Part 48

“Without the walls of London (saith he), upon the river of Thames, there was in times passed a little monastery, built to the honour of God and St. Peter, with a few Benedict monks in it, under an abbot, serving Christ: very poor they were, and little was given them for their relief. Here the king intended (for that it was near to the famous city of London and the river of Thames, that brought in all kinds of merchandises from all parts of the world) to make his sepulchre: he commanded, therefore, that of the tenths of all his rents the work should be begun in such sort as should become the prince of the Apostles.

“At this his commandment the work is nobly begun, even from the foundation, and happily proceedeth till the same was finished: the charges bestowed, or to be bestowed, are not regarded. He granted to this church great privileges, above all the churches in this land, as

## partly appeareth by this his charter:--

“Edwarde, king, greets William, bishop, and Leofstane, and Aelsie Portreves, and all my burgesses of London friendly, and I tell you, that I have this gift given and granted to Christ and St. Peter the holy Apostle, at Westminster, full freedome over all the land that belongeth to that holy place, etc.”

He also caused the parish church of St. Margaret to be newly built without the abbey church of Westminster, for the ease and commodity of the monks, because before that time the parish church stood within the old abbey church in the south aisle, somewhat to their annoyance.

King Henry III., in the year of Christ 1220, and in the 5th of his reign, began the new work of our Lady’s chapel, whereof he laid the first stone in the foundation; and in the year 1245, the walls and steeple of the old church (built by King Edward) were taken down, and enlarging the same church, caused them to be made more comely; for the furtherance whereof, in the year 1246, the same king (devising how to extort money from the citizens of London towards the charges) appointed a mart to be kept at Westminster, the same to last fifteen days, and in the mean space all trade of merchandise to cease in the city; which thing the citizens were fain to redeem with two thousand pounds of silver.

The work of this church, with the houses of office, was finished to the end of the choir, in the year 1285, the 14th of Edward I.: all which labour of sixty-six years was in the year 1299 defaced by a fire kindled in the lesser hall of the king’s palace at Westminster; the same, with many other houses adjoining, and with the queen’s chamber, were all consumed; the flame thereof also (being driven with the wind), fired the monastery, which was also with the palace consumed.

Then was this monastery again repaired by the abbots of that church; King Edward I. and his successors putting to their helping hands.

Edward II. appropriated unto this church the patronages of the churches of Kelveden and Sawbridgeworth in Essex, in the diocese of London.

Simon Langham, abbot (having been a great builder there in the year 1362), gave forty pounds to the building of the body of the church; but (amongst others) Abbot Islip was in his time a great builder there, as may appear in the stonework and glass windows of the church; since whose decease that work hath staid as he left it, unperfected, the church and steeple being all of one height.

King Henry VII., about the year of Christ 1502, caused the chapel of our Lady, built by Henry III., with a tavern also, called the White Rose, near adjoining, to be taken down: in which plot of ground, on the 24th of January, the first stone of the new chapel was laid by the hands of Abbot Islip, Sir Reginald Bray, knight of the garter, Doctor Barnes, master of the Rolls, Doctor Wall, chaplain to the king, Master Hugh Aldham, chaplain to the countess of Darby and Richmond (the king’s mother), Sir Edward Stanhope, knight, and divers other: upon the which stone was engraven the same day and year, etc.

The charges in building this chapel amounted to the sum of fourteen thousand pounds. The stone for this work (as I have been informed) was brought from Huddlestone quarry in Yorkshire.

The altar and sepulture of the same King Henry VII., wherein his body resteth in this his new chapel, was made and finished in the year 1519 by one Peter, a painter of Florence; for the which he received one thousand pounds sterling for the whole stuff and workmanship at the hands of the king’s executors; Richard, bishop of Winchester; Richard, bishop of London; Thomas, bishop of Durham; John, bishop of Rochester; Thomas, duke of Norfolk, treasurer of England; Charles, earl of Worcester, the king’s chamberlain; John Fineaux, knight, chief justice of the King’s bench; Robert Reade, knight, chief justice of the Common Pleas.

