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
Yet another great name is that of Admiral Robert Blake, the first of our
naval heroes to be buried in the Abbey. It was Blake who defeated the
Dutch Admiral, Van Tromp, off Dungeness in 1652. Five years later he
destroyed the Spanish West-Indian fleet off Santa Cruz. Blake died on
board his flagship, the _George_, just before arriving at Plymouth after
this last victory. He was buried with great solemnity in Henry VII’s
Chapel. Blake was re-interred on the north side of the Abbey in 1661,
and a window and brass tablet have been erected to his memory in St.
Margaret’s Church.
Sir William Constable, once Governor of Gloucester, and one of the men
who had signed Charles I’s death-warrant, was buried in the Cromwell
vault, as was also Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who had taken Ludlow Castle
from the Royalists and was afterwards Governor of Shrewsbury. Colonel
Richard Deane, the companion of Blake and Popham, is buried here, and
General Worsley, commander of the soldiers who turned out the Long
Parliament, lies in a grave not far from the Cromwell vault.
Several of Cromwell’s family were buried in this same Cromwell vault,
but the bodies were all taken out at the time of the Restoration except
that of his favourite daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, who is buried in a
different place, on the north side of Henry VII’s tomb, and whose
remains were thus left in peace.
[Illustration:
_Photo W. Rice, F.R.P.S._ _Allen & Co (London) Ltd Sc_
_Henry VII Chapel._
_Tomb of the Founder._
]
III
We now come to the time of the Restoration, and must think of the rest
of the Stuart family who are buried at Westminster.
King Charles I had been buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and
although there had been much talk of moving his body into a splendid
tomb in Henry VII’s Chapel, this was never done, and Charles I, like
Henry VI, still rests at Windsor.
The first Stuart to be buried in the Abbey after the Restoration was
Henry of Oatlands, Duke of Gloucester, son of Charles I. It was Henry
who, when he was a little boy, promised his father that he would be torn
in pieces before he would let himself be made King instead of either of
his elder brothers, Charles or James. He died in 1660, to the great
grief of Charles II, who had a very special love for him.
Then came a daughter of Charles I, Mary, Princess of Orange, mother of
King William III. She also died in 1660. Very soon afterwards,
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I, died, and was buried
in the great Stuart vault. She is very closely connected with the later
history of England, because her daughter Sophia, who married the Elector
of Hanover, was the mother of King George I, and therefore Elizabeth was
direct ancestress of King Edward VII. Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice,
who fought in the great Civil War, were sons of Elizabeth, and Prince
Rupert is buried here beside his mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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