Nor was the monastery the only part of Westminster which fell from its
greatness. Earlier in the reign of Henry a fire had destroyed much of
the old Palace, and the king, who cared but little for it, set his heart
on York House close by, at Whitehall, once the London house of the
Bishops of York, afterwards the residence of Wolsey.
The Cardinal lived in state; indeed Westminster was but a humble
dwelling compared to this magnificent palace, and on his disgrace, Henry
took possession of it. For more than a hundred and fifty years it was
the royal palace, with fine courts, halls and chambers, its own chapel
and offices, its bowling-green, tent yard, cock-pit, and tennis courts,
and meanwhile the gabled, sculptured Westminster Palace, the home of
Saxon, Norman, and Plantagenet kings, fell to pieces. For us, both are
now but phantom palaces, with hardly a trace of either remaining to
recall the glories of the past.
But in the story of the Abbey, this change from Westminster to Whitehall
had more than a passing effect; from henceforth the old intimate
association between the Palace and Abbey ceased to exist, and Henry thus
broke one more link with the traditions of his ancestors. Not even the
chapel of his father, now no longer called the Lady Chapel, but instead
St. Saviour’s Chapel, had any attractions for one in whose nature
reverent affection for old associations was entirely absent, and at his
own desire, Henry was buried at Windsor, by his "true and loving wife,
Jane Seymour," who had kept in his good graces by giving him a son, and
then dying before he had time to grow weary of her. Of all his wives,
only the plain and placid Anne of Cleves was buried in the Abbey, on the
south side of the Altar, and "she had but half a monument," says Fuller,
though her funeral was an elaborate one, by order of Mary, who was then
queen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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