THE HOUSE OF TUDOR
“_Fair is our lot—O goodly is our heritage!
(Humble ye, my people, and be fearful in your mirth!)
For the Lord our God Most High
He hath made the deep as dry,
He hath smote for us a pathway to the ends of all the earth._”
RUDYARD KIPLING (_The Seven Seas_).
The famous House of Tudor, in which the Plantagenet lines of York and
Lancaster were united, is in many ways very closely connected with the
Abbey. All the Tudor sovereigns, except one, are buried in the Abbey.
But this is not all, for the Abbey and the School owe their present
establishment to Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, as we shall find later
on.
It was in the Tudor times that modern England really began, and most of
the great changes that took place in the Church and the nation at that
time are faithfully reflected in the Abbey history. We can read them
there, just as we can read the story of the Norman Conquest, of the
Conquest of Scotland, or of the French Wars.
We ought also to look beyond our own country, and remember what was
going on in other parts of the world. While the Tudors were reigning in
England, Christopher Columbus discovered America, and the Portuguese
navigator, Vasco de Gama, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, thus
finding a new way to the East Indies. These two discoveries made a great
change in the history of the world, and some of the monuments in the
Abbey will speak to us of the difference which those discoveries made to
England.
When we speak of the Tudors we naturally think first of King Henry VII,
who built the beautiful chapel at the eastern end of the Abbey,
directing that it should be the burial-place of himself and his family.
The foundation of the Chapel has an interesting history connected with
the House of Lancaster. Through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII
descended from John of Gaunt, and therefore from Edward III, and he was
very anxious that people should remember this. Partly for that reason,
he wanted very much to bring the body of Henry VI from Windsor, and to
bury it in the new, splendid chapel at Westminster. He also wished the
Pope to declare Henry VI to be a saint; and indeed, many people at that
time thought him to be so. However, it happened that the body of Henry
VI was never moved from Windsor after all, but there was at that time an
altar to his memory in Henry VII’s Chapel.
[Illustration:
[_D. Weller_.
MARGARET BEAUFORT, COUNTESS OF RICHMOND, AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.
]
The great gates and the sculptured ornament of the Chapel are in
themselves quite a lesson in English history. On the gates and on the
walls we see the famous Tudor Roses, which are the red and white roses
of Lancaster and York united. There is also the Portcullis of the
Beaufort Castle in Anjou, which castle had belonged to Edmund
Crouchback, and descended through him to John of Gaunt. Again, we see
the crown caught in a bush on Bosworth Field, and two Yorkist badges,
the Rose in the Sun, and the Falcon on the Fetterlock. On the gates,
too, we find the daisy or “Marguérite,” the name-flower of Henry VII’s
mother, the Lady Margaret. Last, but not least, we find the Red Dragon
of the last British King, Cadwallader, from whom Henry VII claimed to
descend, reminding us that the Tudors boasted of descent from the
ancient British stock,—from King Arthur and Llewellyn. Round the Chapel,
in the graceful little niches that adorn the walls, are statues of
angels and saints. Among them are the Apostles, some of the martyrs, and
also the royal saints of Britain, St. Edward, St. Edmund, St. Oswald,
and St. Margaret of Scotland.
The first person to be buried in Henry VII’s Chapel was his wife,
Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV. She died in 1503, and was
first buried in one of the side Chapels, until her husband’s new Chapel
was ready.
In 1509, Henry VII died, and was buried in the middle of the nave of his
Chapel. The funeral ceremony was very splendid, and over his grave rises
one of the most magnificent tombs in the whole Abbey. The monument
itself was made by the great Florentine sculptor, Torrigiano, who was a
fellow-student and rival of Michael Angelo. We are told that Torrigiano
broke Michael Angelo’s nose in a fight they had at Florence. At any
rate, he knew how to design a beautiful monument.
The bronze screen round the tomb is of English work and Gothic design,
and is in quite a different style from the Italian Renaissance tomb
within.
Three months afterwards, Henry’s mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of
Richmond and Derby, died, and was buried in the South Aisle of her son’s
Chapel. She died just at the time of the rejoicings for the Coronation
of her grandson, Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon. The “Lady
Margaret” was greatly honoured and beloved. She was a patroness of
learning, and founded two colleges at Cambridge, and Professorships of
Divinity at both Oxford and Cambridge. She was also a good friend to
William Caxton the printer, as we have already heard. Her tomb was made
by the same Florentine artist, Torrigiano, and is most beautiful. The
effigy represents the Lady Margaret in her widow’s dress, her hands
uplifted in prayer. The epitaph round the edge of the monument was
written by the great Erasmus, who was a friend of Lady Margaret’s, and
who was one of the earliest Lady Margaret Professors of Divinity at
Cambridge, Bishop John Fisher being the first.
