rest here as he is crowned King of England.
Jackie was in awe here… how many ceremonies has she watched over the years. I thought I’d get this out before the funerals for Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III. You can’t visit London and not visit Westminster Abbey.