History
In the 13th century, a movement toward devotion to the Virgin Mary inspired the building of chapels in her honour across Europe. Henry III’s Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey was part of this trend. In 1502, Henry VII planned a new chapel. The old one was demolished in 1502 and construction of the new foundation began January 24, 1503.
Henry VII had three goals when planning his chapel. The first was to build a shrine to honour and hold the body of Henry VI, who was expected to be canonized. Ultimately, canonization did not occur and Henry VII and his wife, Elizabeth of York, were interred in the tomb intended for Henry VI. Second, Henry VII wished to dedicate a more elaborate chapel to the Virgin to replace the older, simpler structure; and third, he wanted a royal mausoleum for him, his family, and his heirs at an important religious site that would enhance his legitimacy as king and his legacy.
Henry VII allocated more than £14,000 for its construction between 1503 and 1509. In his will, he stipulated that more funds were to be provided as needed. The final cost of the chapel is estimated at £20,000. According to one nobleman, Lord Bacon, “He lieth at Westminster in one of the stateliest and daintiest monuments of Europe…So that he dwelleth more richly dead in the monument of his tomb than he did alive at Richmond or in any of his palaces.”
In the eighteenth century, one observer commented that “his chapel, it has been said, was designed as a sepulchre in which none but such as were of the royal-blood should ever be interred; accordingly the will of the founder has been so far observed, that all that have hitherto been admitted are of the highest quality, and can trace their descent from some or other of our ancient kings.” In the intervening years, some people not of noble descent, including Oliver Cromwell, were buried there, but during the Restoration of the monarchy many of those people were disinterred.
Read more about this topic: Henry VII Chapel
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)