1.2 The history and evolution of the site
1.2.3 The Palace and Abbey: Edward the Confessor’s
1.2.3.1 Westminster as the site of both the Palace and the Abbey began under King Edward the Confessor (1042-1065). No later than around 1050, Edward hugely increased the endowments of the Benedictine Abbey and began to rebuild the church and conventual buildings.
Edward also took up residence in the palace adjacent to the Abbey to oversee the rebuilding and to be close to the emerging commercial metropolis of London. Thus the bonds between Church and State were consolidated, reflecting the sacred and the secular in the person of the King. For the first five centuries of its existence, from the 11th to the 16th, the Palace at Westminster was the principal residence of the English monarchy.
1.2.3.2 Little is known of the Confessor’s Palace, but it probably included a Great Hall and a series of private chambers for the king himself. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Confessor seated in a stylised Palace, almost certainly intended to represent Westminster.
1.2.3.3 The Confessor died at Westminster and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 6 January 1066. On the same day Harold, Earl of Wessex, became the first English king to be crowned at Westminster Abbey, so establishing Westminster as not only the residence and burial place
1543 view of the Palace and Abbey complex (See overleaf).
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1543 view of the Palace and Abbey complex from Lambeth, looking towards St. James’s Palace (copied by N. Whittock from original by Anthony van der Wyngaerde).
riptionoftheworldheritagesite 1.2.3.4 After the Norman invasion and the defeat of King Harold at the
Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror chose Westminster Abbey for his own coronation on Christmas Day 1066. Having established his first stronghold at the Tower of London, he later took up residence at Westminster Palace.
1.2.3.5 William II Rufus, the Conqueror’s son, built a new, magnificent Hall at the northern end of the Palace. At 240 feet long, 67ẵ feet wide, with walls 40 feet high and over 6ẵ feet thick, the Hall was larger than any comparable building in England at that time, standing parallel to the banks of the Thames in order to fit on the narrow plot. Throughout the Middle Ages, Westminster Hall was a place for feasting, particularly at coronations.
1.2.3.6 William I had set about restoring order to his newly won kingdom.
There was no Parliament at this time, but it was from the assembly known as the King’s Great Council – formed from the leading nobles of the realm and the successor of the Anglo-Saxon Council, the
‘witan’ – that Parliament was to evolve. The evolution of Parliament was also influenced by its development within the royal palace- monastery at Westminster. By the end of the 12th century, royal justice was administered, as with all mechanisms of government, where the king was. A series of reforms culminated in the signing of the Magna Carta (1215), which decreed that ‘common pleas’ could be heard in a fixed place. That place was invariably
Westminster Hall.
1.2.3.7 Edward the Confessor’s rebuilt Abbey Church, modelled on Norman examples, was the first great Romanesque building and first cruciform church in England. Built of Reigate stone, it was longer than the major churches in Normandy. The Bayeaux tapestry depicts the five completed bays of the nave, the lantern, east end, and transepts, which were consecrated in 1065. Edward died early in 1066 and was buried in front of the high altar of the Abbey church. Work continued on the Abbey however and it was probably completed around 1080. The monastic and collegiate buildings were grouped on the south side of the church. They included the dorter, forming part of the east range of the cloister, the rear-dorter, the frater range and the infirmary. In 1161, Edward the Confessor was
Westminster Abbey nave looking east.
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canonised and in 1163 Henry II translated his body to the new shrine, now above ground but still in front of the high altar.
1.2.3.8 Very little remains above ground of the early church but
archaeological evidence survives below the current pavement and has been examined at different times. Of the cloistral buildings that are thought to have been completed by 1100, there survive important elements of the east and south ranges, especially the vaulted dormitory undercroft and the Pyx Chamber.
1.2.3.9 By the 12th century, the Benedictine Abbey was flourishing, probably housing between thirty and sixty monks. It was now the wealthiest religious house in Britain, largely owing to the huge landed endowment given by Edward the Confessor, but also through its association with the monarch and the revenue gained from the large number of pilgrims who came to visit the Confessor’s shrine.
1.2.3.10 St Margaret’s Church, dedicated to St Margaret of Antioch, a third-century martyr, was built in the latter part of the 11th century, although the precise date is unclear. The church, built in the Romanesque style to the north of the Abbey church, was founded by the monks to meet the needs of the ever-growing population of Westminster and ministry was undertaken by the monks of the Abbey.