The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey — John Shaqi
The Children's Story of Westminster AbbeyTroutbeck, G. E. (Georgina E.)
History
The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey
Troutbeck, G. E. (Georgina E.)
Westminster Abbey
The boy King, Edward VI, is buried close to his grandfather, Henry VII.
He was buried by Archbishop Cranmer, who was his godfather, and who had
baptized and crowned him. Edward VI has no monument, but the altar of
the chapel stands over his grave. The original altar was the work of
Torrigiano, and must have been very beautiful. It was destroyed in the
time of the Commonwealth, but parts of it have been found and are used
in the present altar. The cross on this altar has a special interest for
us all, because it was given to the Abbey by Ras Makonnen, the
Abyssinian envoy, at the time of King Edward VII’s serious illness, when
the Coronation had to be put off. The cross is of a very ancient
pattern, and there is an Ethiopian inscription upon it.
Not far from the grave of Edward VI there stood for many years a
pulpit—now in the Nave—from which it is believed Archbishop Cranmer
preached at the Coronation and funeral of his royal godson, Edward VI,
in 1553.
In the north aisle of Henry VII’s Chapel the two Tudor Queens, Mary and
Elizabeth, are buried. Poor Queen Mary had taken much care for the
Abbey. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI great changes had
been made there; the monks had been sent away, and, unfortunately, many
of the precious and beautiful things that belonged to the church and
monastery had been removed or destroyed. It was even said that Protector
Somerset wanted to pull down the Abbey itself. Queen Mary brought the
monks back, with Abbot Feckenham to rule over them; she restored the
Confessor’s shrine, and had the church and the services arranged again
as they had been in the old days before the Reformation.
After her short, unhappy reign, Mary Tudor was laid to rest in her
grandfather’s chapel. No monument was erected to her, and it is sad to
think that very few of her subjects mourned for her. We are told that
when the various altars in the chapel were taken down, the stones were
piled up over her grave. Perhaps it was intended to make them into a
monument later on. Another forty-five years passed, and then, in 1603,
Queen Elizabeth died, to the great grief of all her people, whose
lamentations followed her to her grave in the Abbey. She rests there, in
the same vault as her sister Mary, the vault being so narrow that Queen
Elizabeth’s coffin had to be placed on the top of Queen Mary’s. The
monument, which is a fine one of its kind, is to Queen Elizabeth alone,
and was erected to her memory by her cousin and successor, King James I.
The epitaph on the western end of the monument mentions both the Tudor
sister-queens, and runs as follows: “Consorts both in throne and grave,
here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of the
resurrection.”
It is now time to speak of some other famous people who belonged to the
Tudor times, and who are buried in the Abbey. Among these are the
following:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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