This monastery being valued to dispend by the year three thousand four hundred and seventy pounds, etc., was surrendered to Henry VIII. in the year 1539. Benson, then abbot, was made the first dean, and not long after it was advanced to a bishop’s see in the year 1541. Thomas Thirlby being both the first and last bishop there, who, when he had impoverished the church, was translated to Norwich in the year 1550, the 4th of Edward VI., and from thence to Elie in the year 1554, the 2nd of Queen Mary. Richard Cox, doctor in divinity (late schoolmaster to King Edward VI.), was made dean of Westminster, whom Queen Mary put out, and made Doctor Wonest dean until the year 1556, and then he being removed from thence on the 21st of November, John Feckenham (late dean of Pauls) was made abbot of Westminster, and took possession of the same, being installed, and fourteen monks more received the habit with him that day of the order of St. Benedict; but the said John Feckenham, with his monks, enjoyed not that place fully three years, for in the year 1559, in the month of July, they were all put out, and Queen Elizabeth made the said monastery a college, instituting there a dean, twelve prebends, a schoolmaster, and usher, forty scholars, called commonly the Queen’s scholars, twelve alms men; and so it was named the Collegiate church of Westminster, founded by Queen Elizabeth, who placed Doctor Bill,[294] first dean of that new erection; after whom succeeded Doctor Gabriel Goodman, who governed that church forty years, and after Doctor Lancelot Andrewes.

Kings and queens crowned in this church: William, surnamed the Conqueror, and Matilde his wife, were the first, and since them all other kings and queens of this realm have been there crowned.

Kings and queens buried in this church are these: Sebert, king of the East Saxons, with his wife Athelgede; Harold, surnamed Harefoot, king of the West Saxons; Edward the Simple, surnamed Confessor, sometime richly shrined in a tomb of silver and gold, curiously wrought by commandment of William the Conqueror; Egitha his wife was there buried also; Hugolyn, chamberlain to Edward the Confessor; King Henry III., whose sepulture was richly garnished with precious stones of jasper, which his son Edward I. brought out of France for that purpose; Eleanor, wife to Henry III.; Edward I., who offered to the shrine of Edward the Confessor the chair of marble, wherein the kings of Scotland were crowned, with the sceptre and crown, also to the same king belonging.

