In Richard celebrated here his nuptials with his child-queen, Isabella of France. In the following year, the Hall having become decayed and ruinous, the king built a temporary structure, tiled, and of timber-work, open at the sides, in the midst of the Palace Court, between the Clochard and the Hall gate, for his Parliament to assemble in; this he surrounded with 4, archers, "malefactors of the county of Chester," with bended bows ready to shoot in case of need, as in that session he intended to try several captive noblemen—Lord Cobham and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick.
Twenty-eight oxen, three hundred sheep, and fowls without number, were daily consumed here on this occasion. We need not wonder then that Richard kept two thousand cooks. Richard II. Westminster Hall for many centuries was the scene of the state banquets given at the coronations of our monarchs, and also the place wherein the most important state trials have taken place.
Besides these, many other curious incidents have taken place here; but space does not allow of our giving more than a cursory glance at a few of these historical events. It is recorded that it was whilst the Lord Mayor was on his way to Westminster Hall, in November, , in order to be sworn in, that the news of the victory of Agincourt was brought to the citizens and the Court.
On the return of the king from France in triumph, soon afterwards, he was received with every outward manifestation of joy; tapestry being hung along the streets, and the conduits being made to run with wine.
However, at the intercession of Cardinal Wolsey and others of rank while three queens—Katharine, Mary of France, and Margaret of Scotland—"long on their knees begged pardon" , the king frankly forgave them; whereat the prisoners gave a "mighty shout for joy, throwing their halters toward the top of the Hall. Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, "the infatuated victim of an astrologer's promise to the throne," who in his rashness had affronted Wolsey, and even threatened the king, was tried in this Hall, in ; his own relative, the Duke of Norfolk, presiding on the occasion.
With his death the hereditary office of High Constable of England was forfeited, and has never been revived. In , says Stow, Anne Boleyn "came to Westminster Hall, which was richly hanged with cloth of arras, and newlie glazed; and in the middest of the Hall shee was taken out of hir litter, and so led up to the high deske under the cloth of estate, on whose left hand was a cupboard of x.
On Whit Sondaie shee came into the Hall, and stood under the cloth of estate, and then came into the King's Chappell, and the monks of Westminster, all in rich coapes, and many Bishops and Abbots in coapes and miters, which went into the middest of the Hall, and there stood a season; then was there a raycloth spreade from the Quene's standing in the Hall, through the Pallace and Sanctuary, which was rayled on both sides, to the high altar.
Two years later Westminster Hall was the scene of another incident in which Anne Boleyn appears to have again played a part. The event is thus touchingly described by Mr.
Mackenzie Walcott:—"On May 7th, , the learned Sir Thomas More was arraigned here, bearing the marks of his stern prison-house. As the fallen Chancellor was being led out from the Hall to the Tower, his broken-hearted son burst through the files of soldiery, and, throwing his arms about his father's neck and kissing his lips, implored the armed keepers that they would suffer him to share his parent's fate. Well did he deserve such tokens of filial love; for Sir Thomas, even when proceeding to the Superior Bench of the Chancery, never passed his father, then a Puisne judge of King's Bench, without kneeling down and imploring his blessing.
When tidings of his death were brought to the king, while he played at the game of tables, Henry looked moodily upon Anne Boleyn, who stood by his chair, and said, 'Thou art the cause of this man's death! That same year witnessed another victim of Henry's caprice doomed to the block in Westminster Hall, in the person of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who had inflexibly opposed the divorce of the king, and his assumption of spiritual supremacy.
Upon the verdict "Not guilty" being returned by his peers, there was in the Hall "the greatest shout and cry of joy that the like no man living may remember that ever he heard. Here, at the fatal bar, the Protector Somerset, "once all-powerful in the state, and the darling of the people," was brought to trial, in , to be followed shortly afterwards by the Earl of Warwick, the Marquis of Northampton, the Protector's rival, Northumberland, and Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, father of the unhappy Lady Jane Grey.
In , Sir Thomas Wyatt was arraigned here for high treason. Another peer of the realm, Lord Stourton, was publicly tried in Westminster Hall, as far back as the year , for the murder of a Mr. Hartgyll and his son in Wiltshire, under very aggravated circumstances. The commission for trying his lordship was directed to the judges and to certain members of the Privy Council. At first Lord Stourton refused to plead, but the chief justice informed him that, if he persisted in his refusal, his high rank should not excuse him from being pressed to death.
