Who Is Buried At Westminster Abbey?

Is Shakespeare buried in the Westminster Abbey

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon in Warwickshire. Shortly after Shakespeare’s death there was some talk about removing his remains from Stratford to Westminster Abbey but the idea was soon abandoned.

1. Poet William Basse wrote: Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh to learned Chaucer ; and rare Beaumont, lie a little nearer Spenser, to make room for Shakespeare.
2. Ben Jonson also wrote the lines: My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie a little further on to make thee room.

But it was not until 29th January 1741 (1740 in Old Style dating) that a memorial statue to him was finally erected in Poets’ Corner (although the Dean and Chapter had given leave to erect a monument to him back in 1726 at the request of John Rich. Perhaps funds were not forthcoming at this time).

Where is Charles Dickens buried?

Dr Litvack’s article in The Conversation, published to mark the 150th anniversary of Dickens’s death in 2020, is based on new research “Dickens’s Burial in Westminster Abbey: The Untold Story”, the lead chapter in Reading Dickens Differently, edited by Leon Litvack (Wiley, 2020). My new research has uncovered degree of manoeuvring and conspiracy involved in establishing Dickens’s ultimate resting place. Robert Hindry Mason, photograph of Charles Dickens (1860s). Dickens’s sudden death on 9 June 1870 created an early predicament for his family. Where was he to be buried? Near his home (as he would have wished) or in that great public pantheon, Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey (which was clearly against his wishes)? In his will (reproduced in Forster’s biography), Dickens had left instructions – his Plan A – that he should be buried near his home, in a private ceremony. John Forster (1812-76) Plan B was then put into action. Dickens was set to be buried in Rochester Cathedral. They had even dug a grave for the great man. But this plan too was scuppered, in favour of interment in Poets’ Corner, in Westminster Abbey – the resting place of Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, and other literary greats.

1. Forster claims that the media led the way in agitating for burial in the Abbey.
2. He singles out The Times, which, in an article of January 13 1870, “took the lead in suggesting that the only fit resting place for the remains of a man so dear to England was the Abbey.” He added that when the Dean of Westminster, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, asked Forster and members of the Dickens family to initiate what was now Plan C, and bury him in the Abbey, it became their “grateful duty to accept that offer”.

The private funeral occurred early in the morning of Tuesday June 14 1870, and was attended by 14 mourners. The grave was then left open for three days so that the public could pay their respects to one of the most famous figures of the age. My investigation has revealed, however, how Dickens’s burial in Poets’ Corner was engineered by Forster and Stanley to satisfy their personal aims, rather than the author’s own. Dean Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-81) Forster could conclude the volume he was contemplating in a fitting manner, by having Dickens interred in the national pantheon where so many famous literary figures were buried. He thus ensured that a stream of visitors would make a pilgrimage to Dickens’s grave and spread his reputation far and wide, for posterity.

Stanley could add Dickens to his roll of famous people whose burials he conducted. They included Lord Palmerston, the former UK prime minister, mathematician and astronomer Sir John Herschel, missionary and explorer David Livingstone, and Sir Rowland Hill, the postal reformer and originator of the penny post.

The efforts of Forster and Stanley to get Dickens buried exactly where they wanted enhanced the reputations of both men. For each of them, the interment of Dickens in the abbey might be considered the highlight of their careers. Luke Fildes, Dickens’s grave in Westminster Abbey (1873)

Where will Queen 11 be buried?

St. George’s chapel has several sections and nooks, including the King George VI Memorial Chapel, which the Queen commissioned after her father’s death. The Queen will be buried in the memorial chapel alongside her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and her sister, Princess Margaret.

Will Prince Philip be buried with the Queen?

Queen Elizabeth is surrounded by loved ones in her final resting place. Following her state funeral and committal service on September 19, the late monarch was buried the King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, where she spent most of her final years.

1. The Queen will be placed next to her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, who died at age 99 in April 2021.
2. Prince Philip was moved from the Royal Vault beneath the chapel, where he was temporarily interred.
3. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth.
4. Chris Jackson/Gett The pair wed in a stunning ceremony on November 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey — the same place where Prince William and the then Kate Middleton were married in 2011.

“She fell in love at age 18 and she never looked at anyone else,” Sally Bedell Smith, author of Elizabeth the Queen, previously told PEOPLE. “He has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years,” the Queen said of her husband on their golden wedding anniversary in 1997.

I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.” Can’t get enough of PEOPLE ‘s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! getty The Queen will also be surrounded by other family members when she’s buried at St. George’s Chapel, on which construction began in 1475 by King Edward IV and was completed more than 50 years later by King Henry VIII.

Her parents, King George VI, who died in 1952, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who died in 2002, as well as her sister, Princess Margaret, who also died in 2002, are all interred at the King George VI Memorial Chapel. Buckingham Palace confirmed details of the private burial with a simple statement on social media Monday.

“This evening a Private Burial will take place in The King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor. The Queen will be Laid to Rest with her late husband The Duke of Edinburgh, alongside her father King George VI, mother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and sister Princess Margaret,” the palace wrote, sharing a vintage, undated photo of the five royals.

RELATED VIDEO: Prince William and Prince Harry at Queen’s Procession Echoes Heartbreaking Walk at Diana’s Funeral While King George VI and the Queen Mother are buried in the tomb, Princess Margaret was cremated and her ashes placed with her parents, despite cremation not being a traditional process for the royals.

Where is Elizabeth of York buried?

Burial and Monument – Henry died on 21st April 1509, having suffered from gout and asthma. He and his wife lie in a vault beneath his magnificent tomb in the Lady Chapel (the first monarchs to be buried in the Abbey in a vault under the floor rather than in a tomb chest above ground).

• This was designed in the Renaissance style by Italian sculptor Pietro Torrigiano (Henry VIII had not liked the designs which were first put forward for the tomb by other sculptors).
• The black marble tomb base is adorned with six medallions in copper gilt representing the Virgin Mary and Henry’s patron saints (Michael, George, Anthony, Christopher, Anne, Edward the Confessor, Vincent, Barbara, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist and John the Evangelist).

At either end are coats of arms supported by cherubs. The gilt bronze recumbent effigies can be seen through the fine grille which surrounds the monument. Seated angels balance on the carved frieze at each corner of the tomb, supporting coats of arms They once held pennants in their hands.

1. The grille is by Thomas Ducheman (who most likely also designed the bronze gates to the Chapel).
2. Only six of the thirty two statues in the niches of the grille now remain (Saints George, Edward the Confessor, Bartholomew, James the Great, John the Evangelist and another).
3. The badges of the Welsh dragon and the greyhound of Richmond are also part of its decoration.

The grille was originally gilded and on special anniversaries many candles, each nine feet high, were lit on top. Four candles were to burn constantly, tended by the monks. Around the grille (both inside and outside) is a Latin inscription which can be translated Henry VII rests within this tomb, he who was the splendour of kings and light of the world, a wise and watchful monarch, a courteous lover of virtue, outstanding in beauty, vigorous and mighty; who brought peace to his kingdom, who waged very many wars, who always returned victorious from the enemy, who wedded both his daughters to kings, who was united to kings, indeed to all, by treaty, who built this holy temple, and erected this tomb for himself, his wife, and his children.

1. He completed more than fifty three years, and bore the royal sceptre for twenty four.
2. The fifteenth hundredth year of the Lord had passed, and the ninth after that was running its course, when dawned the black day, the twenty first dawn of April was shining, when this so great monarch ended his last day.

No earlier ages gave thee so great a king, O England; hardly will ages to come give thee his like.