The Survey of London

by John Stow

King Henry III., in the year of Christ 1220, and in the 5th of his reign, began the new work of our Lady’s chapel, whereof he laid the first stone in the foundation; and in the year 1245, the walls and steeple of the old church (built by King Edward) were taken down, and enlarging the same church, caused them to be made more comely; for the furtherance whereof, in the year 1246, the same king (devising how to extort money from the citizens of London towards the charges) appointed a mart to be kept at Westminster, the same to last fifteen days, and in the mean space all trade of merchandise to cease in the city; which thing the citizens were fain to redeem with two thousand pounds of silver.

The work of this church, with the houses of office, was finished to the end of the choir, in the year 1285, the 14th of Edward I.: all which labour of sixty-six years was in the year 1299 defaced by a fire kindled in the lesser hall of the king’s palace at Westminster; the same, with many other houses adjoining, and with the queen’s chamber, were all consumed; the flame thereof also (being driven with the wind), fired the monastery, which was also with the palace consumed.

Then was this monastery again repaired by the abbots of that church; King Edward I. and his successors putting to their helping hands.

Edward II. appropriated unto this church the patronages of the churches of Kelveden and Sawbridgeworth in Essex, in the diocese of London.

Simon Langham, abbot (having been a great builder there in the year 1362), gave forty pounds to the building of the body of the church; but (amongst others) Abbot Islip was in his time a great builder there, as may appear in the stonework and glass windows of the church; since whose decease that work hath staid as he left it, unperfected, the church and steeple being all of one height.

King Henry VII., about the year of Christ 1502, caused the chapel of our Lady, built by Henry III., with a tavern also, called the White Rose, near adjoining, to be taken down: in which plot of ground, on the 24th of January, the first stone of the new chapel was laid by the hands of Abbot Islip, Sir Reginald Bray, knight of the garter, Doctor Barnes, master of the Rolls, Doctor Wall, chaplain to the king, Master Hugh Aldham, chaplain to the countess of Darby and Richmond (the king’s mother), Sir Edward Stanhope, knight, and divers other: upon the which stone was engraven the same day and year, etc.

The charges in building this chapel amounted to the sum of fourteen thousand pounds. The stone for this work (as I have been informed) was brought from Huddlestone quarry in Yorkshire.

The altar and sepulture of the same King Henry VII., wherein his body resteth in this his new chapel, was made and finished in the year 1519 by one Peter, a painter of Florence; for the which he received one thousand pounds sterling for the whole stuff and workmanship at the hands of the king’s executors; Richard, bishop of Winchester; Richard, bishop of London; Thomas, bishop of Durham; John, bishop of Rochester; Thomas, duke of Norfolk, treasurer of England; Charles, earl of Worcester, the king’s chamberlain; John Fineaux, knight, chief justice of the King’s bench; Robert Reade, knight, chief justice of the Common Pleas.

This monastery being valued to dispend by the year three thousand four hundred and seventy pounds, etc., was surrendered to Henry VIII. in the year 1539. Benson, then abbot, was made the first dean, and not long after it was advanced to a bishop’s see in the year 1541. Thomas Thirlby being both the first and last bishop there, who, when he had impoverished the church, was translated to Norwich in the year 1550, the 4th of Edward VI., and from thence to Elie in the year 1554, the 2nd of Queen Mary. Richard Cox, doctor in divinity (late schoolmaster to King Edward VI.), was made dean of Westminster, whom Queen Mary put out, and made Doctor Wonest dean until the year 1556, and then he being removed from thence on the 21st of November, John Feckenham (late dean of Pauls) was made abbot of Westminster, and took possession of the same, being installed, and fourteen monks more received the habit with him that day of the order of St. Benedict; but the said John Feckenham, with his monks, enjoyed not that place fully three years, for in the year 1559, in the month of July, they were all put out, and Queen Elizabeth made the said monastery a college, instituting there a dean, twelve prebends, a schoolmaster, and usher, forty scholars, called commonly the Queen’s scholars, twelve alms men; and so it was named the Collegiate church of Westminster, founded by Queen Elizabeth, who placed Doctor Bill,[294] first dean of that new erection; after whom succeeded Doctor Gabriel Goodman, who governed that church forty years, and after Doctor Lancelot Andrewes.

Kings and queens crowned in this church: William, surnamed the Conqueror, and Matilde his wife, were the first, and since them all other kings and queens of this realm have been there crowned.