He gave also to that church lands to the value of one hundred pounds by the year; twenty pounds thereof yearly to be distributed to the poor for ever. Then there lieth Eleanor, his wife, daughter to Ferdinando, king of Castile, 1293; Edward III. by Queen Philippa of Henault his wife; Richard II. and Anne his wife, with their images upon them, which cost more than four hundred marks for the gilding; Henry V., with a royal image of silver and gilt, which Katherine his wife caused to be laid upon him, but the head of this image being of massy silver, is broken off, and conveyed away with the plates of silver and gilt that covered his body; Katherine, his wife, was buried in the old Lady chapel 1438, but her corpse being taken up in the reign of Henry VII., when a new foundation was to be laid, she was never since buried, but remaineth above ground in a coffin of boards behind the east end of the presbytery; Henry VII. in a sumptuous sepulture and chapel before specified, and Elizabeth his wife; Edward VI. in the same chapel, without any monument; Queen Mary, without any monument, in the same chapel; Matilde, daughter to Malcolm, king of Scots, wife to Henry I., died 1118, lieth in the revestry; Anne, wife to Richard III.; Margaret, countess of Richmond and Darby, mother to Henry VII.; Anne of Cleves, wife to Henry VIII.; Edmond, second son to Henry III., first earl of Lancaster, Darby, and Leycester, and Aveline his wife, daughter and heir to William de Fortibus, earl of Albemarle. In St. Thomas’ chapel lie the bones of the children of Henry III. and of Edward I., in number nine. In the chapter-house,--Elianor, countess of Barre, daughter to Edward I.; William of Windsor, and Blaunch his sister, children to Edward III.; John of Eltham, earl of Cornewell, son to Edward II.; Elianor, wife to Thomas of Woodstocke, duke of Gloucester; Thomas of Woodstocke by King Edward III. his father; Margaret, daughter to Edward IV.; Elizabeth, daughter to Henry VII.; William de Valence, earl of Pembroke; Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke; Margaret and John, son and daughter to William de Valence; John Waltham, bishop of Sarum, treasurer of England; Thomas Ruthal, bishop of Durham, 1522; Giles, Lord Dawbeny,[295] lord lieutenant of Callis, chamberlain to King Henry VII., 1508, and Elizabeth his wife, of the family of the Arundels in Cornwal, 1500; John, Viscount Wells, 1498; the Lady Katherine, daughter to the duchess of Norfolk; Sir Thomas Hungerford, knight, father to Sir John Hungerford of Downampney, knight; a son and daughter to Humfrey Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, and Elizabeth his wife; Philippa, duchess of York, daughter to the Lord Mohun, thrice married, to the Lord Fitzwalter, Sir John Golofer, and to the duke of Yorke; William Dudley, bishop elect of Durham, son to John, baron of Dudley; Nicholas, Baron Carew, 1470; Walter Hungerford, son to Edward Hungerford, knight; Sir John Burley, knight, and Anne his wife, daughter to Alane Buxull, knight, 1416; Sir John Golofer, knight, 1396; Humfrey Burcher, Lord Cromwell, son to Bourchier, earl of Essex, slain at Barnet; Henry Bourchier, son and heir to John Bourchier, Lord Barners, also slain at Barnet, 1471; Sir William Trussell, knight; Sir Thomas Vaughan, knight; Frances Brandon, duchess of Suffolke, 1560; Mary Gray, her daughter, 1578; Sir John Hampden, knight; Sir Lewis, Viscount Robsart, knight; Lord Bourchere of Henalt, 1430, and his wife, daughter and heir to the Lord Bourchere; Robert Brown, and William Browne, esquires; the Lady Johane Tokyne, daughter of Dabridge Court; George Mortimer, bastard; John Felbye, esquire; Ann, wife to John Watkins; William Southwike, esquire; William Southcot, esquire; Ralph Constantine, gentleman; Arthur Troffote, esquire; Robert Hawley, esquire, slain in that church; Sir Richarde Rouse, knight; Sir Geffrey Maundevile, earl of Essex, and Athelarde his wife; Sir Foulke of Newcastle; Sir James Barons, knight; Sir John Salisbury, knight; Margaret Dowglas, countess of Lennox, with Charles her son, earl of Lennox; Henrie Scogan, a learned poet, in the cloister; Geffrey Chaucer, the most famous poet of England, also in the cloister, 1400, but since Nicholas Brigham, gentleman, raised a monument for him in the south cross aisle of the church: his works were partly published in print by William Caxton, in the reign of Henry VI., increased by William Thinne, esquire, in the reign of Henry VIII.; corrected and twice increased, through mine own painful labours, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to wit, in the year 1561; and again beautified with notes by me, collected out of divers records and monuments, which I delivered to my loving friend, Thomas Speght; and he having drawn the same into a good form and method, as also explained the old and obscure words, etc., hath published them in anno 1597.

Anne Stanhope, duchess of Somerset, and Jane her daughter; Anne Cecill, countess of Oxford, daughter to the Lord Burghley, with Mildred Burghley her mother; Elizabeth Barkley, countess of Ormond; Frances Sidney, countess of Sussex; Francis Howard, countess of Hertford, 1598; Thomas, Baron Wentworth; Thomas, Baron Warton; John, Lord Russell; Sir Thomas Bromley, lord chancellor; Sir John Puckering, lord keeper; Sir Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon, and lord chamberlain, 1596, to whose memory his son, Sir George Cary, Lord Hunsdon, and lord chamberlain, hath created a stately monument.