Upon this he confessed himself guilty, and was hanged at Salisbury, with a silken halter. There is a monument to his memory in Salisbury Cathedral, where some years ago the silken cord with which he was executed was to be seen suspended. A curious incident occurred in the year , on the occasion of the Lord Mayor presenting the sheriffs to the Barons of the Exchequer.
The rain, it appears, fell in such torrents that the Hall was filled with water, and boats were rowed into King Street from the landing-place—a timber stage raised on piles, called the "King's Stairs. On the 26th of January, , Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk, here received his death-warrant for his dangerous attachment to the fallen fortunes of Mary, Queen of Scots; Sir Henry Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer being condemned on a like charge the following day.
In Philip, Earl of Arundel, an ancestor of the present ducal house of Norfolk, was arraigned in the Hall upon a charge of "conspiring with certain priests of the Order of Jesus to change the religion and succession of these realms. In January, , took place here, "the king being secretly present," the trial of Guido Faux, Sir Everard Digby, Winter, and the other conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, of which we shall speak in a subsequent chapter.
For eighteen days, in , a memorable trial was held here, before both Houses of Parliament—the one as accusers, the other as judges.
Before the throne were the seats for the Peers, and in front of the woolsacks were nine stages of benches for the Commons. At the other end was the desk for the prisoner, who was brought hither, attended to the 'Bridge' by six barges rowed by fifty pair of oars, and manned by troops; the entries of Whitehall and King Street and Palace Yard being lined with guards.
The eloquent and pathetic defence of the earl is a matter of history. His children stood beside him. Pointing to them, "My lords," said he, "I have now delayed your lordships longer than I should else have done but for the interest of these dear pledges, which a departed saint in heaven has left me. I should be loth"—but here a flood of tears checked his utterance. You will be pleased to pardon my infirmity.
Something I should have said, but I see I shall not be able, and therefore I leave it. And now, my lords, I thank God that I have been, by His blessing, sufficiently instructed in the extreme vanity of all temporary enjoyments compared to the importance of our eternal duration. And so, my lords, even so with all humility, and with all tranquillity of mind, I submit, clearly and freely, to your judgments: and whether that righteous doom shall be to life or death, I shall repose myself, full of gratitude and confidence, in the arms of the great Author of my existence.
Te Deum laudamus. The men of Surrey marched through London to Westminster to petition for the restoration of episcopacy, and also the king, their own lawful sovereign, to his due honours. They marched down Whitehall with trumpets, pipes, and fiddles, bearing ribbons of white and green, and crying out "For God and King Charles!
A fray arose, some of the party attacking the sentinels, whom they knocked down and disarmed, and one of whom they killed at the entrance of Westminster Hall. Lilly the astrologer, it appears, foretold this visit of the men of Surrey. In January, —9, Charles himself was brought to judgment in Westminster Hall. None, however, were found to bear witness but those who had usurped the seats of the lawful judges; while the courageous Lady Fairfax protested against the charge being brought "in the name of the people of England.
On this occasion the astrologer Lilly was present, and he records how he "saw the silver top fall from off the King's staff. On the 6th of May, , Charles II. Pepys, in his Diary, under date of April 21, , after describing the scene in the Abbey at the coronation of Charles II. Here I staid walking up and down, and at last upon one of the side stalls I stood and saw the King come in with all the persons but the soldiers that were yesterday in the cavalcade; and a most pleasant sight it was to see them in their several robes.
And the King come in with his crowne on, and his sceptre in his hand, under a canopy borne up by six silver staves, carried by Barons of the Cinque Ports, and little bells at every end. And after a long time, he got up to the farther end, and all set themselves down at their several tables; and that was also a brave sight: and the King's first course carried up by Knights of the Bath.
And many fine ceremonies there was of the Heralds leading up people before him, and bowing, and my Lord of Albermarle's going to the kitchen and eating a bit of the first dish that was to go to the King's table. But, above all, was these three Lords, Northumberland, and Suffolke, fn. And a Herald proclaims, "That if any dare deny Charles Stewart to be lawful King of England, here was a Champion that would fight with him;' and with these words the Champion flings down his gauntlet, and all this he do three times in his going towards the King's table.
To which when he is come, the King drinks to him, and then sends him the cup, which is of gold, and he drinks it off, and then rides back again with the cup in his hand. I went from the table to see the Bishops at dinner, and was infinitely pleased with it. And at the Lords' table I met with William Howe, and he spoke to my Lord for me, and he did give him four rabbits and a pullet, and so Mr. Creed and I got Mr. Minshell to give us some bread, and so we at a stall ate it, as everybody else did what they could get.