Another of the family, Owen Tudor, uncle of Henry VII, took refuge in
the Sanctuary at Westminster during the Civil Wars, and became a monk.
He is buried in the South Transept. A little daughter of Henry VII,
Elizabeth Tudor, is buried in a tiny tomb in the Confessor’s Chapel,
close to Henry III. A little son, Edward, is also buried in the Abbey.
Henry VIII had intended to be buried at Westminster with his first wife,
Catherine of Aragon, to whom he was married in the Abbey. Indeed, he had
actually ordered Torrigiano to make the effigies for the tomb. But, as
we know, everything changed, and Henry VIII is buried in St. George’s,
Windsor, with his third wife, Jane Seymour, mother of King Edward VI.
Anne of Cleves is the only one of Henry’s six wives who is buried in the
Abbey. Her grave is in the South Ambulatory, and she has a large and
rather ugly monument in the Sacrarium, just opposite to the tomb of
Aymer de Valence. Anne of Cleves died at Chelsea in 1557.
One great name of Tudor times, that of Cardinal Wolsey, is brought back
to us when we remember that in 1515 his Cardinal’s hat arrived from
Rome, and was received with great pomp at the Abbey. A stately service
was held; the Archbishop of Canterbury set the hat on Wolsey’s head, and
a “Te Deum” was sung. Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and Henry’s
sister Mary, the French Queen, were present at the ceremony.
The boy King, Edward VI, is buried close to his grandfather, Henry VII.
He was buried by Archbishop Cranmer, who was his godfather, and who had
baptized and crowned him. Edward VI has no monument, but the altar of
the chapel stands over his grave. The original altar was the work of
Torrigiano, and must have been very beautiful. It was destroyed in the
time of the Commonwealth, but parts of it have been found and are used
in the present altar. The cross on this altar has a special interest for
us all, because it was given to the Abbey by Ras Makonnen, the
Abyssinian envoy, at the time of King Edward VII’s serious illness, when
the Coronation had to be put off. The cross is of a very ancient
pattern, and there is an Ethiopian inscription upon it.
Not far from the grave of Edward VI there stood for many years a
pulpit—now in the Nave—from which it is believed Archbishop Cranmer
preached at the Coronation and funeral of his royal godson, Edward VI,
in 1553.
In the north aisle of Henry VII’s Chapel the two Tudor Queens, Mary and
Elizabeth, are buried. Poor Queen Mary had taken much care for the
Abbey. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI great changes had
been made there; the monks had been sent away, and, unfortunately, many
of the precious and beautiful things that belonged to the church and
monastery had been removed or destroyed. It was even said that Protector
Somerset wanted to pull down the Abbey itself. Queen Mary brought the
monks back, with Abbot Feckenham to rule over them; she restored the
Confessor’s shrine, and had the church and the services arranged again
as they had been in the old days before the Reformation.
After her short, unhappy reign, Mary Tudor was laid to rest in her
grandfather’s chapel. No monument was erected to her, and it is sad to
think that very few of her subjects mourned for her. We are told that
when the various altars in the chapel were taken down, the stones were
piled up over her grave. Perhaps it was intended to make them into a
monument later on. Another forty-five years passed, and then, in 1603,
Queen Elizabeth died, to the great grief of all her people, whose
lamentations followed her to her grave in the Abbey. She rests there, in
the same vault as her sister Mary, the vault being so narrow that Queen
Elizabeth’s coffin had to be placed on the top of Queen Mary’s. The
monument, which is a fine one of its kind, is to Queen Elizabeth alone,
and was erected to her memory by her cousin and successor, King James I.
The epitaph on the western end of the monument mentions both the Tudor
sister-queens, and runs as follows: “Consorts both in throne and grave,
here rest we two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, in the hope of the
resurrection.”
It is now time to speak of some other famous people who belonged to the
Tudor times, and who are buried in the Abbey. Among these are the
following:—
Sir Humphrey Stanley, who fought on Henry VII’s side at Bosworth, and
was knighted by him after the battle. Sir Humphrey died in 1505, and is
buried in the Chapel at St. Nicholas.
Sir Giles Daubeny and his wife, who are buried in St Paul’s Chapel. Sir
Giles Daubeny was Lord Lieutenant of Calais in Henry VII’s time, when
Calais still belonged to England. He died in 1508.
