Choir at Westminster Abbey
Press, 1992); David Alban Hinton, Alfred’s Kingdom: Wes-
sex and the South 800–1500(London: Dent, 1977); Barbara
Yorke, Wessex in the Early Middle Ages(London: Leicester
University Press, 1995).
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey was origi-
nally founded in the seventh century but reendowed by
Saint DUNSTANin about 960. Originally a Benedictine
monastery, it was expanded and endowed much more
richly by King EDWARD THECONFESSORin the 11th cen-
tury. It became the royal monastery and continued to be
enriched by many English kings before 1500. Among the
richest English monasteries of the Middle Ages, it pos-
sessed properties all over ENGLAND.
The present church was built by the master MASONS
Henry of Reyns, John of Gloucester, and Robert of Bever-
ley for King HENRY III between 1245 and 1260. It
employed a GOTHICstyle much influenced by contempo-
rary cathedrals in northern FRANCE. The NAVEwas finally
completed in the 15th century. The spectacular late
Gothic chapel of King Henry VII (r. 1485–1509), was
added in the early 16th century.
Westminster Abbey has been the scene of nearly every
coronation of an English monarch since WILLIAMI the
Conqueror in 1066. From 1272 to 1760 it was also the
accustomed royal burial place. There were numerous royal
tombs around the shrine of Edward the Confessor, which
still contains the saint’s body. There were also examples of
fine sculpture and a beautiful 13th-century flooring before
the high altar. The surviving monastic buildings include a
CLOISTER, built over the 13th and 14th centuries, an 11th-
century vaulted undercroft, a hall and chamber built in the
1370s, and an octagonal chapter house built between 1250
and 1257. There also survive several manuscripts from the
monastic library and a large archive of the administration
of the medieval monastery. Westminster Abbey was fre-
quently the center of financial and legal operations of
the royal government during the Middle Ages and an
important center for English learning in the 12th century.
Further reading: H. M. Colvin, ed., Building
Accounts of King Henry III(Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1971); Paul Binski, Westminster Abbey and the Planta-
genets: Kingship and the Representation of Power,
1200–1400(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
1995); Edward Carpenter, A House of Kings: The Official
History of Westminster Abbey (New York: John Day,
1966); Barbara F. Harvey, Westminster Abbey and Its
Estates in the Middle Ages(Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1977); Emma Mason, Westminster Abbey and Its People, c.
1050–1216(Rochester: Boydell Press, 1996).
Weyden, Rogier van der(Roger de la Pasture) (ca.
1399–1464)Flemish painter
Rogier was born to a well-off artisan family and probably
was a pupil between 1427 and 1432 of the master painter
Robert Campin (ca. 1378–1444) in Tournai, where he
had been born about 1399. After meeting Jan van EYCKin
1427, he moved permanently to Brussels around 1435;
married a local woman, Elizabeth Goffaert, in 1426; and
became the official city painter with a comfortable
income. He traveled to Italy and was probably there for
the HOLYYEARof 1450 while working for the ESTEand
MEDICIfamilies. He never held a royal appointment but
worked for several members of the Burgundian court, for
whom he produced dramatic and severe portraits. In
1446, he painted his most celebrated painting, the Last
Judgment, still in the city of Beaune in Burgundy. He died
on June 18, 1464.
See alsoMEMLING, HANS.
Further reading:Loren Campbell, Van der Weyden
(New York: Harper & Row, 1980); Dirk de Vos, Rogier
van der Weyden: The Complete Works(New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1999).wheat SeeGRAIN CROPS.Choir at Westminster Abbey, 1893 etching (Courtesy Library
of Congress)