History Is Present

Westminster Palace

Westminster is known as the Houses of Parliament in the City of Westminster, London but it was once a

Westminster

royal palace.

The Palace of Westminster was strategically important during the Middle Ages, due to its location on the banks of the River Thames. St Edward the Confessor, built Westminster Palace at about the same time as he built Westminster Abbey (1045–50). The oldest existing part of the Palace, Westminster Hall, dates from the reign of King William II.

Westminster was the monarch's principal residence in the late Medieval period and the Parliament, the Curia Regis (Royal Council), met in Westminster Hall (although it followed the King when he moved to other palaces). The first official Parliament of England, met in 1295 and almost all subsequent Parliaments have met there.

Westminster became increasingly important as the centre of government and royal authority during the reign of King Henry III. Westminster Hall was built north of the great hall around 1270, and the Court of Common Pleas to be located within the Palace, as well as Courts of the King's Bench and of Chancery.

In 1245, the first mention is made of a royal throne which stood on a dais against the south wall of Westminster Hall. The throne symbolised the King's continuous presence at the ceremonial heart of the Palace, and was occupied during great occasions of state.

In 1310, the Chancery (the administrative branch of the Crown) established its headquarters in the Hall. These developments firmly established Westminster as the royal seat of government.

Henry III regularly occupied the palace during public occasions. The King was expected to make generous gifts of alms, and Henry did not stint in this respect. To mark great feasts, he distributed vast quantities of food to the poor. In order to accommodate the numbers, the old and sick were fed in Westminster Hall, the children in the Queen's Chamber, and the remaining poor in the Painted Chamber.

Elizabeth of York

Two important women in history were born at Westminster: Elizabeth of York and Margaret Tudor. Elizabeth of York was born on 11^th February 1466 and was the eldest child of King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville. Margaret Tudor was born on 28^th November 1489 at Westminster Palace as the eldest daughter of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and was the elder sister of Henry VIII.

The Gunpowder Plot is a well known plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the King during the State Opening of England's Parliament on 5^th November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during which James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the Catholic head of state. The plot failed and the conspirators were executed.

On 16^th October 1834, a fire broke out in the Palace after an overheated stove used to destroy the Exchequer's stockpile of tally sticks set fire to the House of Lords Chamber in which both houses were destroyed. Westminster Hall was saved thanks to fire-fighting efforts and a change in the direction of the wind. The Jewel Tower, the Undercroft Chapel and the Cloisters and Chapter House of St Stephen's were the only other parts of the original Palace to survive.

Immediately after the fire, King William IV offered the almost-completed Buckingham Palace to Parliament, hoping to dispose of a residence he disliked. The building was considered unsuitable for parliamentary use, however, and the gift was rejected.

In his speech opening Parliament in 1835, the King assured the members that the fire was accidental, and left it to Parliament itself to make "plans for [its] permanent accommodation." Each house created a committee and a public debate over the proposed styles ensued. The neo-Classical approach, similar to that of the White House and the Federal Capitol in the United States, was popular at the time and had already been used by Soane in his additions to the old palace, but had connotations of revolution and republicanism, whereas Gothic design embodied conservative values. The committee in the House of Lords announced in June 1835 that "the style of the buildings should be either Gothic or Elizabethan". On 14 July 1835 a Royal Commission was appointed and the chairman was Charles Hanbury-Tracy and the other members were Edward Cust, Thomas Liddell, the poet Samuel Rogers and the artist George Vivian. The Commission accepted the recommendation of a competition, and architects began submitting proposals following some basic criteria.

During the bombing of London during the Second World War, Westminster was hit by bombs on fourteen separate occasions. One bomb fell into Old Palace Yard on 26^th September 1940 and severely damaged the south wall of St Stephen's Porch and the west front. The statue of Richard the Lionheart was lifted from its pedestal by the force of the blast, and its upheld sword bent, an image that was used as a symbol of the strength of democracy, "which would bend but not break under attack". Another bomb destroyed much of the Cloisters on 8^th December.