Then come some of the great ladies of the Tudor Court, namely:
Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, granddaughter of Henry VII and mother
of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, who, as every one remembers, was
Queen of England for twelve days after the death of Edward VI. The
Duchess is buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel, close to some of the
Plantagenets, and on the spot where the altar used to stand.
Anne Seymour, the wife of Protector Somerset, is buried in the Chapel of
St. Nicholas. She was sister-in-law to Queen Jane Seymour, mother of
Edward VI. From what is told us about her she seems to have been both
very clever and very fierce-tempered, and to have made people afraid of
her. She lived on into the days of Elizabeth, and died in 1587, aged
ninety.
In the same chapel is a tablet in memory of Jane Seymour, daughter of
Protector Somerset. She was cousin to Edward VI, and it had been
intended that he should marry her.
Another name of interest is that of Frances Howard, Countess of
Hertford, sister of the Lord Howard of Effingham who defeated the
Spanish Armada. She is buried in St. Benedict’s Chapel.
In St. Paul’s Chapel are the grave and monument of Frances Sidney,
Countess of Sussex. She was the aunt of the famous Sir Philip Sidney,
the soldier and poet. This lady was the foundress of Sidney Sussex
College at Cambridge, which is called after her.
In the Chapel of St. John the Baptist is the enormous
monument—thirty-six feet high—of Henry Cary, Lord Hunsdon, who died in
1596. His mother was a sister of Queen Anne Boleyn, and thus he was
Queen Elizabeth’s first cousin. He was Lord Chamberlain to Queen
Elizabeth, and was always a most devoted servant and friend to her. He
had special charge of the Queen at the time of the Spanish Armada. It is
said that he died partly of disappointment at having to wait a long time
before Queen Elizabeth would make him Earl of Wiltshire. When he was
dying the Queen came to see him, and, having brought the patent for the
earldom and the robes, she had them put down on his bed. But Lord
Hunsdon said to her: “Madam, seeing you counted me not worthy of this
honour whilst I was living, I count myself unworthy of it now I am
dying.”
In the Chapel of St. Nicholas are buried the wife and daughter of the
great Lord Burleigh, Mildred, Lady Burleigh, and Anne, Countess of
Oxford. Lord Burleigh’s own funeral service took place in the Abbey, but
he is buried at Stamford. On the monument to his wife and daughter is a
figure of Lord Burleigh himself, kneeling, “his eyes dim with tears for
the loss of those who were dear to him beyond the whole race of
womankind.” One of the figures on the tomb is that of Robert Cecil,
first Earl of Salisbury, and this is especially interesting when we
think of the monument to the Lord Salisbury of our own day (also a
Robert Cecil) which has just been placed in the Abbey, close to the
Great West Door.
Several other members of the Cecil family are buried in the Abbey, one
of the chief among them being Thomas Cecil, first Earl of Exeter.
Two of the famous lawyers of the time buried in the Abbey are Sir Thomas
Bromley and Sir John Puckering. Sir Thomas Bromley, who is buried in the
Chapel of St. Paul, succeeded Sir Nicholas Bacon as Lord Keeper, and was
the chief judge at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots. Sir John
Puckering, who is buried in the same chapel, had also to do with the
trials both of Mary and of her secretary, Davison.
Some of Queen Elizabeth’s great soldiers rest in the Abbey. First among
these we will mention Sir Francis Vere, who fought in the Flemish Wars
and commanded the forces in the Netherlands. His monument, in the Chapel
of St. John the Evangelist, is celebrated for its beauty. It is said to
be copied from the tomb of Count Engelbrecht II of Nassau in the church
at Breda.
Others of the Vere family are buried near Sir Francis. Close to this
monument is that of George Holles, who fought in the same wars. Another
young soldier of the same family, Francis Holles, is buried in St.
Edmund’s Chapel. Both their monuments are interesting, because the
statue of Sir George Holles is the first standing figure put up in the
Abbey, and that of Francis one of the earliest sitting figures. And
besides this, the statue of Sir George Holles is the first represented
in Roman armour, instead of in the costume of the time.
The fashion of monuments changed a good deal in the Elizabethan days. In
older times people were always represented lying down, with their hands
clasped in prayer, like the figures of the Plantagenets, for instance.
But the statues on the Elizabethan tombs represent people leaning upon
their elbows, or sitting, or standing. We shall see that, later on, they
are not content even with that, but wave their arms aloft, as if talking
to a crowd of people.
Another very fine Elizabethan tomb is that of Lord and Lady Norris, who
were great friends of Queen Elizabeth. This huge erection is in the
Chapel of St. Andrew, not far from the monument of Sir Francis Vere. The
kneeling figures round the tomb represent the six sons of Lord and Lady
Norris, who were all fine, brave soldiers, and fought in the Netherlands
and elsewhere.