I took a great deal of pleasure to go up and down and look upon the ladies, and to hear the musique of all sorts, but above all the 24 violins. About six o'clock at night they had dined, and I went up to my wife. And strange it is to think, that these two days have held up fair till all is done, and the King gone out of the Hall, and then it fell a-raining and thundering and lightning as I have not seen it do for some years: which people did take great notice of.
God's blessing of the works of these two days, which is a foolery to take too much notice of such things. I observed little disorder in all this, only the King's Footmen had got hold of the canopy, and would keep it from the Barons of the Cinque Ports, which they endeavoured to force from them again, but could not do it till my Lord Duke of Albemarle caused it to be put into Sir R. Pye's hand till to-morrow to be decided.
At Mr. Bowyer's; a great deal of company; some I knew, others I did not. Here we stand upon the leads and below till it was late, expecting to see the fireworks, but they were not performed to-night: only the city had a light like a glory round about it with bonfires.
At last I went to King Streete, and there sent Crockford to my father's and to my house, to tell them that I could not come home to-night because of the dirt, and a coach could not be had. And so I took my wife and Mrs. Frankleyn to Axe Yard; in which, at the further end, were three great bonfires, and great many gallants, men and women; and they laid hold of us, and would have us drink the King's health on our knees, kneeling upon a faggot; which we all did, they drinking to us one after another, which we thought a strange frolique.
Thus did the day end with joy everywhere; and blessed be God I have not heard of any mischance to any body through it all but only to Serjeant Glynne, whose horse fell upon him yesterday, and is like to kill him, which people do please themselves to see how just God is to punish the rogue at such a time as this, he being now one of the King's Serjeants, and rode in the cavalcade with Maynard, to whom people wish the same fortune.
There was also this night in King Streete a woman had her eye put out by a boy's flinging a firebrand into the coach. Now, after all this, I can say that, besides the pleasure of the sight of these glorious things, I may now shut my eyes against any other object, nor for the future trouble myself to see things of state and showe, as being sure never to see the like again in this world.
In Viscount Stafford was condemned, in this Hall, for alleged participation, with four Roman Catholic noblemen, in a plot, the fabrication of the infamous Titus Oates. He defended himself with great composure and resolution, protesting his innocence, to the block; indeed, Lord Stafford's eloquence was proverbial.
Rushworth remarks, "I need say little of his eloquence and ability in speech. A curious case, connected at once with the Peerage and the Court, arose towards the close of the reign of Charles II. Margaret's, Westminster, "within feet of the Palace of Whitehall.
Thornbury, Walter. Subject Buildings, Royal. Description Westminster Hall had a large presence in medieval London, both figuratively and literally. Source Cescinsky, Herbert, and Ernest R.
Publisher Photo by Samantha Tan. Contributor Samantha Tan. Rights Samantha Tan. Type Still image. Collection Items Westminster Hall. This is the interior of Westminster Hall as it stands today, the majority of which is from the late medieval period, aside from multiple roof renovations.
Note the hammer-beam ceiling, the architectural feat of Hugh Herland, each of which is…. Westminster Hall's detail of hammer-beam roof. Hutchinson, 2 vols [] , ii. Here, Hutchinson was not just repeating a commonplace about the inferiority of the palace of Westminster. For the Gothic style, and the inconvenience of having a cramped and fetid Commons chamber, underlined a particularly British form of understatement, one which implicitly elevated the substance of a limited monarchical system above the superficiality of grandeur and fine style.
Not least because of the problems of overcrowding, poor acoustics and unsatisfactory ventilation, there were again sustained calls for a rebuilding scheme in the s.
Once more, little progress was made, partly no doubt owing to limited financial resources, but also because — at a time of war against revolutionary France — Gothic remained the patriotic idiom. Even as late as the mids, the architect John Soane was forced by a parliamentary committee to modify the frontage of his law courts, which were erected alongside Westminster Hall, because it was too classical in appearance.
In a sense, the chaotic medievalism of the old palace of Westminster reflected the labyrinthine complexity and inconsistency of the unreformed electoral system.
With the passage of the Reform Act, which did much to straighten out the representative structure of the Commons, the time was ripe for a review of what was required in a parliamentary building.
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