Westminster Abby

Every tourist who goes to London has to see Westminster Abby, if only from the windows of a bus.

Once I was on a bus tour that started in London. We were given a half-day tour of the city, and as we drove by, I looked out the window as the guide said, “That’s Westminster Abby, where Queen Elizabeth was crowned.” Then the bus drove out of the city and on to Harwich to board the ferry, which took us to the Continent and more half-day tours of other cities. Not the best way to see Europe.

On my own I’ve spent weeks in London. I loved walking around in the dusky light beneath the Gothic arches of Westminster Abby, circling groups of tourists to find quiet corners to read inscriptions on plaques, on statues and in the floor. The Abby is crammed with monuments to all kinds of people: royalty, novelists, statesmen. Many people are buried inside the church. I heard a guide say that Winston Churchill is buried there. There is a memorial to Churchill in the Abby, but his body is in a country churchyard near Oxford.

On a high marble platform in a side aisle Queen Elizabeth I lies, hands folded in prayer, as if the great queen fell under a spell while resting and, enchanted, was transformed into white marble. On the opposite side of the nave Mary Queen of Scots rests in marble effigy on a similar monument.

Standing before those marble figures in Westminster Abby, I remembered the history of these two queens. Throughout her reign Elizabeth was troubled by Mary, who besides being Queen of Scotland, also claimed to be the rightful queen of England. Men died plotting to put Mary on England's throne, replacing Elizabeth. Some endured the horrible death of traitors, "hanged, drawn, and quartered", cut down while still alive, their bowels cut out before their eyes, and than hacked to pieces. Elizabeth's cousin, the Duke of Norfolk, was executed for plotting with Mary. Finally, Elizabeth allowed Mary to be beheaded.

Ironically, when Elizabeth died, Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland, became James I of England, peacefully uniting two countries which had battled for centuries. He had his mother’s body brought from Ely Cathedral, where she was originally buried, to lie in equal state with Elizabeth.

The two queens, antagonists in life, now lie serenely beneath the shadows in the great church. They lived in troubled times. We also live in troubled times. If only our troubled world could find peaceful solutions as easily as England and Scotland united under one king and we could honor the vanquished as equals to the victors.