In his time, too, Henry I’s marriage with the Saxon princess, Matilda, took place, and on the same day, 11th November 1100, Matilda’s Coronation by Archbishop Anselm.
Two of the Abbots in the early Plantagenet times obtained from the Pope the right to wear a mitre and other outward marks of dignity. In later days the “mitred Abbot” of Westminster sate in the House of Lords, next after the Bishops. In Henry III’s reign the Abbey was made independent of the Bishop of London, and it keeps that independent position down to our own day.
Abbot Berkyng, who was a great friend and adviser of Henry III, was one of the people who signed Magna Charta. He was a Privy Councillor, and finally Lord Treasurer. He was also one of the Lords Justices of the kingdom while Henry III was away at the Welsh wars in 1245. This shows us what important men the Abbots were in those days. Abbot Berkyng died in 1246, and was first buried in front of the altar of Henry III’s Lady Chapel. His body now lies in the South Ambulatory, close to the steps of Henry VII’s Chapel.
The next Abbot we will mention is Abbot Ware. His name is interesting because in 1267, while Henry III was building his new Abbey Church, Abbot Ware went on a visit to Rome, and brought back with him the materials for the wonderful mosaic pavement in the Sacrarium, and the materials for the decoration of the Confessor’s shrine. He also brought with him the Italian workmen who laid the pavement, and who made the lovely glass and gold mosaics for the shrine. It was Abbot Ware who drew up the “customs” of which we have just heard, with all kinds of rules and directions for behaviour.
We must now pass over nearly a century, and speak of one very able and energetic Abbot who did a great deal of building in the Nave, the cloisters, and elsewhere in the monastery. This was Nicholas Litlington, who was made Abbot in 1362, in succession to Abbot Langham. Abbot Langham, who was made a Cardinal by the Pope, is buried in a very fine tomb in St. Benedict’s Chapel. He left a large sum of money to the Abbey, and this money was used by Abbot Litlington for building. Litlington died in 1386, and is buried in the South Transept.
The fine rooms known as the College Hall and Jerusalem Chamber were built by Abbot Litlington somewhere about the end of Edward III’s reign, when he rebuilt the Abbot’s house. It is thought that there had probably been an earlier Jerusalem Chamber on the same site as the present one. The name is said to have been given to the room because the tapestries which hung on the walls represented scenes from the history of Jerusalem.
It has already been told how Henry IV died in this famous room, and how Shakspeare describes the scene in his play.
Another interesting bit of English history to be remembered in the Jerusalem Chamber is the banquet given to the French Ambassadors in 1624, by Lord Keeper Williams, then Dean of Westminster, in honour of Charles I’s marriage with Henrietta Maria of France. Dean Williams restored and decorated the room for this occasion, and on the cedarwood mantelpiece are small carved heads representing Charles I and his French bride.
Much important work of various kinds has been done in the Jerusalem Chamber. The Assembly of Divines held its meetings here in 1643, during the time of the Commonwealth, and drew up the Longer and Shorter Catechism, and the Confession of Faith, known as the “Westminster Confession.”
Here, too, the Revisors of the Old and New Testaments used to meet for their great work, which began in 1870.