January 655 A.D. Peterborough Abbey, Cambridgeshire—Saxon
Monastery Founded c.655 by (Monk) Saxult and Peada, King of Mercia; Destroyed
in Danish Raids 870; Derelict to
966; Benedictines Refounded by
Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester, with King Edgar and St. Dunstan; (Romanesque/Gothic) Cathedral Built
1118-1237; Consecrated by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln; Catherine of Aragon Buried Here in 1536;
Dissolved 29 Nov 1539; Mary Queen of
Scots Buried Here in 1587, But Removed to Westminster Abbey by Her Son, King
James 1; Episcopal Diocesan Cathedral Continued to Present; Called “Cathedral Church of St. Peter, St.
Paul and St. Andrew, Peterborough
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Peterborough Cathedral
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Peterborough Cathedral
west front - from the unique (in England) portico style facade to the
unscreened nave and choir culminating in an apse with a large ciborium, any
(Southern) Italian would feel at home in this magnificent old English abbey
church - a fact never remarked on in any of the guide books! Be
sympathetic to the rather jarring structure in the central portico - it was
built to prop up the facade, which was tipping over a bit
The cathedral - an old
monastic foundation / abbey which was promoted to cathedral
status by Henry VIII around 1540 (after he
had closed the monastery) - has the best descriptive boards we have seen
anywhere in Europe relating to its own history and the history and workings
of monastic life in the middle ages.
Sadly, almost all of
Peterborough's monastic buildings, the lady chapel and most of the stained
glass windows were left in ruins by Cromwell's men in the 1650s and the
materials have since been wheelbarrowed away. Below is the empty space
left by the south side cloister.
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The Chapter House
(downstairs) and monks' dormitory (upstairs) building would have extended from the south transept.
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The nave, sadly not stone vaulted, but with
a magnificent Italian style vista right through the choir to the South
Italian style ciborium and the apse (below and below), and with overhanging
Italian style crucifix. If only more English Cathedrals would at least
get rid of the organ rubbish from the 1800s which clutters up far too many
vistas, though sadly in this case it was an act of arson which achieved this.
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CATHERINE OF ARAGON
The royal standards of England and Aragon
(/ Leon-Castile) guard the tomb of Catherine of Aragon (1485 - 1536 (51)),
the first of Henry VIII's six wives. Catherine was an Auntie of the
hugely powerful Habsburg Emperor (also
King of Spain and other places) Charles V, which added
a level of sensitivity to Henry's dealings with her which he did not display
to his other five less well connected and mostly executed queens.
Mary Queen of Scots was also originally
buried in Peterborough Cathedral, but her son James I had her
reinterred in Westminster Abbey.
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A very English bit .....
fan vaulting was an English invention and remained unique to Britain's
churches.
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