This church hath had great privilege of sanctuary within the precinct thereof, to wit, the church, churchyard, and close, etc.; from whence it hath not been lawful for any prince or other to take any person that fled thither for any cause: which privilege was first granted by Sebert, king of the East Saxons, since increased by Edgar, king of the West Saxons, renewed and confirmed by King Edward the Confessor, as appeareth by this his charter following:

“Edward, by the grace of God, king of Englishmen: I make it to be known to all generations of the world after me, that by speciall commandement of our holy father, Pope Leo, I have renewed and honored the holy church of the blessed apostle St. Peter, of Westminster; and I order and establish for ever, that what person, of what condition or estate soever he be, from whence soever he come, or for what offence or cause it be, either for his refuge into the said holy place, he be assured of his life, liberty, and limbs. And over this I forbid, under the paine of everlasting damnation, that no minister of mine, or of my successors, intermeddle them with any the goods, lands, or possessions of the said persons taking the said sanctuary; for I have taken their goodes and livelode into my special protection, and therefore I grant to every each of them, in as much as my terrestriall power may suffice, all maner freedom of joyous libertie; and whosoever presumes or doth contrary to this my graunt, I will hee lose his name, worship, dignity, and power, and that with the great traytor Judas that betraied our Saviour, he be in the everlasting fire of hell; and I will and ordayne that this my graunt endure as long as there remayneth in England eyther love or dread of Christian name.”

More of this sanctuary ye may read in our histories, and also in the statute of Henry VIII., the 32nd year.

The parish church of St. Margaret, sometime within the abbey, was by Edward the Confessor removed, and built without, for ease of the monks. This church continued till the days of Edward I., at which time the merchants of the staple and parishioners of Westminster built it all of new, the great chancel excepted, which was built by the abbots of Westminster; and this remaineth now a fair parish church, though sometime in danger of down pulling. In the south aisle of this church is a fair marble monument of Dame Mary Billing, the heir of Robert Nesenham of Conington, in Huntingdonshire, first married to William Cotton, to whose issue her inheritance alone descended, remaining with Robert Cotton at this day, heir of her and her first husband’s family; her second husband was Sir Thomas Billing, chief justice of England; and her last, whom likewise she buried, was Thomas Lacy; erecting this monument to the memory of her three husbands, with whose arms she hath garnished it, and for her own burial, wherein she was interred in the year 1499.

Next to this famous monastery is the king’s principal palace, of what antiquity it is uncertain; but Edward the Confessor held his court there, as may appear by the testimony of sundry, and, namely, of Ingulphus, as I have before told you. The said king had his palace, and for the most part remained there; where he also so ended his life, and was buried in the monastery which he had built. It is not to be doubted but that King William I., as he was crowned there, so he built much at his palace, for he found it far inferior to the building of princely palaces in France: and it is manifest, by the testimony of many authors, that William Rufus built the great hall there about the year of Christ 1097. Amongst others, Roger of Wendover and Mathew Paris do write, that King William (being returned out of Normandy into England) kept his feast of Whitsontide very royally at Westminster, in the new hall which he had lately built; the length whereof (say some) was two hundred and seventy feet, and seventy-four feet in breadth; and when he heard men say that this hall was too great, he answered and said, “This hall is not big enough by the one half, and is but a bed-chamber in comparison of that I mean to make.” A diligent searcher (saith Paris) might find out the foundation of the hall, which he was supposed to have built, stretching from the river of Thames, even to the common highway.

This palace was repaired about the year 1163 by Thomas Becket, chancellor of England, with exceeding great celerity and speed, which before was ready to have fallen down. This hath been the principal seat and palace of all the kings of England since the Conquest; for here have they in the great hall kept their feasts of coronation especially, and other solemn feasts, as at Christmas and such like, most commonly: for proof whereof, I find recorded, that in the year 1236, and the 20th of Henry, III., on the 29th of December, William de Haverhull, the king’s treasurer, is commanded, that upon the day of circumcision of our Lord, he caused six thousand poor people to be fed at Westminster, for the state of the king, the queen, and their children; the weak and aged to be placed in the great hall and in the lesser; those that were most strong, and in reasonable plight, in the king’s chamber; the children in the queen’s; and when the king knoweth the charge, he would allow it in the accounts.[296]

