Royal Wedding | History of Westminster Abbey

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton occurs on Friday April 29, 2011. Their wedding service will start at 11am GMT, and that's 5am EST. The marriage ceremony is being held at Westminster Abbey in the center of London, Great Britain. Westminster Abbey's Regal heritage makes it the perfect location for the wedding ceremony. Positioned alongside the famous Houses of Parliament in the heart of London, the Abbey is a gothic monastery chapel and place of worship. It's a traditional location of coronation, wedding ceremonies and burials for British Royalty. The earliest sections of the construction go back to about 1050!


The wedding date also has been declared a public holiday within the United Kingdom. An affair of this huge size will not have occurred for 3 decades ever since Prince Charles and Lady Diana themselves were wedded on 29 July 1981. A Royal wedding event doesn't get any bigger than when a forthcoming future King and Queen of The UK get wedded! You can easily simply just click the link below to skip my story and get your PC set up for you to watch the royal wedding online right away on April 29th.


History of Westminster Abbey

The historic gothic abbey has long been the site of historic events and daily worship as well as the venue to mark royal national services and celebrations. Formally known as the Collegiate Church of St. Peter, Westminster Abbey has grown and adapted with the country it serves since 960 CE when St. Dunstan, the Bishop of London, first brought 12 Benedictine monks here to establish a tradition of daily worship. Known then as "Thorney Island," the site was a desolate, wetland adjacent to the Thames River. Soon King Edgar supported the monastic community with land grants which forged lasting links between the Crown and Church.

1065: Edward the Confessor dedicated a new church here to St. Peter and consecrated it on December 28, 1065.
1066: After the Norman Conquest at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, William the Conqueror came into power and had himself crowned in the Abbey on December 25. The coronations of 38 more monarchs would come to pass in this facility during future years.
1161: In the presence of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury and King Henry II, the Pope canonized Edward the Confessor and his remains were moved to a new shrine at the cathedral.
1245: Henry III began building a new abbey in the French Gothic style and it was completed by October, 1269. The King had Edward the Confessor's remains moved to a new shrine here, and later he and several other monarchs found their final resting places near the shrine.
1301: Edward I ordered the construction of the Coronation Chair which includes the Stone of Scone (Stone of Destiny) from Scotland. Presently the Stone resides in Scotland but will be returned to the Abbey for all coronations.
1400: Geoffrey Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales) was buried in the Poets' Corner.
1540: The monastery was dissolved by order of Henry VIII as he parted ways with the Roman Catholic Church and created the Church of England.
1838: On June 28, the nation celebrated the coronation of Queen Victoria.
1953: On June 2, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her coronation at the Abbey.


Westminster Abbey's Future

The Abbey has been the site of almost every royal momentous occasion over at least 10 centuries. During the coming year, it will serve again as the site of a royal wedding - that of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

No doubt the British people are thrilled by the impending royal wedding. Hopefully their financial worries are alleviated by the news that the Royal Family and the Middleton family will shoulder the costs of the wedding itself, and that the government will cover only the costs of security for the event.