But besides soldiers, lawyers, and great ladies, there are other
Elizabethan names connected with the Abbey—three of these names more
famous than any we have yet mentioned. These three are Edmund Spenser,
William Shakspeare and Sir Walter Raleigh. It is true that the two last
of these great men lived on some time after the death of Queen
Elizabeth, but as they always seem to belong more to her reign than to
any other, we will speak of them now, after Spenser. Edmund Spenser,
author of the _Faërie Queen_, died in Westminster, and is buried in
Poets’ Corner. A very plain monument marks the spot, but the epitaph is
a beautiful one: “Here lyes, expecting the second comminge of our
Saviour Christ Jesus, the body of Edmond Spenser, the Prince of Poets in
his tyme, whose divine spirrit needs noe othir witnesse then the workes
he left behinde him.”
[Illustration:
[_D. Weller_.
SHAKSPEARE’S MONUMENT.
]
It is said that when Spenser was buried the poets who were present threw
their elegies and their pens into the grave. Probably, then,
Shakspeare’s pen is lying there, on Spenser’s coffin.
Then we come to Shakspeare himself,—the poet who is the glory of the
English race, and famous throughout the whole of the civilised world.
Shakspeare, as we know, is not buried in the Abbey, but in the Parish
Church of his native town, Stratford-on-Avon. The monument in the Abbey
was not put up until long years after his death. On it are the famous
lines from _The Tempest_—
“The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherits, shall dissolve;
And, like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind.”
The connexion of Sir Walter Raleigh with the Abbey is not so direct,
because he is not buried there, but in St. Margaret’s, close by.
However, Raleigh was imprisoned in the old Gatehouse of the monastery
the night before his execution, and the Dean of Westminster went to see
him, and to pray with him. During that last night of his life Sir Walter
Raleigh, after the final parting with his wife, wrote the following
well-known lines on the blank leaf of his Bible—
“Ev’n such is Time, that takes on trust
Our youth, our joys, our all we have,
And pays us but with age and dust;
Who in the dark and silent grave
When we have wander’d all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days.
But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.”
As the colony of Virginia was first founded by Sir Walter Raleigh, his
name will always remind us of the beginning of our great Colonial
Empire. In St. Margaret’s Church there is a very fine window to
Raleigh’s memory. This was given by some citizens of America, and the
scenes in the window commemorate the founding of the New World.
One of the chief and earliest promoters of the Virginia Company was the
brave soldier, Sir John Ogle, who fought in the Netherlands under Sir
Francis Vere, and is buried in the Abbey. No inscription marks his
grave.
Somewhere in the Abbey is buried another promoter of the South Virginia
Company, Richard Hakluyt, author of a book of _Voyages and Travels_.
Hakluyt was a Westminster scholar. He became a clergyman, and was
Prebendary and Archdeacon of Westminster. In the first volume of his
_Voyages and Travels_ is a description of the defeat of the Spanish
Armada.
Two more Elizabethan monuments may be mentioned before we leave the
Tudor times altogether. One is the monument to William Camden, the
famous antiquary, who was Head-Master of Westminster School in Queen
Elizabeth’s time. He is buried in the South Transept, and his monument
stands against its western wall. Camden, like Shakspeare, lived on into
the Stuart time, but he seems to belong more especially to Elizabethan
days.
The other monument is perhaps more curious than actually interesting. It
is that of Elizabeth Russell, goddaughter of Queen Elizabeth, and
daughter of a Lord Russell who is buried in the Chapel of St. Nicholas.
Elizabeth Russell was born in the Abbey precincts, where her mother had
taken refuge from the plague. She had a very grand christening in the
Abbey, and the Earl of Leicester stood as godfather. She died young, and
was buried in St. Edmund’s Chapel, where her monument represents her
sitting in an osier chair. This is the first sitting figure in the
Abbey. A curious old story says that Elizabeth Russell died from the
prick of a needle, and people added to the story by saying that she had
been working on Sunday! Most likely the idea arose because her finger
points to a skull at her feet.
We have spoken of Queen Elizabeth’s having established the Abbey as a
Collegiate Church, and those who are interested in Westminster may like
to know that the first Deans of her time are buried in St. Benedict’s
Chapel. These were Dean William Bill and Dean Gabriel Goodman. It was
under their rule that the Abbey services were arranged much in their
present form.
We have now recalled the chief memories of the Tudor days, so far as
that great chapter in English history is recorded in the Abbey.