The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey

by G. E. Troutbeck

The funeral of Henry V was the most splendid ever seen in the Abbey. The great procession began in Paris, and escorted the body to Calais. It then came on from Dover to London. James I, King of Scots, headed the procession as chief mourner, and the widowed Queen, Katherine de Valois, followed it.

The King’s tomb stands at the extreme eastern end of the Abbey, and over it, between the tombs of Queen Eleanor and Queen Philippa, rises the famous Chantry Chapel, where prayers were to be offered up for ever.

Among the statues that adorn the Chantry are those of St. George, the patron saint of England, and St. Denys, the patron saint of France.

On a bar above the Chantry are hung King Henry V’s shield, saddle, and helmet, just as the Black Prince’s armour is hung above his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.

The tomb below was once very splendid with gold and silver, and the figure of King Henry had a silver head. But in the reign of Henry VIII these magnificent decorations were stolen, and the robbers even carried off the silver head of the effigy. All that remains of the effigy is the figure of plain English oak.

We come next to the pious and gentle King Henry VI, who was so much loved by his people, in spite of all the misfortunes of his reign. It is sad to think how all Henry V’s conquests in France were lost one by one, although it was a good thing for England in the end. But there is one glorious memory connected with the wars of Henry VI’s reign, a memory which we all love and revere, whether we are French or English. That is the memory of Joan of Arc, that pure and noble young French girl whose faith and courage saved her country. When we stand in the Abbey and remember the Lancastrian Kings, it is good for us also to think of her.

Henry VI always intended to be buried in the Abbey, and one day, when he was there, some one suggested to him that his father’s tomb should be moved to one side, and that his own should be placed beside it. But Henry answered: “Nay, let him alone: he lieth like a noble prince. I would not trouble him.” At last Henry VI chose a grave for himself close to the Confessor’s shrine; the spot was all marked out, and indeed the tomb itself was ordered. Then came the Wars of the Roses, the defeat of the Lancastrian party, and the imprisonment of Henry VI in the Tower of London in 1461. After his mysterious death ten years later, his body was buried at Chertsey Abbey. Afterwards, in the reign of Richard III, it was moved to St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where it still rests.

The French princess, Katherine de Valois, wife of Henry V and mother of Henry VI, is now buried in Henry V’s Chantry. It will be remembered that her second husband was Owen Tudor, and that their son, Edmund Tudor, was the father of King Henry VII. After Katherine married Owen Tudor she seemed to be quite forgotten, but when she died she was buried with all honour in the old Lady Chapel. While Henry VII’s new Lady Chapel was being built, the coffin was placed beside Henry V’s tomb, and remained there in a most neglected state for many long years. Then it was removed to a vault in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, and finally it was moved, by permission of Queen Victoria, into Henry V’s Chantry, where at last poor Queen Katherine rests in peace.

In 1461, when Henry VI was deposed, a prince of the House of York, Edward IV, came to the throne. He died at Westminster, and had a great funeral service in the Abbey, but he is buried in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, like his cousin, Henry VI.

The earliest monument of the House of York in the Abbey is the tomb of Philippa, Duchess of York, in the Chapel of St. Nicholas. She was the wife of Edward, second Duke of York, grandson of Edward III, who was killed at Agincourt. After his death, Philippa was made Lady of the Isle of Wight.