What kind of palace was that which Cnut erected? I am of opinion that it contained the central group of buildings associated with the name of Edward the Confessor, which remained, with many changes of windows and roof, down to the fire of 1834. Outside, there were the offices of state, the barracks, the guest-chambers, and so forth. We shall return to the subject again.
There is one more reason to believe that the palace of Westminster was built by Cnut. When Edric the traitor was beheaded, his body was “flung out of window into the Thames.” Some writers have stated that this would be impossible at Westminster. Quite the contrary; but it would have been impossible at London, for the simple reason that there were no windows overlooking the river, but that there was a great stone wall with towers and bastions running all along the river side: at Westminster, on the other hand, there were always houses built upon the banks with windows overlooking the river.
Let us meantime recognise Cnut as the founder of the “King’s House” of Westminster. It seems that both Harold and Hardacnut occupied the palace of Westminster from time to time.
King Edward’s first charter, granted to Wulnoth and the monks of Westminster, was dated from the King’s House—_in regis palatio_—of London.
Edward the Confessor resolved to restore and to rebuild and to re-endow the Monastery of St. Peter. He was moved thereto partly because he was a special votary of that Apostle; partly because he had vowed a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s tomb at Rome, and his Council would not let him go; partly because to build and to endow a church was an act very pleasing to the Lord; and partly because he possessed that love of building found in so many kings of all ages and of all countries.
He carried his resolution into effect. He built a church worthy of his vow, and a church which was by far the noblest and grandest edifice in the country. It was the first English example of the cruciform church: it occupied an area nearly equal to that of the present church; the windows were filled with stained-glass representing passages in the life of our Lord and in the lives of the saints; it contained a noble organ; the altars blazed with gold and precious stones; the vestments of the priests were as magnificent as embroidery, silk, and cloth of gold could be made; the King and his warriors came to worship from the palace hard by; the rustics from the farms around came to worship side by side. In the splendour of the church, in the austerity of the monks, in the equality of the worshippers, there was taught to the world every day that religion regardeth not the rank or the power of a man. Of Edward’s church little now remains, only some pillars and passages, some substructures, the chapel of the Pyx, and some broken columns of the Infirmary Chapel.