It must be understood that the whole Precinct of the Abbey and not the Church only was the sanctuary, of which the more sacred part, of course, was the Church. But the name of sanctuary was especially given to a gloomy square pile built of ragstone, about seventy-five feet square and about sixty feet high. Outside was a round tower no higher than the building itself, which contained a stair communicating with the upper storey. There were two storeys, each of which was a chapel, the lower one being especially dark and gloomy. On the roof it appears there were sometimes erected small houses for the accommodation of refugees.
By a very remarkable omission, this interesting building is not noticed by Stow or by any later writer. Stukeley first observed it, and sketched and measured it in the year 1750 when they were taking it down.
Here is a glimpse (1556) of a sanctuary procession:—
“The vi. day of December the Abbot of Westminster went a procession with his convent: before him went all the sanctuary men with crosse keys [upon their garments] and after went iij. for murder: one, the Lord Dacre’s sone, of the Northe, was wypyd (whipped) with a shett abowt him for kyllyng of a man, master West sqwyre dwellyng besyd ... and anodur theyff that dyd long to one of master comtroller ... dyd kyll Recherd Eggyllston the comtroller’s tayller, and [killed him in] the Long Acurs, the bak-syd Charyng-crosse: and a boye [that] kyld a byge boye that sold papers and pryntyd bokes [with] horlyng of a stone and yt hym under the ere in Westmynster Hall: the boy was one of the chylderyn what was [at the] sckoll ther in the abbey: the boy was a hossear sune [hosier’s son] a-boyff London-stone.”
THE SANCTUARY CHURCH AT WESTMINSTER
From Allen’s History of London.
The whipping of Lord Dacre’s son, wrapped in a white sheet, for murder, must have been edifying. Sanctuary, therefore, was not wholly free from pains and penalties. Two months later, another man in sanctuary was whipped “before the cross” for murder.
Not always, however, were the rights of sanctuary respected. That Wat Tyler should respect them was hardly to be expected. Therefore we read without surprise how he dragged the Marshal of the Marshalsea from one of the pillars of the Confessor’s shrine, to which, as the holiest place in the church, he was clinging. But the murder of the knight Hawke in the year 1398 is a very remarkable illustration of the violence and ungovernable temper into which the men of that time could fall. There were two knights named Hawke and Shackle. In the Spanish wars of the Black Prince they had between them effected the valuable capture of a Spanish noble. He exchanged his son, a youth, for himself, a method of hostage not uncommon, and went home, leaving the two Englishmen expectant of a lordly ransom. Then, however, John of Gaunt, who claimed the throne of Spain, demanded the delivery of the young Spaniard to himself. This was refused. Thereupon he threatened imprisonment, so that the knights fled and took sanctuary at Westminster, accompanied by the captive disguised as a page or valet. It would seem as if they were pursued on their flight. At least what follows does not look like a deed done in cold blood. The two knights fled into the church as the safest part of the sanctuary. Thither they were followed by Alan Bloxhall, Constable of the Tower, Sir Ralph Ferrers, and a company of fifty men. Shackle, for his part, escaped with the page—probably into the cloisters, where he could easily be conveyed to a place of safety. But Hawke remained in the church and ran round the choir followed by his enemies. This took place actually during the celebration of High Mass. At last the wretched man fell covered with wounds in front of the Prior’s stall, that is, within the choir. After this, the Prior closed the church for four months, and caused the violators of the sanctuary to be excommunicated, as well as fining them £200 apiece—equal to nearly £3000 of our money. If sanctuary, if sacrilege meant anything at all, the abbot was bound to make as much as he could of the “factum horribile.” The unfortunate Hawke was buried in the south transept.
But there were other violations of sanctuary, as when Sir Robert Tresilian, Lord Chief Justice, was dragged out from the refuge he had sought; and when the Duke of Exeter was treated likewise: on the other hand, Henry the Seventh showed his wisdom in respecting sanctuary when Perkin Warbeck took shelter there.