In the year 1238, the same King Henry kept his feast of Christmas at Westminster in the great hall; so did he in the year 1241, where he placed the legate in the most honourable place of the table, to wit, in the midst, which the noblemen took in evil part: the king sat on the right hand, and the archbishop on the left, and then all the prelates and nobles according to their estates; for the king himself set the guests. The year 1242 he likewise kept his Christmas in the hall, etc. Also, in the year 1243, Richard, earl of Cornewall, the king’s brother, married Cincia, daughter to Beatrice, countess of Province, and kept his marriage-feast in the great hall at Westminster, with great royalty and company of noblemen: insomuch that there were told (_triginta millia_) thirty thousand dishes of meats at that dinner.

In the year 1256, King Henry sate in the exchequer of this hall, and there set down order for the appearance of sheriffs, and bringing in of their accounts: there were five marks set on every sheriff’s head for a fine, because they had not distrained every person that might dispend fifteen pounds land by the year to receive the order of knighthood, as the same sheriffs were commanded. Also, the mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs of London, being accused of oppression and wrongs done by them, and submitting themselves in this place before the king sitting in judgment upon that matter, they were condemned to pay their fines for their offences committed, and further, every one of them discharged of assise and ward.

In the years 1268 and 1269, the same king kept his Christmas feasts at Westminster as before; and also in the same 1269 he translated with great solemnity the body of King Edward the Confessor into a new chapel, at the back of the high altar: which chapel he had prepared of a marvellous workmanship, bestowing a new tomb or shrine of gold; and on the day of his translation he kept a royal feast in the great hall of the palace. Thus much for the feasts of old time in this hall.

We read also, that in the year 1236, the river of Thames overflowing the banks, caused the marshes about Woolwitch to be all on a sea, wherein boats and other vessels were carried with the stream; so that besides cattle, the greatest number of men, women, and children, inhabitants there, were drowned: and in the great palace of Westminster men did row with wherries in the midst of the hall, being forced to ride to their chambers.

Moreover, in the year 1242, the Thames overflowing the banks about Lambhithe, drowned houses and fields by the space of six miles, so that in the great hall at Westminster men took their horses, because the water ran over all. This palace was (in the year 1299, the 27th of Edward I.) burnt by a vehement fire, kindled in the lesser hall of the king’s house: the same, with many other houses adjoining, and with the queen’s chamber, were consumed, but after that repaired.

In the year 1313, the 31st of Edward I., the king’s treasury at Westminster was robbed; for the which, Walter, abbot of Westminster, with forty-nine of his brethren and thirty-two other, were thrown into the Tower of London, and indicted of the robbery of a hundred thousand pounds; but they affirming themselves to be clear of the fact, and desiring the king of speedy justice, a commission was directed for inquiry of the truth, and they were freed.

In the year 1316, Edward II. did solemnize his feast of Penticost at Westminster, in the great hall; where sitting royally at the table, with his peers about him, there entered a woman adorned like a minstrel, sitting on a great horse, trapped as minstrels then used, who rode round about the tables, showing pastime, and at length came up to the king’s table, and laid before him a letter, and forthwith turning her horse, saluted every one, and departed. The letter being opened, had these contents:,--“Our soveraigne lord and king, hath nothing curteously respected his knights, that in his father’s time, and also in his owne, have put forth their persons to divers perils, and have utterly lost, or greatly diminished their substance, for honor of the said king, and he hath inriched abundantly such as have not borne the waight as yet of the busines, etc.”

This great hall was begun to be repaired in the year 1397 by Richard II., who caused the walls, windows, and roof, to be taken down, and new made, with a stately porch, and divers lodgings of a marvellous work, and with great costs; all which he levied of strangers banished or flying out of their countries, who obtained license to remain in this land, by the king’s charters, which they had purchased with great sums of money; John Boterell being then clerk of the works.